Billionaire and Democrat megadonor Michael Bloomberg officially announced on Sunday that he was joining the presidential race, which led to an announcement from his news organization, Bloomberg News, that it would not investigate the 77-year-old and would not investigate other Democrats.
In a statement to Bloomberg News employees, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait wrote: “The place where Mike has had the most contact with Editorial is Bloomberg Opinion: our editorials have reflected his views. David Shipley, Tim O’Brien and some members of the Board responsible for those editorials will take a leave of absence to join Mike’s campaign. We will suspend the Board, so there will be no unsigned editorials.”
The note continued by stating that Bloomberg’s newsroom will not be “investigating Mike (and his family and foundation) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries. We cannot treat Mike’s Democratic competitors differently from him. … For the moment, our P&I team will continue to investigate the Trump administration as the government of the day. If Mike is chosen as the Democratic presidential candidate (and Donald Trump emerges as the Republican one), we will reassess how we do that.”
Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi noted that “Seven journalists from Bloomberg Opinion, including the two top editors, @davidjshipley and @TimOBrien, will join Mike Bloomberg’s campaign, company says. Unclear what their roles will be. Shipley is a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton.”
One add here: Seven journalists from Bloomberg Opinion, including the two top editors, @davidjshipley and @TimOBrien, will join Mike Bloomberg’s campaign, company says. Unclear what their roles will be. Shipley is a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton.
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) November 24, 2019