Bloomberg on investigations ban for reporters: Learn to live with it

Mike Bloomberg said in an interview Friday that journalists working at his media company will have to “learn to live with” his order that they not investigate Democratic candidates while he runs in the party’s 2020 presidential primary.

“We have [to] just have to learn to live with some things. They get a paycheck. But with your paycheck comes some restrictions and responsibilities,” the former mayor turned Democratic presidential candidate said on CBS this Morning.

Grilled by host Gayle King about the ban, the billionaire former New York mayor defended his decision, which prompted the White House to say it would no longer give credentials to Bloomberg News reporters.

“I think people have said to me, ‘How can you investigate yourself?’ And I said, ‘I don’t think you can.’ But if you take a look at the Bloomberg News organization, we carry news from lots of different places like New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. There’s plenty of ways for people to get news about the candidates if they look at Bloomberg News,” he said.

President Trump’s campaign announced Monday that it would no longer let Bloomberg reporters get credentials to cover Trump campaign events.

Campaign manager Brad Parscale said they made the call after Bloomberg News’ announcement that it would not investigate Democratic candidates after the media outlet’s owner, billionaire Mike Bloomberg, joined the fray.

“The decision by Bloomberg News to formalize preferential reporting policies is troubling and wrong. Bloomberg News has declared that they won’t investigate their boss or his Democrat competitors, many of whom are current holders of high office, but will continue critical reporting on President Trump,” Parscale said in a statement.

“Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events. We will determine whether to engage with individual reporters or answer inquiries from Bloomberg News on a case-by-case basis,” he continued, adding that the policy would remain in place until Bloomberg dropped its own coverage policy.

After Bloomberg announced, the news company’s editor-in-chief John Micklethwait sent a memo to the newsroom saying the media outlet would continue its policy “of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries.”

Micklethwait called Team Trump “the government of the day” and said the president would remain fair game.

He also denied bias against Trump.

“The accusation of bias couldn’t be further from the truth. We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign,” Micklethwait said.

Source: Read Full Article