The sentence was accompanied by a short laugh, but he was not joking:
"Honestly, I do not want the reporters I pay to write badly about me, I do not want them to be independent," Michael Bloomberg said when asked about his presidential aspirations in late 2018. At that time, the former New York mayor left open whether he really wants to get into the race.
Just over a year later, the 77-year-old has decided. For the 2,700 journalists of his global media company Bloomberg LP this should not be good news. The reporters are not only not allowed to write badly about the new candidate for the White House, but actually not at all. Although mere messages are still allowed, investigative research on scandals, missteps or dead bodies in the cellar is taboo. For fairness reasons, the write ban should also apply to Bloomberg's 18 intra-party competitors. Only one can be ruled: Donald Trump.
"We will continue our tradition of not conducting investigative research on Mike (and his family and foundation) and extending that policy to his rivals in the Democratic primary," Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said in a memo the news agency. At the same time, editorial staff writing anonymous comments describing the publication's stance have been suspended - several of the team are switching to the multi-billionaire campaign anyway.
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From the perspective of many in the industry, this solution compromises the media corporation. Bloomberg, who celebrates in his first campaign spot as a "child of the middle class", which has forged a one-room company into a global corporation, has become rich with the sale of computer terminals that provide stock market players and bankers with fast financial information , Above all, the company owes its reputation to in-depth, accurate and accurate journalism. Bloomberg has specifically expanded this area. In addition to the news agency there are Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio, the weekly Bloomberg Businessweek and digital offers.
The candidate is well aware of the problem
The presidential candidacy is not the first conflict of interest in his career. During his three terms as mayor of New York, he retired from the daily business. An internal policy, "The Bloomberg Way," states that the news agency does not report on "wealth or personal life" of the boss and the company. When the Patriarch returns to the company as CEO in 2014, the news scoop was left to colleagues from the New York Times.
Bloomberg himself is well aware that the Battle for the White House is a different number, and his political ambitions bring his media in explanation. "You can not be independent, and nobody will believe you are independent," he said.
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With more than 19,000 employees in 120 countries, this is not the only conflict of interest: just about every hotly debated political issue touches on the concerns of one of the richest men in the world. Bloomberg had previously announced that in case of a candidature to give his company in the hands of a trustee or even repel his share of almost 90 percent: "If selling is possible, I would do that someday you die anyway, so you want do that before, "he said in 2018.
For Trump, Bloomberg's media empire is an ideal point of attack
In the meantime, this option is only mentioned if he defeats Trump 2020. The founder, who claims to spend half of his time on philanthropy, is now retiring from operational management. The shops are managed by a committee of five longtime managers.
This small solution offers plenty of attack surface. So it gets trickier for the Democrats to attack Trump's mingling of office with business interests.
On massive criticism, however, stumbles above all that Bloomberg in the midst of a pioneering election campaign bring their own media in a precarious position. Trump is now more vociferous about the allegation that the media is partisan on the side of the Democrats. "Mike Bloomberg has stung the heart of the journalistic heart of his news organization," laments Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan.
What does he want to be? Publisher or presidential candidate
Bloomberg editor-in-chief Micklethwait argues that his journalists could continue to write about just about every aspect of the presidential election, "in much the same way as we have done so far". Former Bloomberg policy editor Kathy Kiely sees things differently. This is just more "shorthand journalism," criticized the professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. "I think people will go elsewhere for profound political coverage."
Bloomberg has to decide whether he wants to be "a publisher or a presidential candidate," says Kiely. If he wanted both, it was at the expense of the credibility of his business.
Kiely had quit in 2016, as Bloomberg ever before with the candidature toying. It bothered her that her own organization was not resolutely journalistic. Even then she was convinced: "You can not cover the circus without writing about one of the biggest elephants in the room."
