Media mogul Michael Bloomberg quit the Democratic presidential race after a poor showing on Super Tuesday. Now, three months and $500 million later, Bloomberg News plans to return to regular coverage of the Democratic candidates.
When the billionaire former mayor of New York City announced his candidacy for the White House in November, Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait sent a note to staff members informing employees that Bloomberg News would continue its tradition of not investigating Michael Bloomberg at all and would be extending that policy to all the Democratic candidates seeking the party's nomination. Only President Trump could be investigated by reporters at Bloomberg News.
"We will continue our tradition of not 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," Micklethwait wrote at the time.
Bloomberg's short campaign was marked by a poor debate performance and the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign ads. On Super Tuesday, the candidate only managed to win the territory of American Samoa, where he won a paltry four delegates.
With Bloomberg out of the race, Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait sent out a new memo to employees, informing the staff that the news agency would be returning to normal coverage of the election.
"Now that Mike has said he is leaving the race for President, we will return to our normal coverage of the election; we will follow exactly the same coverage rules for the Democratic presidential candidates and President Donald Trump," Micklethwait wrote in a memo shared with The Hill.
Bloomberg News was sharply criticized for its decision to abandon journalistic practices when Michael Bloomberg entered the race. A CNN panel eviscerated the decision by Bloomberg News, calling the outlet an "oppo shop" and questioning how Michael Bloomberg could stand up to criticism as the Democratic nominee when he couldn't even tolerate it from his own newsroom.
Of course, CNN President Jeff Zucker was caught by Project Veritas directing his employees to focus on the impeachment of President Trump, so it's a lot like the pot calling the kettle black here. All these mainstream news outlets unfairly attack the president. Bloomberg News was just dumb enough to put thier political biases in writing.