Bloomberg News will not investigate its founder, Mike Bloomberg, or any of the other candidates in the Democratic primary, the news agency announced on Sunday, The Hill reported.
After the former New York City mayor officially threw his hat into the ring for the presidential contest, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait said in a staff memo that “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.”
Bloomberg News, which is a subsidiary of Bloomberg LP, the former mayor’s financial software company, will, however summarize or publish investigative material on the candidate or his rivals that appear in other media outlets if they are “credible journalistic institutions,” according to the memo.
Micklethwait said that in stories the news agency does write on the campaign, “we will make clear that our owner is now a candidate” and added that Bloomberg News is suspending the board responsible for its opinion section.
He also noted that if Bloomberg wins the Democratic nomination and President Donald Trump is the Republican candidate, the news organization will “reassess how to do that,” according to CNBC.
Mike Bloomberg himself declared in a separate memo that during his campaign he would turn leadership of the company over to a management committee, as he said he did the last time he ran for public office.