Journalists Union Demands Bloomberg Change Decision Against Covering 2020 Presidential Candidates

A group of journalists at the Bloomberg industry publication group on Monday criticized the company policy of not investigating Democratic candidates for president.

The journalist union that represents  Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg Environment said that the company’s decision is an effort to “silence” the company’s reporters.

“We are extremely alarmed by management’s decision to silence the journalists we represent at Bloomberg Industry Group, as well as the unrepresented journalists at Bloomberg News,” the Guild wrote.

“The Guild believes journalists should not only be allowed — but encouraged — to thoroughly cover every single candidate as the profession demands in one of the most important elections in modern history,” it continued.

Previously, Bloomberg announced in a letter to employees that the company would not publish investigations of the Democratic presidential candidates after the owner, Michael Bloomberg’s entry into the 2020 race as a Democratic primary candidate.

“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,” read a staff memo from Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.

“We have already assigned a reporter to follow his campaign (just as we did when Mike was in City Hall),” he continued. “And in the stories we write on the presidential contest, we will make clear that our owner is now a candidate.”

One former Bloomberg employee slammed the company’s decision in a statement to The Hill earlier Monday, calling it a poor attempt at fairness.

“To cover a presidential election fairly, you’re going to have to cover Bloomberg like everyone else,” the former employee said. “That means taking oppo [opposition research]. And that means digging into his past … it’s just silly to believe there will be an acceptable and fair way for them to cover his campaign,” the statement read.