Bloomberg
Media Bias by Omission: Bloomberg Doesn't Investigate Democratic Presidential Candidates
As of Nov. 2019, Bloomberg admits that it engages in bias by omission with a Lean Left bent. Mike Bloomberg, New York City mayor and founder of the financial software company that owns Bloomberg, officially entered the 2020 Democratic presidential race in Nov. 2019. According to a memo sent to editorial and research staff obtained by CNBC and verified by a Bloomberg spokesperson, Bloomberg News announced it would refrain from investigating Mayor Bloomberg and his Democratic rivals.
“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,” Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait said in the memo.
In Dec. 2019, President Donald Trump's campaign announced it would stop credentialing Bloomberg News reporters for rallies and other events until the outlet resumed investigating Democratic candidates.
Mike Bloomberg is founder and 89% shareholder in Bloomberg LP, the financial software company that owns Bloomberg News.
This column is a part of Republic of Distrust, a series about the loss of trust in American institutions and what can be done to restore it.
Walter Cronkite was often described as “the most trusted man in America” in the 1960s and ‘70s. The avuncular CBS News anchor was admired for reporting fairly and accurately, even when his view challenged the official line or popular opinion. After a 1968 reporting trip to Vietnam, for example, Cronkite told his 30 million viewers that the American war there was an unwinnable “stalemate,” a judgment that helped turn the public against the war. Conservative pundit George Will said the history of journalism in our era could be divided into “Before Cronkite” and “After Cronkite.” “After Cronkite” was characterized by a precipitous decline in the public’s trust.
In the bitterly fractious, misinformation-saturated, social-mediated America of 2024, it’s hard to think of a consensus candidate for the title of most trusted, but it would probably not be a journalist. The authors of one Gallup survey last year declared their assessment of public trust and confidence in mass media “the grimmest in Gallup’s history.” Among Gallup’s ranking of the 10 US civic and political institutions involved in the democratic process, mass media and Congress were tied for the least trusted.