***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
Following former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg throwing his hat into the 2020 Democratic presidential race, Bloomberg News was rightly dragged when they announced they would be hands-off with their founder and his Democratic rivals, while continuing to grill President Trump. The move was almost universally panned, with the media beat Sunday shows on both CNN and Fox News criticizing the Bloomberg News. Although, some tougher than others.
On Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz, host Howard Kurtz began the segment by declaring: “With a single memo, the global media giant with 2,700 journalists around the world, handcuffed its staff in covering Michael Bloomberg's White House bid and undermined, fairly or unfairly, its reputation for independence.”
Kurtz reminded viewers that this wasn’t the first time Bloomberg News took an unethical stance when covering their boss. They did the same thing back in 2016 when he was only thinking about running. And in response, politics editor Kathy Kiely left Bloomberg News in protest. At the time, she told Kurtz:
KATHY KIELY: I think that when you're running a political operation as we were, that you should follow every story aggressively and I felt that we weren't able to follow this story aggressively and that I thought compromised us as an organization. I certainly felt it compromised me as an editor.
After reading from the memo editor-in-chief John Micklethwait sent to Bloomberg News staffers describing how the news organization would be hands-off with Democrats and not Trump, Kurtz exclaimed: “On what planet is that fair?”
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