A former editor with Bloomberg News criticized her former company’s owner, Michael Bloomberg, on Wednesday for his recent comments about the independence of Bloomberg journalists.
Kathy Kiely told CBS News that Bloomberg’s recent remarks questioning whether journalists at his company could cover his potential 2020 presidential campaign independently reminded her of a cynicism towards the press she said was shared by President Trump.
“Obviously Michael Bloomberg has not been as damaging as Donald Trump,” said Kiely, who now works at the University of Missouri’s journalism school.
“But I think what he is saying when he says, ‘I don’t want my reporters to be independent and I don’t think they can be independent covering me,’ that is a view of the press that is as cynical as Donald Trump’s.”
Kiely’s remarks came after Bloomberg commented to a local Iowa radio station about the challenges of running a media company while he pursues a possible presidential bid.
“Quite honestly, I don’t want all the reporters I’m paying to write a bad story about me,” he said during the interview, apparently joking, before suggesting that Bloomberg reporters should possibly “not cover politics at all” if he ran.
“I’m not a candidate yet, so I’ve got plenty of time to think about it, but I have thought a lot about that, because the news part of our business is a very big part of our business,” Bloomberg told the host.
Bloomberg has said that he will run as a Democrat if he does decide to mount a bid, putting him in competition with other declared Democratic candidates and some prominent Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, who are considering bids as well.