With Mike Bloomberg out of the presidential race, Bloomberg LP reporters are free to investigate the Democrats still vying for the spot, Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait told employees in an email Wednesday afternoon.
"Now that Mike has said he is leaving the race for President, we will return to our normal coverage of the election; we will follow exactly the same coverage rules for the Democratic presidential candidates and President Donald Trump," Micklethwait wrote to Bloomberg's editorial and research staff in a memo that was obtained by CNBC.
Mike Bloomberg is the founder and 89% shareholder in Bloomberg LP, a financial software company that owns Bloomberg News. When Bloomberg announced he was joining the race in November, Micklethwait said the company would continue its "tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation )" and would "extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries."
The decision was criticized by some, including President Donald Trump.
The former New York mayor earlier Wednesday dropped out of the presidential race after a poor performance in the Super Tuesday contests and immediately endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden's candidacy.
Micklethwait said in the memo the company will "disclose Mike's financial support for other Democrats — just as we have always done where his financial support for political causes is relevant to our reporting."
He also highlighted the reporting the company's journalists have done since Bloomberg's decision to join the race.
"As I pointed out back on November 24th, we found ourselves in an unprecedented situation: no other newsroom of our size has had to deal with anything similar. Since then, we have written around 1,100 articles on the contest — and that does not include all the broadcast pieces and interviews, nor all the third party articles we have made available to our terminal customers."
Read the full memo:
Now that Mike has said he is leaving the race for President, we will return to our normal coverage of the election; we will follow exactly the same coverage rules for the Democratic presidential candidates and President Donald Trump. We will disclose Mike's financial support for other Democrats — just as we have always done where his financial support for political causes is relevant to our reporting.
I would like to pay tribute to everybody who has covered the campaigns — and the independent way that we have reported the race. As I pointed out back on November 24th, we found ourselves in an unprecedented situation: no other newsroom of our size has had to deal with anything similar. Since then, we have written around 1,100 articles on the contest — and that does not include all the broadcast pieces and interviews, nor all the third party articles we have made available to our terminal customers. You can see an audit of our coverage up to March 2 on our website and the terminal, which we will continue to update. But I would like to thank everybody for all the hard work that this has involved — and look forward to what lies ahead.
John