CURRENTS: POLITICS
Can Bloomberg Cover Bloomberg?

BY JANE GOTTLIEB

When the owner of Bloomberg News ran for New York City mayor, the press reported on the billionaire candidate's unorthodox remarks, his daily calls to his ninety-two-year-old mother, and the $69 million he spent on the campaign.

But Bloomberg News ran tepid summaries of these stories, penned by reporters not on Mike Bloomberg's payroll. Thus, new york mayoral candidates spar as vote nears, the new york times says; and giuliani endorses bloomberg in new york city race, ap says, took the place of firsthand profiles and analysis.

"How could we do enterprise reporting, how could we follow the questions we might raise to their ultimate conclusion without hitting obstacles, because you're barking up the tree that feeds you?" asks Matthew Winkler, editor in chief of Bloomberg News. "We said we won't cover him as a candidate, we won't cover any other candidates. What we will do is summarize what other media have reported."

On January 1, this short-term ethical dilemma became a way of life. Bloomberg News, which in 2000 assembled a fourteen-member team to cover general New York news, has to figure out how to cover the boss.

Winkler, who has run the news service for twelve years, says that now that there is one mayor, rather than a field of candidates, Bloomberg News will cover him. "We're not going to do the biography of Michael Bloomberg, where he came from, we just can't do it," Winkler says. "What we can do is report what he said today and here's how it's related to what he said the day before. We'll have to deal with things as they come and we'll do just fine."

He says there is little point in raising "what if" scenarios. But such hypotheticals have been on the minds of some writers, who will cover a mayor who will surely trim staff and programs to balance the books and rebuild lower Manhattan. "Are people going to accept that we're not an agent of Mike Bloomberg?" asks one Bloomberg journalist. "After the election a lot of people made jokes like 'Will you be the new press secretary?' It was bothering me. I began to fear that my credibility was going to go down the tubes. These things really have not been addressed."

Winkler acknowledges the potential for awkward situations. For starters, though, he insists that the "Bloomberg Way," a detailed style of reporting spelled out in a 359-page manual, one which emphasizes facts over modifiers, and anecdotes over generalizations, will guide the coverage.

In addition, the new mayor, who recused himself from the operations of Bloomberg LP when he declared his candidacy, will not make news decisions. Winkler notes as well that the reporters on city education, politics, crime, and entertainment, drawn from papers such as The Philadelphia Inquirer and Newsday, stand on their own professional standards.

And just to be sure, Bloomberg News hired Tom Goldstein, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism and former press secretary of Mayor Ed Koch, as arbiter. "I'm going to pepper them with ideas and ultimately recommend whether there should be changes," says Goldstein. "It can work because they have great pride in what they do and it's all out in the open. They don't want to blow it."

The staff, like much of the city, was surprised that Bloomberg won. He had never held office, and he ran as a Republican in a city that is five-to-one Democratic. City hall reporter Henry Goldman, a Bloomberg employee since 1999 who once covered New York for The Philadelphia Inquirer, has grown tired of the mock post-election "congratulations." He says he is just eager to get back to the business of covering a mayor, and is confident he can do so fairly. "I told Bloomberg a long time ago, 'I'm not related to you. I don't owe you anything except honesty and fairness,'" says Goldman. "I don't feel that I have a conflict."