Trump Bans Bloomberg News From Covering His Campaign, Twitter Ignites

The Trump campaign said it will no longer provide credentials to all reporters from Bloomberg News, effectively banning them from covering any Trump campaign event. This move is in retaliation for the news agency saying it won't investigate Mike Bloomberg and his Democratic rivals in the primaries, but will still follow and report on president Donald Trump.

The campaign accuses Bloomberg News of "bias" for taking this action, which was reported by CNBC on November 24. Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager, blasted Bloomberg News for its troubling decision to “formalize preferential reporting policies.”

“As President Trump’s campaign, we are accustomed to unfair reporting practices, but most news organizations don’t announce their biases so publicly,” according to Parscale.

He said the ban on Bloomberg reporters will continue until Bloomberg News rescinds this policy. Mike Bloomberg founded and owns 89 percent of Bloomberg LP, the financial software company that owns Bloomberg News.

Bloomberg News' move to not investigate Trump's opponents, which was denounced by other media as breach of journalism ethics, was revealed in a leaked memo from Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.

Micklethwait’s memo said Bloomberg News "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."

A Bloomberg News spokesperson later confirmed the existence of this controversial memo.

Micklethwait said as long as Mike Bloomberg is running for president, Bloomberg News will publish or summarize investigative work into Bloomberg and the other Democratic candidates if made by “credible journalistic institutions." He said his news agency will carry polls, interview the candidates and track their campaigns.

“We have already assigned a reporter to follow his campaign (just as we did when Mike was in City Hall),” revealed Micklethwait. “And in the stories we write on the presidential contest, we will make clear that our owner is now a candidate.”

Micklethwait also confirmed Bloomberg News’ investigations into Trump will continue.

“For the moment, our P&I team will continue to investigate the Trump administration, as the government of the day,” wrote Micklethwait.

Trump also commented on this issue, saying "it's not OK!"

Twitter also users weighed in on the freedom of the press issue ignited by this leak and Trump's reaction.

Christopher Zullo tweeted "Bloomberg is a real man. News isn’t fake just because it’s critical of you. Alternative facts are not real unless supported by evidence. Trump’s war isn’t with the MSM, it’s with the facts. Fox News is the fake news you seek. Entertainment programming for ratings and advertisers."

BrooklynDad_Defiant! wrote, "Mini Mike Bloomberg could buy you with the change he has in his sofa, Liddle' Donnie."

Another user noted, "Obviously it’s not okay for any newspaper to play favorites and refuse to investigate a political party. I’m a Democrat and I’m not okay with that. It’s absolutely unfair and I believe in fairness. That said, we should get the full side of the story before jumping to conclusions."

On the other side, support for Trump also abound, "None of them are news organizations. They are propaganda wings of the far left Democrat Party. Why do they bother to pretend otherwise? They exist to lie to the American people about President Trump! They are terrified of us hearing the TRUTH!"

RockPrincess claims, "Mini Mike is a sexist pig and a tyrant."

Micklethwait's reaction to the Trump campaign ban was defiant. He said accusations of bias couldn’t be further from the truth.

“We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign,” he said.