Bloomberg the Candidate vs. Bloomberg the Media Mogul

And the loser is … all of us.

When Jared Kushner, owner and editor of The New York Observer, wrote a response to an Observer article criticizing Trump for using anti-Semitic tropes in a campaign ad, he probably wasn’t (even in his own eyes) setting the record straight. He was (in my view at least) using his power as a media owner to control the political perspective on his father-in-law, on whose campaign he was actively involved.

A number of Medium columnists and commenters have speculated on (“lambasted” may be a more accurate term) Michael Bloomberg’s reason for declaring his late candidacy as Democratic nominee for president (to push a business-favorable agenda, to undermine the anti-corporatist stance of progressive Democrats like Sanders and Warren, or simply to indulge in a bit of vanity). To quote the opening of the old radio show “The Shadow” (ask a boomer), “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?”

As CEO of Bloomberg L.P. (aka Bloomberg News), “the global leader in business and financial data, news and insight” according to its website, Bloomberg combines his power as a media mogul with the public pulpit that being a candidate for a party nomination as President creates. Does the power of running a major news agency give Michael Bloomberg an unfair advantage over other candidates? How could it not, but there’s another side: the candidacy of Bloomberg undermines any sense of integrity his media empire might have previously had.