Reporter Corrects Claim That Bloomberg Told His Journalists To Lay Off Trump

Former mayor of New York MICHAEL BLOOMBERG is seen in a press conference in Jerusalem prior to a ceremony in which he will receive the Genesis Prize, and an award of one million dollars, which he will later donate. T... Former mayor of New York MICHAEL BLOOMBERG is seen in a press conference in Jerusalem prior to a ceremony in which he will receive the Genesis Prize, and an award of one million dollars, which he will later donate. This is the first year the Genesis Prize is taking place, the project "seeks to recognize individuals who have attained excellence and international renown in their chosen professional fields, and whose actions, in addition to their achievements, embody the character of the Jewish people through commitment to Jewish values, the Jewish community and/or to the State of Israel." as it explained in the website. (Photo by Omer Messinger/NurPhoto/Sipa USA) MORE LESS

March 4, 2016 9:39 a.m.

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This post has been updated.

After a bombshell report that Michael Bloomberg ordered his journalists to stop attacking fellow New York City billionaire Donald Trump, New York Magazine corrected the record to show the directive went out to opinion columnists, not reporters.

NYMag’s Gabriel Sherman added an update to his story Thursday evening “to clarify that the directive referred to columnists at Bloomberg View,” the opinion and commentary section of the news company.

After the post was updated, the magazine added another lengthy update to Sherman’s story Friday morning pointing out that Bloomberg View has continued to publish stories that are critical of Trump:

Since publication, several Bloomberg View employees have pointed out that Bloomberg View has published articles critical of Trump. This aligns with Bloomberg’s own changing views on Trump. Nevertheless, last year a Bloomberg View editor removed a critical phrase from at least one article because Bloomberg didn’t want to publish anything that could be construed as a personal attack on Trump.

Sherman’s story originally said that Bloomberg journalists’ stories about the Republican presidential frontrunner were subject to “special scrutiny” after Trump had a “scathing letter” complaining about negative coverage hand-delivered to the former mayor’s home.

Reporting that Bloomberg himself was interfering with news coverage was a serious allegation against the news organization, which has faced lingering questions about its coverage of the former mayor’s political aspirations.

Fox News recently condemned another Sherman story about Fox chief Roger Ailes spurning Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as a work of “fiction” and dubbed the magazine’s veteran politics reporter “Shermanonymous.”

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Katherine Krueger

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