What do Twitter, liberal billionaire Michael Bloomberg and his media empire have to do with each other? A lot, now.
Starting in fall 2017, Bloomberg will be managing a 24 hour streaming news channel on Twitter. The feed will be “live news reporting from the news outlet’s bureaus around the world,” The Wall Street Journal reported May 1.
Billionaire media mogul and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg owns Bloomberg News. The outlet often promoted the same liberal politics as its owner, including undermining gun rights, destroying the coal industry, advancing abortion and pushing common core.
Despite Bloomberg News’ liberal track record, Twitter was excited.
“We really think we can reach audiences that are not paying for TV and are watching television on the go and we think Bloomberg is the perfect partner for us to start with,” Twitter’s chief financial and operating officer Anthony Noto told The Journal.
As mayor, Bloomberg showed his love for regulations by banning Styrofoam, trans fats, smoking, cigarette displays in stores, traffic in Times Square and loud music. He also tried to ban the sale of large sugary drinks, but was overturned.
Bloomberg’s past political activity — first as mayor from 2001 to 2013, and then as a potential presidential candidate in 2016 — created multiple conflicts of interest for Bloomberg News. The outlet was only allowed to summarize other media stories Mayor Bloomberg, not write any original reports.
That policy led Bloomberg Politics’ Washington news director Kathy Kiely to resign when rumors began that Bloomberg was considering a 2016 presidential bid.
Though he did not end up running, he endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton on July 27, 2016. He also made hundreds of campaign donations between 1999 and 2015, with more than $14 million directed to Democrats.
Bloomberg also founded Everytown for Gun Safety, an increasingly extreme anti-gun group. Bloomberg Media’s editorial board has supported many of the same gun restrictions that Everytown demanded.
Twitter is forming partnerships with other groups too, including Buzzfeed and The New York Stock Exchange, according to a May 8 Hollywood Reporter story.
