It was only a matter of time, really, before media mogul (and mayor) Michael Bloomberg went the way of Rupert Murdoch, Mort Zuckerman, and the industry barons of old and began using his vast media property as a way to officially get his opinion across. The Bloomberg News and wire services will soon begin distributing editorials (called the “Bloomberg View”) across their many platforms — editorials that will reflect the opinions of the man whose name the company bears, but who has remained nominally distanced during his tenure at City Hall.
“I think it’s very important that everyone understands that our editorial page is going to be, for sure, consistent with the values and beliefs of the founder — even if he happens to be mayor of New York City,” Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler told the Times. “I want people to come away from reading the ‘Bloomberg View’ infused with those beliefs and values.” But they’re not going to be opinions per se, says Jamie Rubin, one of the editors of the new feature. The views expressed therein will be “ideology-free, empirically-based editorial positions about the pressing issues of our time.” It will be interesting to see whether that is an actual thing — is it possible to write about pressing social issues “empirically”? — but if anyone will be able to make a good go of it, it might be Bloomberg.
Bloomberg to Publish Editorials [NYT]
Bloomberg Voice: Opinions, Yes, But Only Factual Ones [Forbes]
Related: Reasons to Love New York: Because Our Mayor Knows What He Thinks—and Sometimes He’s Even Right
