Categories: OLD Media Moves

Buzz surrounds Bloomberg’s Halperin and Heilemann

Co-authors John Heilemann, left, and Mark Halperin attend the premiere of HBO Films' "Game Change" at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Co-authors John Heilemann, left, and Mark Halperin attend the premiere of HBO Films’ “Game Change” at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Hadas Gold and Joe Pompeo of Politico examine top Bloomberg political reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann.

Hadas and Pompeo write, “But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Halperin in January had to backtrack on a piece containing sourcing that suggested Mitt Romney would run for president, and in May he had apologize to Ted Cruz after questioning him about his Cuban heritage and then asking the Texas senator to say something ‘en Espanol.’ They’ve also been criticized for fluffier fare like an early-November clip of Halperin, Heilemann and The Donald zipping around Central Park’s Wollman Rink on a Trump-branded Zamboni.

“And some criticism is apparently coming from inside the Bloomberg building. ‘The assumption,’ one senior Bloomberg employee told POLITICO, ‘is that all this softball stuff they do is so they can get these people in the book.’

“Marty Schenker, the Bloomberg News senior executive editor who oversees all politics and government coverage, pushed back on that assessment.

“‘I will stake my 35 years in journalism on the integrity and professionalism of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann,’ he told POLITICO in a statement provided by a spokesperson. ‘The interviews that Mark and John conduct on ‘With All Due Respect’ have always met the high standards of Bloomberg News. Any suggestion otherwise is blatantly false.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.