On Monday, Dec. 2 President Donald Trump announced that he has barred any journalist from Bloomberg News to report at his campaigns or events. This happened recently after Bloomberg News claimed they would not investigate any Democratic candidates running in the 2020 election. The Trump Campaign viewed this as political bias and “preferential reporting” when deciding to strip their credentials.

Michael Bloomberg founded Bloomberg News almost 40 years ago and has grown it into a well known media company in New York City. At age 77, Bloomberg announced that he will run for president as a Democrat in the 2020 race. This has sparked controversy as reporters from his company is no longer be allowed at Trump Campaign events.

According to Bloomberg.com, John Micklethwait, editor in chief at Bloomberg News, responded to the barring by saying, “The accusation of bias couldn’t be further from the truth. We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.”

“Trump periodically denied credentials to cover his events to several news organizations, including the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, Politico, Buzzfeed, the Des Moines Register and others after stories he considered unfair,” said Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg News claims they will continue to cover Trump and his campaign, as well as Michael Bloomberg’s.

The ability to deny credentials is nothing new to the White House. Reporters need to apply for and be approved for congressional passes if they want to cover events at the White House. To be approved they must show that they work for a credible news source, with reputable reporters. These passes must be reapproved annually.

This means that the president and the government can control who reports at political events. Under the First Amendment, these rights, however, cannot be stripped arbitrarily without reason. As for Bloomberg News, their credentials were stripped due to apparent political bias in reporting the upcoming election, according to President Trump.