Bloomberg News apologizes for premature story on prisoner swap
Bloomberg News has apologized for publishing a story early Thursday morning that it now says could have imperiled the negotiated prisoner swap that freed several prisoners from Russian custody, and has also disciplined several individuals involved in the matter, The Washington Post reports.
The White House had confirmed to several news organizations, including Bloomberg, advance details of a swap between the United States, Russia and other countries, which it put under an embargo — or an agreement to withhold publishing the news until officials confirmed that the Americans were safely in U.S. custody, which was expected to take place midday Thursday. (The Washington Post was also a part of the agreement).
But early Thursday morning, Bloomberg News published its story that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan had been released from Russia as part of a major prisoner swap — well before it had been completed, infuriating both those in the White House and in the Wall Street Journal newsroom.
On Monday, Bloomberg editor in chief John Micklethwait wrote to staff that “we prematurely published” the story “which could have endangered the negotiated swap that set them free.”
“Even if our story mercifully ended up making no difference, it was a clear violation of the editorial standards which have made this newsroom so trusted around the world,” he wrote. He added that the company’s standards editors conducted an investigation and “we have taken disciplinary action against a number of those involved.”
At least one individual — senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs, who was the lead author on the story — is no longer with the company, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak.
Bloomberg News, through a spokesperson, declined to comment further. Jacobs declined to comment to The Post on Monday morning, but by early evening, she posted a statement on social media, writing, “I worked hand in hand with my editors” to follow editorial standards and “at no time did I do anything that was knowingly inconsistent with the administration’s embargo or that would put anyone involved at risk.”
She added: “As a journalist, the idea that I would jeopardize the safety of a fellow reporter is deeply upsetting on a level that’s difficult to describe.”