Bloomberg fired Jennifer Jacobs, a reporter who co-wrote the story on the prisoner swap that freed Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich from Russian custody, after the outlet broke an embargo before Gershkovich was home, New York Magazine’s Charlotte Klein reported Monday.
Bloomberg published their story, which according to NYMag inaccurately claimed Gershkovich and the other prisoners were free, Thursday at 7:41 a.m. At 7:51 a.m. a Bloomberg editor posted, in a now-deleted tweet, “It is one of the greatest honors of my career to have helped break this news. I love my job and my colleagues,” according to NYMag.
Bloomberg then issued a correction at 7:59 a.m. that read, “An earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect that the Americans have not been released yet.”
Bloomberg published their story before Gershkovich’s own paper. The Journal’s ran after 11 a.m., only when Gershkovich and the other prisoners were safely out of Russian hands and off the plane in Turkey, NYMag reported.
The White House had asked news outlets to hold off on reporting the story until Gershkovich and the others were in U.S. custody, according to NYMag.
“News outlets found this compelling and agreed. In exchange for their agreement to the embargo, journalists were briefed ahead of time and given useful information for their reporting. Including Bloomberg,” NYMag reported.
Bloomberg reported the news of Evan Gershkovich’s release before anyone else—because they broke an embargo every other outlet had agreed to:https://t.co/NTmdNBC5Uu
— Charlotte Klein (@charlottetklein) August 2, 2024
Bloomberg’s decision to publish early “left journalists and government officials fuming,” WSJ sources told NYMag. (RELATED: Incarcerated WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich Sought Exclusive Interview With Putin Prior To His Release)
Bloomberg Editor in Chief John Micklethwait announced in an e-mail that the company had taken “disciplinary action against a number of those involved” in publishing the story, New York Times reporter Katie Robertson reported Monday.
NEW: Bloomberg says it has taken disciplinary action against a number of people involved in breaking the prisoner swap embargo last week, email here from EIC John Micklethwait pic.twitter.com/XfFvuCO7x7
— Katie Robertson (@katie_robertson) August 5, 2024
“Last Thursday, we prematurely published a story on the release of Evan Gershkovich and the other prisoners, 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,” Micklethwait wrote, according to Robertson.
“We publish thousands of stories every day, many of which break news. We take accuracy very seriously. But we also have a responsibility to do the right thing. In this case we didn’t,” the e-mail concluded.
Jacobs shared a byline on the story with Bloomberg’s Amsterdam bureau chief Cagan Koc. It is unclear at this time whether Bloomberg is taking any disciplinary action against Koc. The Daily Caller reached out to Bloomberg for clarity but did not hear back by time of publication.
The U.S. freed Gershkovich along with former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and others in a 26-person prisoner swap that involved people from seven countries, according to multiple reports.
Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested Gershkovich in March 2023 on espionage charges, which the Biden administration, multiple U.S. lawmakers and The WSJ objected to as false and politically motivated.
