Media Criticism

The opening question may be inaccurate because a candidate is, by nature, an attention hog. I have seen few presidential candidates that have drawn as much attention as Michael Bloomberg by saying that they won’t run. Oh wait, Fred Thompson has done it. Oh, and Al Gore has been doing it. Bloomberg is not unique in his ability to intrigue and fend off the press at the same time with his denial of interest in the presidency.

The New York Times has reported that the popular mayor of New York City has set up Face Book and MySpace pages in a nod toward “the kids.� The Times is just feeding the fire and seems to be straining to get Bloomberg onto their website when he hasn’t made news in a few weeks. This last statement should make it clear that I think The Times wants Bloomberg to run to shake up the 2008 election.

I wrote an article months back supporting a Bloomberg candidacy as something that would shake up the election. You can consult that article for my in-depth thoughts on the mayor’s chances. My point in this blog is to demonstrate that Michael Bloomberg is not a huge attention hog, just someone who responds to questions when asked. If The New York Times did not want Bloomberg to run, they would not keep asking the same question of him over and over again.

Mayor Bloomberg even criticized The Times a bit for asking if he will run. He made an interesting point that politics are not important when leadership is lagging. He is clearly a savvy operator in a way that Fred Thompson was not in his run up to the election. The reason he can be so savvy is that he has been an independent in principle throughout his two terms as mayor of New York City. If he did run, he would not need to worry about primaries and debates with lower tier candidates. In the end, I think that Mayor Bloomberg will not run for the presidency but is demonstrating that the line between preparing for life as a wealthy private citizen and a career as a politician is blurred. Rich people need MySpace pages and press coverage to accomplish philanthropic efforts and stay in the limelight of the Internet age.