Bloomberg Under Fire for Breaking Embargo To Seize Russia Prisoner Exchange Scoop

(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Bloomberg News is under fire for prematurely reporting the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from Russian captivity — breaking journalistic protocol to report his release while he was still in Russian airspace.

The move has sparked outrage among fellow journalists and government officials who had agreed to a background briefing on the planned exchange embargo with multiple media outlets in order to protect the delicate prisoner swap. The embargo, requested by the White House, was meant to prevent any jeopardy to the complicated 24-person swap, which involved multiple countries.

Bloomberg was part of the media cohort that agreed to the embargo, with one journalist who by-lined the scoop promising to hold on reporting.

However, Bloomberg jumped ahead to publish the news at 7:41 a.m. (ET) on Thursday. According to New York Magazine, one editor posted on X in a since-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.”

At the time of initial publishing, however, the claim that Gershkovich and others had been released was inaccurate with the prisoners still in Russian custody and traveling on a Russian plane. Bloomberg’s scoop was updated less than an hour later with a correction.

Meanwhile, Gershkovich’s own colleagues reporting on the story at The Wall Street Journal held to the embargo and only published their story at 11 a.m ET once they had visual confirmation that Gershkovich had safely deplaned in Turkey.

For its actions, Bloomberg is now facing backlash from journalists whose outlets held to the embargo.

One reporter told New York Magazine that they were “incensed,” adding: “People are very, very disappointed in Bloomberg. And not just the embargo breaking, but the football spiking.”

Another said: “We all want to break stories. We also need to consider the risks of breaking those stories. I hope editors and reporters thought long and hard about the risks of revealing the details of a hostage transfer before the hostages were back in U.S. custody.”