Examining the culture within Bloomberg News

Al Hunt

Nicole Einbinder and Dakin Campbell of Business Insider write about the culture within the Bloomberg News editorial operations.

Einbinder and Campbell write, “Few names came up in Business Insider’s conversations with employees more than Al Hunt, Bloomberg News’ former Washington editor and one of the organization’s most visible faces in politics until his 2018 exit. Hunt’s behavior was at issue in numerous human resources complaints and at least two financial settlements, according to people with knowledge of the complaints and settlements.

“Hunt joined Bloomberg in 2005, while Mike Bloomberg was New York City mayor, after nearly four decades as a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal. He was wooed by Winkler at the prior year’s Democratic National Convention, according to The New York Times. For seven years, Hunt ran Bloomberg News’ Washington bureau, holding a key voice over what stories were published and whose careers advanced. In 2012, for reasons that are unclear, Hunt moved from his role overseeing editorial operations in Washington to become a columnist for Bloomberg’s opinion section, where he remained until 2018.

“During his time at Bloomberg News, Hunt developed a reputation among some employees for a volatile temper and a propensity to touch women in ways that, to some, felt too intimate. Several former employees said Hunt was notorious for giving women who worked for him massages without bothering to ask first.

“He would frequently walk up behind a female co-worker seated at her desk and begin rubbing her shoulders without warning, according to seven people who saw him do it. ‘I remember seeing his hands move pretty rapidly between her shoulders and her arms,’ one former employee recalled. ‘His hands were all over her.’

“In a statement, Hunt said he never inappropriately touched any employees and defended his record of advancing the careers of female journalists who worked under him.”