- Al Hunt, Bloomberg News’ former Washington editor and one of the organization’s most visible faces in politics until his 2018 exit, was accused over the course of years by multiple women of giving unsolicited massages and verbally berating employees for minor infractions.
- Sources tell Business Insider that Hunt was known to favor a small group of women that some employees called “Al’s Angels,” giving them plumb reporting assignments, invitations to key meetings with DC power brokers, and in at least some cases, career advancement, according to former employees.
- Business Insider has learned of at least two instances in which Bloomberg agreed to pay women to settle potential claims over Hunt’s conduct.
- Hunt denies touching anyone inappropriately and says he was a supportive boss who did not engage in favoritism.
- In a statement, a Bloomberg LP spokesperson declined to dispute any of the claims regarding Hunt, saying “there are certainly instances where we wish we had handled some complaints differently.”
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Al Hunt, Bloomberg News’ former Washington editor and one of the organization’s most visible faces in politics until his 2018 exit, was accused over the course of years by multiple women of giving unsolicited massages and verbally berating employees for minor infractions, Business Insider has learned. Despite at least two financial settlements with women who complained about the editor, he continued in his position for years, sources said.
That’s one of the findings in a weeks-long investigation conducted by Business Insider into the company’s culture. The investigation involved interviews with more than 40 current and former Bloomberg LP employees and found allegations of a toxic, macho workplace culture fueled by fear, in which powerful people screamed at underlings and bullied them with impunity. When they reported claims of inappropriate behavior to human resources, these staffers said, they were routinely ignored.
In the course of Business Insider’s investigation, few names came up more frequently in conversations with former employees than Hunt’s.
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. For seven years, he 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."
Hunt's alleged touching wasn't limited to massages, former co-workers said
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. "There never was a propensity to touch women in inappropriate ways. The shoulder rub charge is wrong," Hunt said. "There was one incident in which I was talking to a group of political reporters and apparently put my hand on the shoulder of a reporter sitting in front of me; NOT rubbing her neck, putting my hand on shoulder while talking to other reporters. She spoke to HR about it, who looked into it, spoke with reporters present and concluded there was nothing inappropriate and thus no need to inform me. I only was told about this several years later."
Hunt's alleged touching wasn't limited to massages, former co-workers said. One time he reached out to hold a female employee's hand, according to a person who witnessed the event. When she thrust it into her pocket to remove it from his reach, the person said, Hunt simply slipped his hand into her pocket as well and held it there. Another time he slapped a woman's bare thighs several times and dared her to tell human resources, according to a person who witnessed it. In another case, he put his hand on a woman's shoulder and left it there, according to the person.
Hunt could also make inappropriate comments, former co-workers said. He once took note of a reporter's matching manicure and pedicure and asked, with a smirk, if everything else matched, according to one witness.
Hunt denies making that remark, as well as putting his hand in a woman's pocket or slapping a woman's thighs.
Foto: Al Hunt (left) and Matthew Winkler (center) attended the 2007 White House Correspondents Dinner with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Source: Getty Images
Al's Angels
Hunt was known to favor a small group of women that some employees took to calling "Al's Angels." Membership in the group often meant getting plumb reporting assignments, invitations to key meetings with DC power brokers, and in at least some cases, career advancement, according to six people who say they witnessed what they described as favoritism. In other cases, when Hunt still had oversight of compensation for the bureau, it could mean getting a bigger bonus, one person said.
One former employee believed that Hunt expected the women to dress provocatively. Once, after asking a woman to do a task for him, this employee was told that Hunt said, "I just love watching her run in heels."
An employee told Business Insider that they often witnessed Hunt call a woman to his desk, caress her forearms, and, after she walked away, comment, "I have such a crush on her."
In his statement, Hunt denied making both remarks, calling them "made-up stories."
"Can you seriously suggest these were shiny toys that achieved enormous success at Bloomberg and later at other places?" he said. "To call them angels is insulting."
More than a dozen former employees described Hunt's volatile temper, saying he would frequently yell at underlings. One former employee described a time Hunt was shouting at an assistant because he couldn't find his glasses. Eventually, she told him they were on his head. "He could be abusive to people working for him and very, very demanding and not always kind about it," that person said.
In one case, Hunt threw a stapler at one of his assistants, two of the people said. The people didn't witness the incident, but one of them recalls talking about it with the stapler's target, who moved on from the Hunt post and now works in Bloomberg's television operation. The target declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.
"I am certain I never threw a stapler at a reporter," Hunt said. "It is perfectly possible that I did insist - you say yell - to an assistant to find my glasses when they were perched on my head. That has happened at home with my kids, so it's credible."
Sources say Bloomberg LP made settlement payments to two women who complained about Hunt
Business Insider has learned of at least two instances in which Bloomberg agreed to pay women to settle potential claims over Hunt's conduct. Business Insider was unable to confirm the specific details of the settlements.
"I raised Al Hunt's treatment of female employees to senior managers in the company on several occasions, after repeatedly witnessing its impact," said one former Bloomberg editor. "I was never informed of any action."
Hunt continued at Bloomberg until 2018, well past the time that Mike Bloomberg had returned from running New York City.
In a statement, a Bloomberg LP spokesperson did not deny any of the claims regarding Hunt: "We take complaints from our employees seriously and investigate them thoroughly. Looking back at the history of the company, there are certainly instances where we wish we had handled some complaints differently. We're always striving to do better, and we are constantly improving policies and procedures to ensure an inclusive workplace."
Not all of Hunt's former co-workers described him as abusive or inappropriate. Several described him simply as a 60-something man accustomed to working in a newsroom under the norms of a bygone era. These people point out that the accusations against Hunt do not rise to the level of the sort of sexually predatory behavior that Charlie Rose and Harvey Weinstein have been accused of. One person said that accusing Hunt of giving "massages" was misleading, saying that he would simply place his hands on people's shoulders.
"Al Hunt is both a mentor and a friend," Julianna Goldman, a former White House correspondent at Bloomberg and former correspondent at CBS News, told Business Insider. "He has been a champion and advocate for me throughout my career as well as countless other women who have excelled professionally across some of the most prestigious news organizations. I never felt he treated me inappropriately."
"Unquestionably I could be demanding," Hunt said. "There were displays of temper and demands and a couple assistants who left unhappy; again [there] were NO instances of inappropriate touching, etc. It was a big bureau and [I] suspect there were some unhappy people, four or five journalists were managed out over those years. But if the climate was anything like you describe, we never would have been able to hire such really talented reporters, many women; almost without exception they stayed and flourished."