In light of the privacy breach that became public over the last week at Bloomberg News, the company has appointed two people to investigate what happened, and make recommendations for changes that can be made.

Former IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano will serve as an “independent adviser,” where he will “immediately undertake a review of the Company’s current practices and policies for client data and end user information, including a review of access issues recently raised by the Company’s clients.” He will then suggest fixes.

Also, Bloomberg is charging Bloomberg News editor-at-large Clark Hoyt–formerly the public editor of the New York Times–with examining the relationship between the company’s news division and its commercial unit, which is led by its Terminal business. Palmisano will report to Bloomberg’s board of directors, while Hoyt will report to Bloomberg CEO Dan Doctoroff.

More information on the appointments, after the jump.
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The editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, Matthew Winkler, has posted a letter apologizing for allowing journalists at the company to access some information about individual subscribers to the Bloomberg Terminal. Journalists at the company were able to access some personal information and login activity at executives at major Wall Street firms and even potentially government agencies, in an effort to get scoops on big stories.

As I wrote in “The Bloomberg Way,” our guide for reporters and editors, “The appearance of impropriety can be as damaging to a reputation as doing something improper. Because we hold others accountable for disclosure, we expect the same of ourselves. While disclosing errors of judgment may be embarrassing, the sooner the lapses are reported, the sooner there is nothing more to say….”

Our reporters should not have access to any data considered proprietary. I am sorry they did. The error is inexcusable. Last month, we immediately changed our policy so that reporters now have no greater access to information than our customers have. Removing this access will have no effect on Bloomberg news-gathering.

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CNBC is reporting on competitor Bloomberg over accusations Bloomberg journalists used the company’s data terminals to track and gain information on users, in some cases, government officials.

Both the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury Department are examining the extent Bloomberg terminal usage by top officials might have been tracked, CNBC’s Steve Liesman reports.

CNBC talked with a former Bloomberg employee who says he accessed usage information of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. He said he did it ”just for fun” and as a way “to show how powerful” the Bloomberg terminals were.

CNBC got a response from a Bloomberg spokesperson who said, “What you are reporting is untrue” but declined to respond when asked what specifically was inaccurate. He also would not say whether the company had investigated journalist access to the terminals.

Bloomberg CEO Dan Doctoroff released a statement saying, “Last month we changed our policy so that all reporters only have access to the same customer-relationship data available to our clients.” Doctoroff added: “reporters could not see news stories that clients read, or the securities they viewed.”

CNBC competes with Bloomberg in reporting and distributing business news on TV and online.

Bloomberg News, which includes financial news channel Bloomberg TV, is at the center of a shocking snooping scandal.

Reporters for Bloomberg used the Bloomberg Terminals–which are ubiquitous on Wall Street–to see what high-profile traders were searching for and investigating, potentially revealing scoops about the firms. Goldman Sachs brought thee issue to the attention of Bloomberg brass.

The Bloomberg Terminal is rented to customers for around $20,000 a year, with some large firms renting them by the thousands. While some competing news outlets also have them, they did not have access to the behind-the-scenes data that the reporters inside the company did.

The New York Post has the story:
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Bloomberg TV’s Trish Regan does a Q+A in the May issue of Resident magazine. The “Street Smart” anchor — who originally wanted to be an opera singer — talks about how she ended up in television:

I got a lot of exposure to the financial community through internships during school summers. First at a hedge fund and then as an analyst in at Goldman Sachs. At Goldman, I worked on the emerging debt markets desk and really liked it. I was analyzing the economic and political consequences of what was going on in Latin America and thought that was what I was going to do upon graduation. They made me a job offer, and I had every intention of going, except in my senior year I interned at NBC Nightly News and suddenly, everything made sense. I’d found my calling.

How did you land that job?

I just sent in an application and told them I would work every single holiday! They needed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s covered, and I said, “I’m your girl.”

Regan also talks about her upcoming projects, including a series of reports on Brazil’s economy which air next week on “Street Smart.”

Bloomberg Television has eliminated less than five positions in its New York bureau. In a statement to TVNewser, a Bloomberg spokesperson said the network has “reassigned some production roles as we continue to expand our digital video operation.”

The network’s transition to digital began last year. The positions eliminated this morning, some of which were held by camera operators, will not affect the company’s net head count. The layoffs will be offset by plans to hire up to five digital video producers.

Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, a regular on the TV news circuit, will be joining Bloomberg TV as a contributor and strategic advisor. He will appear on-air to discuss political and economic issues of interest to Wall Street and Main Street, and will also serve off-air, helping the financial channel with its business strategy.

“I am excited for both the on and off air relationship with Bloomberg,” said Plouffe in a statement. “Their programming lends itself to fuller discussion, which given the complexity of the issues before our country, is of great value.”

TVNewser has heard that other channels were interested in Plouffe’s services, but that BTV just offered the better deal.

More information below.
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Bloomberg TV anchor Stephanie Ruhle gave birth to her first daughter, Drew Beachley Hubbard, on April 19. Baby Drew was born at 12:04 p.m. Friday, weighing in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces.

The baby is named after her father, Ruhle’s husband Andrew Hubbard. Drew is the third child for Ruhle and Hubbard, who have two sons.

Bloomberg TV has hired Anna Edwards as a London-based anchor, the network announced this week. Edwards will co-anchor “Countdown,” which airs in the U.S. at 2amET, alongside Mark Barton.

Edwards was most recently a freelance anchor for CNN International’s “World Business Today.” She previously worked at CNBC Europe, where she spent eight years as co-anchor of “Squawk Box Europe,” “Capital Connection, “European Closing Bell” and “Europe Tonight.”

“Anna is a strong addition to the Bloomberg Television presenting team here in Europe having covered many major global economic and financial events, interviewed countless business leaders and her experience of reporting on the rapidly moving developments in the markets will enhance our current output,” Malcolm Fried, head of Bloomberg TV in Europe, said in a statement.

Bloomberg TV is adding another hour of “Bloomberg West,” anchored by Emily Chang, Cory Johnson and Jon Erlichman, to its lineup next week. Along with the existing hour of the San Francisco-based tech show, which airs at 6pmET/3pmPT, a new hour will be added at 1pmET/10amPT beginning Monday.

The expansion sets off a domino effect of programming changes in the rest of the network’s lineup. “Money Moves with Deirdre Bolton” moves from 1pmET to 2pmET, while “Bottom Line with Mark Crumpton” moves from 2pmET to 7pmET. “Bloomberg Rewind,” a recap of the day’s top stories that aired at 7pmET, will be removed entirely from the lineup.

The New York Times‘ Quentin Hardy has more on the expansion:

“We see a real opportunity,” said Andrew Morse, head of Bloomberg Television in the United States.

“The television world is flooded with mediocre content — this extra hour is more of a place for big names in the Valley to come on and talk, and to dig deeper into what the news means,” he said, speaking of Silicon Valley.