Reuters reports that former Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) executives Todd Thomson -- who lost his job in January -- is talking back now that his nemesis, Chuck Prince, has been deposed.

Thomson, who headed up wealth management for Citigroup, got tossed in February. He thinks Prince smeared him -- citing his expensive office, which featured a fishbowl, and his reported flight of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) CNBC's Maria Bartiromo on Citigroup's corporate jet from Asia to New York. Here are two highlights:

• Maria-gate. Media reported that in November 2006 when Thomson flew with a group of Citigroup employees to China on a business trip, he flew back with Bartiromo, leaving the Citi employees to find their way home on their own. When asked about his relationship with Bartiromo, Thomson was adamant: "It's an inappropriate question. I've never been accused of having anything other than an appropriate relationship with Maria Bartiromo. And I do have an appropriate relationship with Maria Bartiromo."

The New York Times has written a heartfelt love letter to Maria Bartiromo of General Electric (NYSE: GE)'s CNBC. The most interesting part to me is that Maria feels that Chuck Prince was using her "relationship" with former Citigroup (NYSE: C) executive Todd Thomson -- about which I posted earlier this year -- to divert attention from his mismanagement of the bank. With Prince out, Maria's riding high. But Todd must be kicking himself -- if he hadn't gotten into the Maria mess, he might be in a position to take over from Prince.

Since I have had the privilege of being interviewed by Maria Bartiromo -- here's a link from August -- and was called a couple of times last week to discuss the situation at Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), her status at CNBC is of more than academic interest to me. I have never met her in person, but her interviews have always been sharp and professional.

But the Todd Thomson incident raised questions which the article did not completely squelch. As a reminder, in January unidentified executives at Citigroup, which is both a CNBC advertiser and a frequent subject of its coverage, told several publications that among the reasons Thomson was fired was his decision to invite Maria to speak to a group of Citigroup clients in Asia and to fly her to that event in the company jet.

The New York Times's DealBook has a breathless report -- replete with photos -- of Blackstone Group CEO's Stephen Schwarzman's 60th birthday party at the Seventh Regiment Armory on New York's Park Avenue.

General Electric's (NYSE: GE) CNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo was there along with her husband, Jonathan Steinberg. This is an important development since it was not clear where things stood between her and Citigroup's (NYSE: C) former executive Todd Thomson and whether that would affect her marriage.

The Schwarzman bash may also have subtly influenced Dow Jones & Company's (NYSE: DJ) Wall Street Journal (a.k.a. The Towel). On Monday I got a call from the Towel's Alan Murray who told me he was writing an article on whether private equity was peaking. Murray had seen me on CNBC and interviewed me in detail -- requesting a copy of my post on the topic. Today his article [subscription required] came out -- gushing about Schwarzman's party and the prospects for the private equity business.

Make no mistake -- I would love to have attended this party. But as a news consumer, I wonder whether the opportunity to be counted among the New York glitterati has any affect on the objectivity of reporting on the industry.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns Citigroup and GE shares and has no financial interest in Dow Jones.

This morning's New York Times reports that The General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) CNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo helped squelch a story by her colleague Charles Gasparino. The story involved the resignation of Todd Thomson from Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C).

I've been wondering whether this story had gone dark. But it looks like it just went into the in-depth reporting phase. Now the New York Times has arrived with this bombshell.

What happened is that CNBC's head of news programming, Jonathan Wald, asked Gasparino to investigate Bartiromo's trip on Citigroup's corporate jet with Thomson. Gasparino did so. But when Bartiromo got wind of it -- and specifically the notion that Thomson's job status was threatened -- she complained to Wald. And for some reason, Gasparino did not discuss his reporting on the air. Moreover, some in the network complain that Bartiromo's complaint was the culprit. Wald suggested that the sourcing for the story was not strong enough to air it.

Now the media is starting to analyze her on-air interviews. Some of them, such as the one with former Home Depot (NYSE: HD) CEO Bob Nardelli, were tough. Since she had no business tie to HD, she felt free to "pepper him with sharp questions relating to his conduct and governance." But, as I posted a few weeks ago, her business tie to Citigroup probably led to a much friendlier style when it came to interviewing Thomson in August 2005.

Here's an idea: Why not hold CNBC reporters to the same disclosure standards to which it holds its on-air guests?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns shares of Citigroup and GE and has no financial interest in Home Depot or The New York Times.

January 23rd's departure of Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) executive Todd Thomson may have been helped along by his use of Citigroup's corporate jet to fly General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) CNBC reporter, Maria Bartiromo from Asia. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Todd & Maria-gate Memo will follow the ongoing saga.

The New York Times Company's (NYSE: NYT) New York Times [subscription required] reports this morning that Maria Bartiromo has repeatedly appeared at events sponsored by CNBC advertisers. Are CNBC advertisers, in effect, paying for good press? Bartiromo's August 2005 interview with Thomson makes me wonder.

Bartiromo's attended alot of corporate events -- some for companies on which she's reported. For example, in 2006, she appeared at 46 events three of which were on behalf of Citigroup. She also appeared at events for Google, Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), Charles Schwab Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCHW) and Dow Jones Company (NYSE: DJ), which publishes the Wall Street Journal.

As noted earlier, Bartiromo -- who is married to Jonathan Steinberg, son of financier Saul Steinberg -- flew back from Asia on Citigroup's corporate jet. She also flew back from Davos last year on Citigroup's jet and appeared at a Citigroup-sponsored awards event in London in 2005, as co-host of the event with another CNBC anchor, Simon Hobbs.

Yesterday's departure of Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) executive Todd Thomson may have been helped along by his use of Citigroup's corporate jet to fly General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) CNBC reporter, Maria Bartiromo from Asia. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Todd & Maria-gate Memo will follow the ongoing saga.

This morning's Wall Street Journal [subscription required] reports that Todd Thomson used $5 million of his Citigroup marketing budget to finance a Sundance Channel program which was slated to be hosted by Robert Redford and Maria Bartiromo. [Bartiromo is no longer slated to host this program].

But wait, there's more. In 2005, current Chief Operating Officer Bob Druskin spotted Thomson having dinner with Bartiromo at the ritzy Daniel restaurant while Druskin was hosting a holiday dinner there for his investment banking management team.

Last November, Thomson flew Bartiromo to speak to Citigroup's private-banking clients at luncheons in Hong Kong and Shanghai. He flew with a group of Citigroup employees to Asia, but flew back to the U.S. on the corporate jet with Bartiromo.

After this November incident, Citigroup CEO, Chuck Prince, asked Thomson to stop spending Citigroup money on Bartiromo. Six weeks later, Thomson surprised Prince with The Sundance sponsorship announcement. This prompted Thomson's departure.

This saga raises questions of interest to Citigroup and GE investors, including:

• After all of Prince's blunders, are Citigroup directors debating his fate?
• Was GE CEO, Jeff Immelt, involved in approving Bartiromo's $48,000 flight from Asia on Citigroup's jet?
• Will GE require CNBC anchors to disclose their business relationships with the companies they cover?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, a Professor of Management at Babson College, and editor of The Cohan Letter. He has appeared as a guest on CNBC and owns Citigroup and GE stock.