Report Alleges Olivia Nuzzi’s Defenders Included the Leadership at New York Magazine
Since her relationship with RFK Jr. was revealed last Thursday night, things have not gone well for Olivia Nuzzi, New York magazine’s Washington correspondent who is currently on leave while her work undergoes a third-party review. Sources close to her have said that their relationship was “emotional and digital in nature…not physical,” and involved her sending “demure” nude photos to the former presidential candidate. As for his part, RFK Jr. has gone on the offensive, with sources describing her as a real-life Alex Forrest to The New York Post, allegations which Nuzzi has denied.
As I mentioned in both my article last Friday and my appearance on Michelangelo Signorile’s radio show last Monday, Nuzzi has many high-profile defenders in the media — some of them women, but most of them men — who have gone to bat for her since the scandal broke. The most egregious defense so far has come from Semafor co-founder and former New York Times media columnist Ben Smith, who received a news tip about Oliver Darcy’s report two days before it ran in Status but sat on it. Last Monday, Smith published a piece stating that reporters have “all sorts of compromising relationships with sources.” He quoted advice columnist Heather Havrilesky as texting him, “the world would be much more exciting with more Nuzzis around, but alas the world is inhabited by anonymously emailing moralists instead!” I can’t add much more to these comments except to quote Art Buchwald, who began his famous 1973 column of “instant responses for loyal Nixonites” during Watergate with “everyone does it.” (“What About Chappaquiddick?”)
Nuzzi’s defenders are not limited to her colleagues outside New York; they came from the magazine’s leadership as well. According to The Daily Beast, New York editor David Haskell first confronted Nuzzi about the relationship on Friday, September 13. After initially denying it, Nuzzi confessed, leading to an internal review that would eventually find “no inaccuracies or bias.”
Vanity Fair’s Lachlan Cartwright revealed in his first piece for the magazine last night that New York got word of Oliver Darcy’s report on Tuesday the 17th, but chose to do nothing, believing the internal review would clear her. But on Thursday, when it became clear that the story would not go away, the magazine’s leadership debated how best to respond. The first response was the one they eventually went with — place Nuzzi on leave and issue a statement, while adding disclosures to her published work. The second “would have seen her request ‘medical leave,’ and there would be no statement or disclosures.”
But if Nuzzi is worth so much to New York’s leadership that they seriously considered lying on her behalf, her co-workers feel differently. Although quoted anonymously in the piece (and Vox, who owns New York, has instructed staff not to speak on record while the third-party review is ongoing) a former colleague of Nuzzi’s told Cartwright that “everyone is overjoyed with her downfall,” saying that “she made a big fucking mistake” and that “her position at the magazine is untenable.” A staff meeting on the fallout that was supposed to take place last Wednesday has since been pushed to next week. New York’s leadership would be wise not to delay any further, lest they face further accusations of protecting Nuzzi.
There is no question (at least in my mind) that Nuzzi should no longer work within the mainstream media, although there is always a space for her in the right-wing ecosphere where a history of moral and ethical transgressions are no matter. But the fallout should not merely be limited to the news world.
One of the most disturbing details of Cartwright’s piece is the reveal that Nuzzi “has an AMC satirical drama set in Washington about a young female journalist in the works.” Having suffered through the first few episodes of the now-cancelled Max women-in-political-journalism series Girls on the Bus, co-created by former New York Times journalist and Chasing Hillary author Amy Chozik, I dread the thought of an even less substantial journalist than Chozik offering another TV series on similar topics. Then again, AMC has been home to some of the most ubiquitous one-and-one series of the last 10 years, so maybe Nuzzi’s show will come and go so quickly you won’t even know about it. Anyone remember Low Winter Sun?
