New York magazine editor-in-chief David Haskell told staff in an email that reporter Olivia Nuzzi’s relationship with RFK, Jr. lasted nearly 9 months and they learned about it before she came clean. In other words, Nuzzi didn’t tell us about it; they met in another way.
“Among other things, Haskell told the staff that the relationship was almost 9 months, ended a few weeks ago, and management only learned about it this week; He also confirmed that he learned about it before Nuzzi was clean,” The Wrap reported.
According to Haskell, NY Mag “learned about the private nature of Olivia’s relationship a few days ago. She told me that it started in December 2023 (after publishing her November profile), and ended at the end of August; she said it was never physical, and she avoided people as a subject and source during the period.â€
New York magazine has claimed that Nuzzi’s relationship did not influence or bias his reporting, but he reported on RFK, Jr.’s political opponent, President Joe Biden and also covered former president Donald Trump.which many thought could pick RFK, Jr. as a running mate.
In addition, Puck News (via the Daily Beast) reported on Friday evening that Kennedy’s spokesperson claimed that there was only one encounter, there were several encounters, “Nuzzi is accused of sending ‘demure’ nudes from her to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a ‘sexting affair’ ‘ … The outlet also reported that Kennedy’s spokeswoman said they only met once, but there were several encounters.
Nuzzi is on leave while a more thorough review is conducted.
Some among the political class have suggested that the focus on Nuzzi’s lack of ethical disclosure is sexism.
As someone who has covered conservative and liberal women who have experienced professional sexism for over a decade, it is important to point out that being held to professional standards is not sexism. Nor is it partisanship to expect ethical professional standards to be upheld.
Consider how sexism manifests itself in both negative and positive forms: “Sexism is a form of prejudice that mainly subordinates women to men. Theory and research on ambivalent sexism — which includes both overtly negative attitudes (hostile sexism) and visible subjectively positive but actually harmful (benevolent sexism) — has made a considerable contribution to understanding how sexism operates and its consequences for women. It is now clear that sexism takes many forms, some of which can be disguised as protection and praise. However, all types of sexism have a negative effect on the way women are perceived and treated by others as well as women themselves.
Protecting someone who has chosen for nine months to continue lying to readers and employers because she is a woman is an example of “protective” sexism. It changes the rules as an act of benevolence, but harms other women.
Hiding behind accusations of sexism makes it more difficult for women to make legitimate claims about sexism and (some) women’s babies. That is, women who belong to clubs and uphold patriarchal norms are given a lot of leeway that is not given to women of color and other women, especially, women who identify as feminists. Leeway was then weaponized against women who did not play their game, to suggest they could not handle their job.
The problem with Nuzzi’s actions is not that he had a non-physical relationship; the problem is that he has that relationship with the source he reported and when he reported on the enemy and potential mate running.
The issue is not that Nuzzi had a relationship with a married man; that’s all in RFK, Jr., who has a long track record of cheating on his wife. This isn’t about her morality or personal decisions and has more to do with her personal relationships (she was engaged to Politico’s Ryan Lizza at the time of the RFK, Jr affair).
It’s about confidence in the reporting that helps shape and define entire presidential races. Nuzzi’s writings about Biden are scathing indictments of his cognitive abilities and personal character, as well as his appearance, which he -ironically! cunning! compared to overfilled (mostly) women! – used to suggest he can’t be trusted. He wrote:
“His face then has an incredible valley quality that injection enthusiasts call “low confidence” – if only by millimeters, cosmetically altered proportions lead to the overall harmony of the face to an impossible realm. Thin skin, long figurative problems and now a literal one , pulled tightly through the cheeks that seem to vary month to month in volume. In the artificial light and in the sun, he looked, well, inflated…I tried to make eye contact, but it was like his eyes, though open, they are not in. His face has a waxy quality…”
This is what applies to unbiased political reporting. It reads like a high school burning book. Nuzzi told the Young Turks that criticism of his work is the result of Democrats not wanting to hear what he presents as the ‘truth’ about President Biden.
While writing rumors about Biden, Nuzzi also spoke on the panel about how RFK, Jr. should be included in the debate. He also advocated for RFK, Jr. to get Secret Service protection, asking DHS why they don’t have it and suggesting in his usual gossipy innuendo that the Democrats leading the agency are biased against Kennedy.
This is called advocacy on behalf of a candidate with whom he has an undisclosed romantic relationship. Example:
The tweets also show a lack of understanding of politics for political journalists (flows on X are politically meaningless and the numbers are not considered reliable by anyone with a cursory knowledge of the platform in Musk) or more biased in his methods. chose to give information as helpful to the person with whom he had an undisclosed relationship.
His bias was apparent at the time:
Only now do we understand the reason for the bias, and the reason is important. It calls into question how much legitimacy should be given to him unnamed sources, reports based on rumors, and personal take based profiles. Does he take Biden’s face from a neutral point of view as a romantic partner of a political rival?
As I’ve been writing for over a decade, sexism and racism go hand in hand. Both are distributed by the same people to the same end; upholding white, rich, male patriarchy. So it’s no surprise that the chattering class also defended Nuzzi’s tweets calling Obama an “anti-colonial Kenyan” and the “infiltrator” of the White House as a “joke.”
Nuzzi writes for a conservative blog and has repeatedly expressed his admiration for conservative media and political figures, which only adds to the idea that his tweets are not a joke. For example, he expressed his admiration for Ann Coulter, who ran racist against Republican Nikki Haley during the primary. Racism is no joke. His tweets are nothing like the ironic tweets mocking the Right for racism against Obama.
Before we started the void culture, no one could tell jokes anymore; the joke should be funny and if it’s ironic, then they should make a point about how absurd they are mocking it. Obama’s tweets he didn’t do. Have we all had a bad tweet that failed to make the point? yes already. But Nuzzi had a lot of racist tweets, followed by the conservative hashtag at the time, “#tcot.”
The concern raised was not about Nuzzi’s appearance or her gender. No one is suggesting that she is a woman unable to do her job or that her sex life has any bearing on her qualifications. No one is suggesting that his involvement with Lizza means he’s unqualified or that he’s using her to get ahead and wouldn’t have a career without her (this is something the Right often says about Harris now, for example). If that’s the narrative, then sexism will come into play. But they are not narratives.
This is about a journalist who for nine months misled his employer and damaged his credibility as well as misled his readers and gave him another reason not to trust journalists in a crisis of trust for the news business.
It is highly unlikely that Nuzzi will lose his career; in fact, this will be just another footnote in a long career. Expect to see him in the future leading a town hall for Donald Trump or RFK, Jr.
If Nuzzi’s career had been based on speaking up for women and other minorities, it would have ended. Fortunately, the boys on the bus always defended the girls playing the same game.
Conflating consensual relationships with sexism is harmful to other women who raise sexism as an obstacle. This is an example of the sexism associated with all other female journalists, by carving out Nuzzi.
Accountability is not sexism, and changing the rules for one woman in an act of white knight benevolence harms other women’s professionals. A woman is not a child. They do not need to be protected from the consequences of their own actions.
It really defends all women from real sexism, sexual harassment and abuse; they need all the allies they can get. But this is not sexism.
To comment on this story, join us Reddit.