Almost one month ago exactly, Olivia Nuzzi’s affair with Robert Kennedy Jr. was outed. Nuzzi, a New York Magazine reporter, had been carrying on a very bizarre affair with Kennedy ever since she profiled him last fall. She was covering the election while she was carrying on with Kennedy, an independent presidential candidate. She was having phone sex with that whackjob while she was writing about Joe Biden being too old and decrepit for the presidency. The kicker is that Nuzzi not only failed to disclose her affair with Kennedy for nine months, she also lied to her editors when asked about the affair directly. She also blew up her engagement to Politico’s Ryan Lizza, although Kennedy’s marriage to Cheryl Hines still seems to be going strong. In any case, New York Mag is now done with Nuzzi. Here’s NY Mag’s announcement:
Last month, the magazine enlisted the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine to review Olivia Nuzzi’s work during the 2024 campaign. They reached the same conclusion as the magazine’s initial internal review of her published work, finding no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. Nevertheless, the magazine and Nuzzi agreed that the best course forward is to part ways. Nuzzi is a uniquely talented writer and we have been proud to publish her work over her nearly eight years as our Washington Correspondent. We wish her the best.
It’s worth noting that NY Mag basically has to say that they found no bias in Nuzzi’s writing, otherwise they’re opening up a huge can of worms about Nuzzi’s unethical behavior. Meanwhile, Nuzzi’s lawyer released a statement on her behalf:
In a statement, Ari Wilkenfeld, an attorney for Nuzzi, said the journalist was “gratified though not surprised that two different investigations have determined that her reporting on the 2024 campaign was sound and that she did nothing wrong.”
“For nearly eight years, she consistently produced critically celebrated and hugely popular journalism in her capacity as the Washington Correspondent for New York Magazine,” Wilkenfeld said. “She is grateful for the editors, fact checkers, and artists with whom she worked and to the readers who have supported her with their time, subscriptions, and engagement. She looks forward to the next chapter of her career.”
“…And that she did nothing wrong.” No one said that. No one said: Olivia Nuzzi did nothing wrong. There was a whole lot of “wrong” all up and down this scandal. It’s wrong for a reporter to sleep with a subject or a source (or both). It’s wrong to carry on an affair with a married man. It’s wrong to keep your inappropriate sexual relationship with a source/subject a secret from your editors and then LIE to your editors when they find out about the affair. It’s wrong to pull the FBI and the court system into your psychodrama because you’re a white woman who can’t own her mistakes.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, NY Magazine’s YouTube video, screenshot from Bill Maher’s HBO show.