The reported relationship between RFK Jr.–Olivia Nuzzi has created new scrutiny for all journalists.
Even though he bow 2024 White House Race, Headlines Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. continues to come. The latest scandal involving whale decapitation, bear fall, Trump support RFK, Jr., was allegedly involved in an inappropriate relationship with New York Washington, DC Magazine contact person Olivia Nuzzi, who kept Kennedy in the news later. accused sex attacker ended his presidential campaign (although he remains on some state ballots, including Wisconsin‘S).
The new reports, released Thursday evening, are just the latest in a series of shocking headlines involving Kennedy, along with His roommate is a ferocious ostrich.Kennedy’s attacks in progress on life-saving vaccines and the infamous brain worm. Afterward Vanity Fair reported that a former babysitter had accused Kennedy of sexually assaulting her, Kennedy replied“I was not a church boy.”
The reports involving Nuzzi—which Kennedy neither confirmed nor denied—come at a perilous time for the mainstream media, whose credibility has come under increasing attack in recent years. Pop culture depictions of real journalists suggest that unprofessional relationships are an inevitability.
According to Status of Oliver Darcy, New York The magazine has placed 31-year-old political reporter Nuzzi, 31, on leave after she was “alleged to have had an inappropriate relationship with a reporting subject.” Although not New York Nuzzi also did not name the person, anonymous sources told Darcy—which New York Times has been confirmed—that it was Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the person Nuzzi sketched last November (before the reported relationship began). Nuzzi, who did not respond Vanity FairDarcy’s request for comment, was told in a statement that “earlier this year, the nature of some communications” she had with “a previous reporting subject became personal.”
Puck News reported that Nuzzi sent nude photos of herself to Kennedy, who since 2014 Married ARRIVE Curb your enthusiasm performer Cheryl Hines. Nuzzi until recently engaged for journalists Ryan Lizzacurrently at Politico, who The New Yorker was fired in 2017.following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Regarding Nuzzi, Kennedy “bragged” to friends about the photos, The Daily Beast reported. The boast is said to have spread to David Haskell, New YorkIn a meeting on September 13, Haskell confronted Nuzzi, who eventually admitted it. According to Nuzzi, “The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict.” She did not report on the subject or use them as sources, she said, but she still apologized “to those I have disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York“ .
In a statement, a Kennedy spokesman said, “Mr. Kennedy has only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview at her request, and this has led to a critical article.” According to the spokesman, New York“The journal is conducting a more thorough third-party review” of Nuzzi’s article, although “an initial internal review of her published work found no inaccuracies or evidence of bias.”
“We regret this breach of trust of our readers,” New York conclusion statement
Nuzzi, a widely respected reporter who has been a target of attacks on social media, is facing a reputation crisis. Journalists are often careful even to appear to have conflicts of interest, a fact often overlooked in Hollywood, where romantic comedies like Runaway Bride And 27 Dresses assumes that the reporter/subject relationship is the rule rather than the exception.
But the objections about 2019 Clint Eastwood movie Richard Jewell illustrates how problematic that joke becomes when it moves from fiction to reality. In the film based on the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing in Atlanta, real life Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs—who is played in the film by Olivia Munn—had sex with the lead agent of the investigation. In the film, it was treated as a matter of course, but the reaction from the press was swift.
Scruggs, who died in 2001, was “reduced to a sex trafficking object in the film,” female AJC speak at the time of the film’s release. “Such a portrayal makes it appear that the AJC sexually exploited its employees and/or facilitated or condoned the provision of sexual gratification to sources in exchange for stories. That is completely false and malicious, and it is extremely defamatory and damaging.”
Although Warner Brothers, the studio behind Richard Jewell, support the film, news agencies, including Washington Postcalled the film out for inventing the relationship. Scruggs would never even consider a violation of that nature, AJC wrote at that timesaid she was too proud of her reputation and morals to make such a mistake.
When the American media faced a a whole new level of suspicion and attack, The ethical boundary between journalist and subject could not be more important to maintain.
