Dem
47
GOP
53
The Olivia Nuzzi story has been getting a LOT of coverage for the past couple of months. This is not a surprise. First, because the media, even the "serious" media, loves any excuse to cover a salacious story. Second, because the story came out drip by drip by drip, as opposed to all at once. That meant there were "new" angles to cover a couple of times a week. Gotta fill those column inches! (Or, gotta light those pixels!)
For those who did not pay attention—and we don't blame you—Nuzzi was (and may think she still is) a journalist. She caught on with some pretty big-time publications before she'd even graduated college, and drew some pretty high-profile assignments. In 2023, she was covering the presidential campaign for New York magazine, during which she wrote a widely circulated and very flattering feature about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and another piece critical of Joe Biden. After the campaign was long over, and Donald Trump was again in office, it came out that Nuzzi had an affair of some sort with Kennedy. The exact nature of the affair is in dispute—Kennedy says he barely remembers meeting Nuzzi, Nuzzi says it was more of an emotional affair, other sources say it turned physical.
This is the very first time we have so much as mentioned Nuzzi's name on this site, and the reason is that we could not see the relevance of this story, even given the massive coverage it's gotten. Nuzzi has been an attention-seeker, and someone looking to gain wealth and fame through whatever path presents itself, for years. RFK Jr. is a sleazeball extraordinaire who has inherited the family habit of cheating on romantic partners left, right and center. Whatever he did or did not do with Nuzzi, he's done with many women who were not his wife. And speaking of that wife, Cheryl Hines, she has... accepted (?) his infidelities, we guess. By that we mean, she did not leave him, but she DID move to Washington, so she could keep an eye on him.
We only provide this information so all readers are on the same page. We really don't care about the sex lives of any of these people, as that's their business, and they can swing in whatever way they want to swing. We do get some unpleasant she's-being-brainwashed vibes from Hines, but even if it was enough to be actionable, it's not like there's anything we could do about it.
What we do deplore, however, is the public behavior of these people. RFK Jr.'s willingness to profit off of his loony, conspiratorial ideas about health, and his willingness to let people die in service of his MAHA agenda, are reprehensible. Hines' recent whiny book, in which she blames all of her problems on the Democrats, is not a great look either. And, of course, we disdain Nuzzi's unethical behavior in reporting on a political campaign in which she was personally involved with one of the candidates. We also disdain her lightning-quick move to cash in on the whole scandal, with an I'm-a-martyr book entitled American Canto that was published this week.
In view of our less-than-warm feelings about Nuzzi's professional behavior, we most certainly feel some schadenfreude over the fact that the volume landed with an absolute thud. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, did everything possible to give it a profitable launch. There were dozens of media hits. Reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Prominent placement on Amazon. An advertising campaign. If our upcoming holiday-themed book of Trump-inspired Christmas carols, The Grift of the MAGAi, had that kind of backing, it would have sold millions of copies. At least, that's our guess.
By contrast, in its first week, the Nuzzi book sold 1,156 copies in hardcover. Heck, you can do better than that by slapping fake Dianetics dust jackets on a book, and tricking Scientologists as they make their weekly mass purchases (which they do to keep the book a perpetual "bestseller"). Nuzzi claims she doesn't care about the poor sales figures, and that she wrote the book for people in 10, 20, or 30 years, when she will be vindicated. Anyone who believes that, raise your hand. Yeah, we didn't think so.
What we REALLY want now is a reason to make RFK Jr. the star of "This Week in Schadenfreude," rather than just a supporting player. Are you listening, Santa? (Z)