A prominent journalist is being attacked online for coming to the defense of New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi, who was fired for an inappropriate relationship with former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Ben Smith, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online publication Semafor, appeared to downplay the severity of the Nuzzi-Kennedy affair on Monday.
Smith also revealed that Semaphore received an anonymous tip about the matter before the news site was deleted by former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, who dropped the bombshell on his freelance newsletter.
Nuzzi, the 31-year-old political correspondent who was engaged to ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza before the scandal broke, was put on leave from the magazine over the weekend after it emerged she exchanged personal messages with the 70-year-old. Kennedy, who is married to actress Cheryl Hines.
The relationship was never physical, according to Nuzzi, who Kennedy has accused of being obsessed with him to the point of bypassing a cellphone lock to send him nude photos. The post requested comment from Nuzzi.
Writing in Semaphore, Smith offered a “slightly contrasting view” noting that “reporters have all kinds of compromising relationships with sources.”
“Most compromising of all, and the most common, is a journalist’s loyalty to someone who gives them information,” Smith wrote.
“This is the true currency of this kingdom. Sex is barely appreciated.”
Smith drew a comparison with the United Kingdom, where “if you don’t sleep with someone in a position of power, how are you a journalist?”
He then shared a text message he received from an advice writer who observed that “the world would be so much more exciting with more Nuzis around, but alas the world is populated by moralists who email anonymously! “
Smith noted that Nuzzi’s critics “were furious with him” for a July 4 story that appeared in New York magazine detailing the extent to which President Biden’s inner circle hid the fact that he was very old to serve a second term in office.
Outrage from Biden supporters over the Nuzzi article prompted Bloomberg News to cancel a planned public relations campaign promoting her media appearance.
“The obvious defense of that story is that it was true, something few Democrats now dispute (although those few continue to loudly flood our email inboxes and mention it on Twitter),” Smith wrote.
But he added that journalists were “also in the business of trust, as well as truth”.
“And for those purposes, the conflict show is, in fact, pretty bad.”
In X, Smith was criticized for appearing to downplay Nuzzi’s ethical violation.
“I’m sorry to be a humorless joke, but I don’t think this is accurate or a good idea to present to the world,” journalist Matthew Yglesias wrote in his source X of Smith’s reference to British journalists who they slept with their resources. .
Smith replied to Yglesias: “This is my caricature of a UK view, to be clear – and a lot of my British friends are annoyed about it too!”
Another X user wrote: “LOL of course Ben Smith is defending Nuzz. He has the audacity to describe his predictable wagon wheeling as “risking his neck on a slightly contrarian view”.
Jeremy Fassler, a journalist whose byline has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Mother Jones and The Atlantic, wrote: “We’re on day four of Nuzzigate and I’m still seeing respected and powerful journalists that provide excuses for her behavior to the extent of ‘who hasn’t had an inappropriate relationship with a source?'”
The Post has reached out to Smith for comment.
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