Up until now, I haven’t written too much about the gossipy, soap-opera scandal that has been buzzing around the media world.
It involves journalists Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza.
Let’s see if I can give you the background quickly.
The two were once in a relationship and were the talk of Washington, D.C.’s spicy political circles. Nuzzi was the wunderkind who wrote well-received, insider-type profiles at places such as Vanity Fair, New York magazine and The Daily Beast. Lizza, 18 years her senior, had a resume that included work at places such as New York, The New Yorker, CNN and Politico.
But then a year ago, their personal and professional lives blew up.
Their relationship ended after it was learned that Nuzzi had an inappropriate personal (but not physical, both involved parties allege) relationship with someone she had covered: none other than former Republican presidential candidate and future Trump cabinet member Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Her close connection to RFK Jr. ultimately cost Nuzzi her job at New York magazine. Things later got really messy when Nuzzi filed a restraining order against Lizza, claiming he was harassing and blackmailing her. She later withdrew the order.
And we all figured that was pretty much the end of the drama.
Turns out, it wasn’t even close.
Over the past year, Nuzzi has been working on a memoir, which came out Tuesday. More on that in a moment. In the meantime, over the past couple of weeks, Lizza has taken to Substack to make explosive allegations against Nuzzi, including what he claims are extremely personal text messages between Nuzzi and RFK Jr., as well as allegations that Nuzzi also had an affair with another politician she wrote about: former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
In addition, Lizza claims Nuzzi was, essentially, working as a political operative for RFK.
Social media and the gossip pages ate it up.
Status’ Oliver Darcy wrote, “Of course, while the salacious details of Washington's version of a Bravo-style reality show have generated the most attention and inspired an avalanche of tabloid headlines, Lizza has also credibly accused Nuzzi of serious journalistic transgressions. His third entry, published last week ahead of the holiday, specifically focused on a number of ethical breaches Nuzzi allegedly committed, including betraying confidential sources in service of alerting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to would-be saboteurs in his midst.”
As I said, other than sharing the occasional links, I’ve avoided writing too much. For one, this feels like inside baseball. In other words, those deeply ingrained in media coverage know who these people are, but does anyone else know? And do they care?
In addition, the most scandalous parts of all this — and the parts that raise the most serious questions about journalism ethics — have come from Substack posts written by, some might suggest, a jilted ex-lover who is looking to drum up interest in his subscription-based newsletter. That’s not to say what Lizza wrote is true or false. Who knows what is true or false in all this mess?
So why am I writing about this now?
Well, mostly because Nuzzi’s book — “American Canto” — came out Tuesday and the reviews are noteworthy and, for the most part, scathing.
The Washington Post’s Becca Rothfeld wrote, “A public hungry for scandal might be more satisfied if ‘American Canto’ were uniformly excellent or uniformly terrible. But in our unsatisfying reality, it is what most debut books are: highly uneven and largely forgettable. To be sure, vast swaths of it are impressively and aggressively awful.”
The New York Times’ Alexandra Jacobs wrote, “Amid the noise around Nuzzi, ‘American Canto’ itself drops with a soft, disappointing thud.”
The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis wrote, “‘American Canto’ is Nuzzi’s attempt to elevate a grubby affair to the status of the mythic, to transmute the base metal of Page Six sexting stories into the gold of literary reflections on the political moment.”
Lewis added, “But all the surf and smoke and Didionesque stylings in the world cannot disguise the central problem with American Canto: It is not honest. In the book, Nuzzi rails against those who urge her to tell all. ‘I do not wish to be understood,’ she writes, ‘which no one seems to understand.’ This is a very good reason not to write and publish a memoir.”
The New Yorker’s Molly Fischer wrote, “Amid the tumult of gossip, ‘American Canto’ arrives as a peculiar artifact. It refuses chronology and coherence, which makes it a challenge to extract answers to any of the many questions a reader loosely aware of her story might have.”
What is actually in the book? The Washington Post’s Sophia Nguyen offers some insight with “4 takeaways from Olivia Nuzzi’s memoir.”
We’ll see where this story goes from here. Semafor’s Max Tani and others have reported that Nuzzi is likely out at Vanity Fair.
Meanwhile, Nuzzi commented publicly for the first time Tuesday about Lizza’s four-part Substack series, which seemed intended to torpedo Nuzzi’s career.
Nuzzi told Emily Sundberg’s “Feed Me” Substack, “The allegations, made by a man I met when I was 19 years old, are another attempt to harass, humiliate, and harm me until I am as destroyed as he seems to be. It is abuse that I am all too familiar with now relocated to the public square and dressed up as some sort of noble crusade. To that point: If he possessed any explosive information in the public interest, the only responsible way to handle that information would be to quietly pass it off to an outlet free of his conflicts; there is no glory in that, though, and no subscribers. This obsessive and violating fan fiction-slash-revenge porn he has written would never meet standards for publication at any legitimate outlet.”
Later, Nuzzi appeared on Tim Miller’s xxxxxx podcast for an interview that Status’ Oliver Darcy called “largely sympathetic.”
Darcy added, “Miller did, however, press her on why she didn’t speak out during Kennedy’s confirmation hearing — a question she never fully answered, reiterating only that she has shared everything she felt she could ‘responsibly’ share. At one point, as Miller continued questioning her, Nuzzi broke down in tears and the interview was paused for an unspecified period before resuming. Miller eventually closed the conversation by endorsing her book and encouraging listeners to buy it. Alrighty, then! In the comments, xxxxxx fans showed some frustration with Miller over the interview.”
And finally, let’s leave the Nuzzi-Lizza story for now with this perceptive column by Mediaite’s Colby Hall: “Ryan Lizza Turned Olivia Nuzzi Breakup Series Into Revenge Porn Disguised as Journalism.”
Making their pitch
Netflix, Paramount and Comcast all submitted second-round bids this week in their efforts to land a big fish: Warner Bros. Discovery.
Axios’ Sara Fischer reports, “Paramount was seen as an early front-runner after WBD announced it was formally open to a possible sale, but the narrative has changed in recent days. Netflix, sources say, has touted its access to capital, as well as having access to ‘clean money’ in the wake of reports that suggest other bidders may be in talks with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to finance their offers.”
However, CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote, “Netflix and Comcast are reportedly only interested in Warner's studio and streaming businesses. Paramount remains the only known bidder that wants all of WBD, including CNN.”
Any acquisition is going to have to get regulatory approval from the Trump administration.
The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint, Lauren Thomas and Dave Michaels reported, “Some officials at the Justice Department are concerned that Netflix owning HBO Max would give it too much power in the streaming marketplace, a person familiar with their thinking said. The department’s antitrust division, which is responsible for reviewing deals, hasn’t formally evaluated a potential transaction. There was also a recent meeting of high-level White House officials in which concerns about a Netflix-Warner Discovery deal were discussed, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Fischer, however, wrote for Axios, “All bids are likely to receive regulatory scrutiny, although antitrust experts don't believe it would be impossible for any of the three suitors to prevail, should the DOJ sue to block a deal.”
Reports are that Warner Bros. Discovery hopes to reach a decision by the end of the year.
Social media frenzy
