By now the story of how New York Magazine’s star political reporter Olivia Nuzzi was caught up in a weird, mostly one-sided sexual obsession with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has saturated X feeds and gossip rags. Allegedly, Nuzzi bombarded RFK Jr., a man not exactly known for being chaste, with various provocative pictures of herself. Nuzzi has acknowledged that “some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal.”
Nuzzi is a skilled writer known for her ability to get access to notorious figures in politics — she’s profiled everyone from Trump fixer Michael Cohen to Democratic congressman and Chinese spy consort Eric Swalwell — and write pieces that get talked about. But saying Nuzzi is a skilled writer isn’t to be confused with saying she’s a good writer; I’ve probably read a few dozen pieces by her and not one struck me as genuinely memorable or revelatory. Her real talent, as we’ve unfortunately learned, was getting access.
The most complete account of what happened between her and RFK Jr. seems to have come from Jessica Reed Kraus, a mommyblogger-turned-entrepreneurial reporter, who, caveat lector, is known for her RFK Jr. sympathies. Kraus authored a juicy Substack about her own relationship with Nuzzi and provided all manner of interesting details. Still, this bit of Kraus’ account, where she speaks to a source who previously dealt with Nuzzi, gave me pause, because it’s presented as if Nuzzi was pioneering some devious new tactic for women in proximity to power. Apparently,
