You would have had to be wearing noise-canceling headphones this afternoon not to have heard the yaps and yowls of journalism’s Usual Hyenas as they circled in a pack around what they seemed to hope would soon be the carcass of one of their own. I’m speaking here of Olivia Nuzzi, who was suspended yesterday from her post at New York Magazine for having shared texts “of a personal nature” with the odious Robert F.
Many, if not most, journalists do seem very very wrapped up in themselves and their own stories, which may be why they don't bother to tackle the stories that matter to the rest of us. Like the $10Million in funds from Egypt to Trump in late 16/early 17 and the quid pro quo on that as well as the strangled investigation into said funds. Or the Jared Kushner $2B Saudi fund and connection to his involvement in the Jamal Khashoggi murder cover up. No long term investment in investigating important things when we can dig up "who said what about who this morning on Twitter" right?
The only other profession so absorbed with themselves seems to be Acting, with their incessant awards, televised to demand our attention as to how excellent they are. At least I like to watch the gowns.😀
Award shows are the one place to get a feel for cultural changes in entertainment whether it be film, teevee, music, or sports. And if consuming them all is too much, then suggest the ESPYs. The ESPYs are the one award show where all genres of entertainment come together. In fact, more gurls and wimmin watch the ESPYs than boys and men. Won't tell the reason.
Ok, I'm just a "poor little country girl." But this is kindergarten antics. Whooooo cares? Really. When we have people in this country being harassed and threatened over base lies, THIS, THIS is what our esteemed 4th Estate has its knickers in a twist over?
So, it's okay for a married seventy-year old to take up sexting with a woman less than half his age? Is it okay to a reporter assigned to a candidate to have a sexting ol' time with that candidate? Questions for the ages, I guess.
I'd never heard of Olivia Nuzzi before I read this column. Ryan Lizza's name rings a bell, but very faintly. That's an awful lot of z's for two five-letter surnames, isn't it? Is that why they broke off their engagement? P.S. I did see the Wonkette headline about sexting with RFK Jr. but I was so grossed out by the thought that I didn't read the email.
I have seen Olivia many times in MSNBC, giving her opinion, nothing that stands out for its brilliance. It makes you wonder doesn’t it why on earth she would want to be involved with Kennedy, he’s such a looney, but then maybe she is as well. It’s too bad that the American press has almost no clue how to do its job, that cluelessness is harming our country. They should be doing what Lucian and others like him are doing, but they have different masters pulling their strings, and truth isn’t one of them. If they turned their piranha like behavior on to the insipid orange turd we all would benefit. They are running out of time to stand up, this is not just any election, the fate of this nation does hang in the balance, that has not been the case for a very long time.
You can surely find the documentary on MSNBC or youtube etc. I only heard it on audio MSNBC. Even with no visuals, moments were like sitting in on an audience with the Godfather. They did a terrific job.
And then there's the wiccan priestess, activist, writer, etc. Z. Budapest, whose first name is Zsuzsanna. Yes, I did once briefly contemplate changing the spelling of my name, but (1) I'm not Hungarian, and (2) my whole life I've been saying "That's Susanna with an 's,'" and it would have been too hard to change. <g>
I used to have to hustle to get around the nyMag paywall. Now I almost never do and have no idea why. If I hit a wall I try another of the dozen or so no-name browsers installed in my phone. A few have a mode like 'printer-friendly' that renders text. Gotta keep those cookies from accumulating. iPhones offer a choice too. You know writers don't write the heds on their pieces. Of the writers I mentioned, only Errol Louis confines himself to NYC analysis.
"Lizza, by the way, was fired by The New Yorker in 2017 for what the magazine called “improper sexual conduct." Et tu, former fiancé?
Tho in Nuzzi's case, as I understand it, even an on-line flirt should not count as a "sexual relationship." I also read some very unflattering things she wrote about the Kennedy crackpot, so I am not exactly seeing the problem.
7 hrs ago·edited 7 hrs agoLiked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
The problem was that readers were unaware of the possible conflict of interest at the time nyMag published the piece. Once you knew, you judged she didn't cross any lines. Other readers might have judged otherwise had they known. Did you go back and search her coverage of rival pols for bias?
That there's such a high level of "outrage" and vitriol over this speaks to a separate problem. Not being in the industry, I'm not in a position to put forth reasons. I just find it to be overblown.
NYC media and inside the Beltway's textbook and foreseeable schadenfreude.
RFK Jr. or David Petraeus, Olivia Nuzzi or Paula Broadwell?
Note: The biggest story of the week is the gender reveal of Pesto the [King] Penguin who weighs in at 29pounds while the total weight of his parents is 28pounds. During the last week he ate 53pounds of fishies. Have my doubts today's big-name journos could handle the Pesto story.
lmrao. If memory serves me (someone correct me if I am mistaken) Ms Nuzzi had a bad encounter w/Trump down in Mar-A-Lago involving him trying to kiss her. That cig woulda come in handy-dandy.
Pesto is so large some of the pics and vids make him appear as if he was cropped in or AI'd into the scene. The best vid is Pesto trying to eat the camera. So far Pesto has 1.9 B for billion views on social media around the globe. Began before birth due to Pesto's egg size.
Am grateful to Lucian for going with this piece. It does capture the race to the bottom and how widespread it is.
Juxtapose that with Pesto. metaphor of rising up, bigger and stronger with each new sun. Knowing he has 1.9B views reaffirms my optimism in the hooman spirit in a week filled w/hooman failures that somehow get labeled as anything other than epic fails.
4eg: some yahoo sheriff ghosting a judge in his chambers, more Trump-Vance nonsense, adult professionals judging and piling on a colleague, people waving pom-poms over the killing, maiming (hands/eyes) of men, women, and children, even more Trump-Vance nonsense, a faux Xristian staring into a camera and lying his black ass off, Megyn Kelly stating she liked the FAT Oprah but not this Oprah, Melania Trump going gaga on her own destruction of the Rose Garden and (since no one mentioned it) her nudes, and on and on.
18 hrs ago·edited 18 hrs agoLiked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
No attribution?
Which one is the lonely hunter, Olivia Nuzzi or Bobby? Or in your mind, both?
JSYK: Not allowed to comment on your Substack unless I fork over $10. So, been waiting for you to appear here. Was born under the Hunter Moon so know a few things about hunting whether 4legged or 2legged or fliers whether metal or feathered.
(1) Would never bobby-trap a commonly used anything whether for a hooman or any animal, then want someone to label it as "brilliant". It is (a) immoral and (b) against the Geneva Conventions/Treaties. Israel is a signatory. So is the US. Intel services are not exempt from the unwritten and written codes. rules, and laws no matter how many times they tell one another in an echo chamber otherwise.
(2) Espionage and sabotage predate documented kinetic warfare. So do supply chains. While all 3 went by different names in different tongues, that doesn't mean they were coined and invented in my lifetime. All3 have been used, abused, and misused before. This time for mass assassination that didn't go as planned. Or in the alternative, the plan did involve killing and maiming civs, including wimmin and children. Brilliant or an act of state terrorism?
(3) Opening up Pandora's Box AND ignoring the Laws of Unintended Consequences is not brilliant. Disabling the electronic devices is a far more effective result than killing and maiming. Doing so humiliates the adversary and their leadership w/o any blood being spilled. For someone who has been in the business and that includes your circle, if you haven't learned that along the way, there is no hope will ever will. From humiliation rises the loss of confidence in leadership and with it growing doubt of the cause one signed up. And the 3rd order of effect is a grudging respect for the adversary who coulda taken life instead spared it. For people who actually do the fighting that is a BFD. For those who never did, they will never understand how any of that works.
The op was a failure by any objective measurement. Adjectives and superlatives are not objective, They shade and color reality to whatever one wants it to be. Israel acted w/o concern for all the legitimate links in the supply chain of pagers and comm radios. Of course, intel folk don't give 2chits about those sucked into something of which they had no part whatsoever (that too is burning in the real world).
The op is the definition of too clever by half including the part many drop ...and in danger of overreaching oneself. Brilliant is not a word to apply to violating Rule 80. The word is criminal.
19 hrs ago·edited 19 hrs agoLiked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
"The D.C. press corps and the New York City journalism rumor mill should be ashamed and get back to work." You are much too kind, Lucian. With forty some days until the election, I would suggest that they finally START working before all that they have refused to report on as truthful reality takes
us all down.
On that note, "From Russia With Lev", produced by Rachel Maddow and MSNBC lays bare all that came down in regard to the first Trump impeachment and the "perfect call" to Zelinski. Lev Parnas' wife put all the docomentation of the thousands of texts and photos of the Gullianni Ukraine operation on her Cloud and Bill Barr's freezing of Lev's data means nothing. Rachel has it all and it is open season on the gangsters in the Trump Adminisration., all of them.
Any serious journalist worth their salt would be spured by the revelations, well documented, that premiered tonight with Rachel and Lev as a guest on MSNBC.
Perhaps Olivia Nuzzi's detractors are jealous that they don't get invited to the hot spots.
Everyone here needs to watch this. I'm impressed beyond measure by Lev Parnas's wife. And by him as well. Outstanding documentary. I'm sure MSNBC will air it again. Shown twice tonight. Great, unexpected ending.
Parnas and his wife Svetlana appeared live, in an extended interview, on The 11th Hour. Also very worth the time to watch, fills in even more detail that couldn't be fit into the 1 1/2 hour film.
That documentary was excellent and the ending really was astounding. I highly recommend watching it because it points out how Trump and Rudy are tied to Putin. Barr Nun must face criminal charges. He’s another sleaze-bag!
"fiance" for "finance" in the graf about the engagement.
Many, if not most, journalists do seem very very wrapped up in themselves and their own stories, which may be why they don't bother to tackle the stories that matter to the rest of us. Like the $10Million in funds from Egypt to Trump in late 16/early 17 and the quid pro quo on that as well as the strangled investigation into said funds. Or the Jared Kushner $2B Saudi fund and connection to his involvement in the Jamal Khashoggi murder cover up. No long term investment in investigating important things when we can dig up "who said what about who this morning on Twitter" right?
The only other profession so absorbed with themselves seems to be Acting, with their incessant awards, televised to demand our attention as to how excellent they are. At least I like to watch the gowns.😀
Agree in part-journos.
Award shows are the one place to get a feel for cultural changes in entertainment whether it be film, teevee, music, or sports. And if consuming them all is too much, then suggest the ESPYs. The ESPYs are the one award show where all genres of entertainment come together. In fact, more gurls and wimmin watch the ESPYs than boys and men. Won't tell the reason.
Ok, I'm just a "poor little country girl." But this is kindergarten antics. Whooooo cares? Really. When we have people in this country being harassed and threatened over base lies, THIS, THIS is what our esteemed 4th Estate has its knickers in a twist over?
Gag me with a spoon.
Ditto!
I agree. This seems to be "much ado about nothing."
So, it's okay for a married seventy-year old to take up sexting with a woman less than half his age? Is it okay to a reporter assigned to a candidate to have a sexting ol' time with that candidate? Questions for the ages, I guess.
It was pretty dumb on her part!
I'd never heard of Olivia Nuzzi before I read this column. Ryan Lizza's name rings a bell, but very faintly. That's an awful lot of z's for two five-letter surnames, isn't it? Is that why they broke off their engagement? P.S. I did see the Wonkette headline about sexting with RFK Jr. but I was so grossed out by the thought that I didn't read the email.
I have seen Olivia many times in MSNBC, giving her opinion, nothing that stands out for its brilliance. It makes you wonder doesn’t it why on earth she would want to be involved with Kennedy, he’s such a looney, but then maybe she is as well. It’s too bad that the American press has almost no clue how to do its job, that cluelessness is harming our country. They should be doing what Lucian and others like him are doing, but they have different masters pulling their strings, and truth isn’t one of them. If they turned their piranha like behavior on to the insipid orange turd we all would benefit. They are running out of time to stand up, this is not just any election, the fate of this nation does hang in the balance, that has not been the case for a very long time.
I don't have a TV (or cable) so I watch day-old MSNBC selectively -- mainly Lawrence, Rachel, Chris, and Joy. Didn't realize Olivia was on MSNBC.
You can surely find the documentary on MSNBC or youtube etc. I only heard it on audio MSNBC. Even with no visuals, moments were like sitting in on an audience with the Godfather. They did a terrific job.
When i heard about Cheryl Hines, I curbed my enthusiasm.
I know people have asked the same question of Cheryl Hines.
I believe Lizza was at one time writing for TNR, as was I.
Funny about the Z's. It reminded me that my name for Zsa Zsa Gabor was "Double Z."
And then there's the wiccan priestess, activist, writer, etc. Z. Budapest, whose first name is Zsuzsanna. Yes, I did once briefly contemplate changing the spelling of my name, but (1) I'm not Hungarian, and (2) my whole life I've been saying "That's Susanna with an 's,'" and it would have been too hard to change. <g>
You might be surprised. https://nymag.com/author/olivia-nuzzi/
Paywall. The headlines didn't inspire confidence. I know Rebecca Traister from her books, but New York Mag is barely on my radar.
I used to have to hustle to get around the nyMag paywall. Now I almost never do and have no idea why. If I hit a wall I try another of the dozen or so no-name browsers installed in my phone. A few have a mode like 'printer-friendly' that renders text. Gotta keep those cookies from accumulating. iPhones offer a choice too. You know writers don't write the heds on their pieces. Of the writers I mentioned, only Errol Louis confines himself to NYC analysis.
Funny thing: I just had exactly that experience without even trying. First try: paywall. Second try: I could see the whole list and even read a story.
The ghost in the machine is the only thing about computers that still interests me.
I looked at some of the titles. Not sure what you mean -- that sometimes her take seems offbase?
Susanna said she'd never heard of Nuzzi. I just wanted to introduce a stylish, incisive writer I've always read eagerly. I wonder if readers here ever read other nym Intelligencer writers like Ed Kilgore https://nymag.com/author/ed-kilgore/ and Rebecca Traister https://nymag.com/author/rebecca-traister/ (Jonathan Chait https://nymag.com/author/jonathan-chait/ not so much, but even he has his moments). No newsman is better on inside NYC than Errol Louis https://nymag.com/author/errol-louis/
More proof for my ongoing dispute with my sibling that 'stupid' is infinite
Or as one of my friends I worked with at Quest Diagnostics said ‘when you’re stupid, it’s forever.’
Best example...Orange Foolius!
By current MAGA and Republithug standards, this "scandal" is a real snoozer....
Yes, my husband said, "She tried Trump, but he couldn't write well enough to keep an online affair going."
"Lizza, by the way, was fired by The New Yorker in 2017 for what the magazine called “improper sexual conduct." Et tu, former fiancé?
Tho in Nuzzi's case, as I understand it, even an on-line flirt should not count as a "sexual relationship." I also read some very unflattering things she wrote about the Kennedy crackpot, so I am not exactly seeing the problem.
The problem was that readers were unaware of the possible conflict of interest at the time nyMag published the piece. Once you knew, you judged she didn't cross any lines. Other readers might have judged otherwise had they known. Did you go back and search her coverage of rival pols for bias?
Thanks -- and I did not go back.
That there's such a high level of "outrage" and vitriol over this speaks to a separate problem. Not being in the industry, I'm not in a position to put forth reasons. I just find it to be overblown.
High-profile man.
Talented, young, and attractive woman.
NYC media and inside the Beltway's textbook and foreseeable schadenfreude.
RFK Jr. or David Petraeus, Olivia Nuzzi or Paula Broadwell?
Note: The biggest story of the week is the gender reveal of Pesto the [King] Penguin who weighs in at 29pounds while the total weight of his parents is 28pounds. During the last week he ate 53pounds of fishies. Have my doubts today's big-name journos could handle the Pesto story.
https://www.npr.org/2024/09/20/nx-s1-5120916/pesto-penguin-australia
Now I'm seeing Pesto waddling up behind Olivia Nuzzi and swiping her cigarette . . .
lmrao. If memory serves me (someone correct me if I am mistaken) Ms Nuzzi had a bad encounter w/Trump down in Mar-A-Lago involving him trying to kiss her. That cig woulda come in handy-dandy.
Pesto is so large some of the pics and vids make him appear as if he was cropped in or AI'd into the scene. The best vid is Pesto trying to eat the camera. So far Pesto has 1.9 B for billion views on social media around the globe. Began before birth due to Pesto's egg size.
I never heard of Pesto until I read this but I love this thread. Sniggered.
Am grateful to Lucian for going with this piece. It does capture the race to the bottom and how widespread it is.
Juxtapose that with Pesto. metaphor of rising up, bigger and stronger with each new sun. Knowing he has 1.9B views reaffirms my optimism in the hooman spirit in a week filled w/hooman failures that somehow get labeled as anything other than epic fails.
4eg: some yahoo sheriff ghosting a judge in his chambers, more Trump-Vance nonsense, adult professionals judging and piling on a colleague, people waving pom-poms over the killing, maiming (hands/eyes) of men, women, and children, even more Trump-Vance nonsense, a faux Xristian staring into a camera and lying his black ass off, Megyn Kelly stating she liked the FAT Oprah but not this Oprah, Melania Trump going gaga on her own destruction of the Rose Garden and (since no one mentioned it) her nudes, and on and on.
May Pesto outgrow them all.
More Pestos, please.
J F who?
* yawn *
That was not a dig nor criticism toward Lucian. Definitely one of both aimed at the press and TV media though, with their salacious click-baiting.
There are some good
publications out there. NY
POST is not one of them.
Might as well be National
Inquirer.
I'm deaf, so I'm pretty picky
about the videos I watch that
are closed captioned. I've
also sworn off Facebook and
that was my only social
media experience. Not sure
exactly how Substack is
classified, but have noticed
a marked decrease in
MSN sharing articles; maybe
concerned about the
competition. Substack is
making waves and improving.
I'm more than happy to stay
away from click bate news.
Robert Kennedy proves brain
worms are contagious and
dangerous not only to your
health, but your reputation
and livelihood as well.
There are Journalists and there are Reporters. I prefer Reporters regardless of who is Deep Throat.
Thank you for writing this!
‘No disrespect but….
Blah, blah, blah “Much Ado. Yawn…
‘What does any of this have to do with repairing and healing the Enormous Gash we have inflicted on the Living Continuum of this Planet.
We really need to keep our eye on the Ball; ‘You know; ‘Big Blue One, hanging in space, being shrunk like a raisin.
This century is all about re-establishing chlorophyll as the base of our economy.
‘Replant the Planet…(have I gone too far?
Am I asking too much? Does this make any sense?)
The heart is a lonely hunter.
No attribution?
Which one is the lonely hunter, Olivia Nuzzi or Bobby? Or in your mind, both?
JSYK: Not allowed to comment on your Substack unless I fork over $10. So, been waiting for you to appear here. Was born under the Hunter Moon so know a few things about hunting whether 4legged or 2legged or fliers whether metal or feathered.
(1) Would never bobby-trap a commonly used anything whether for a hooman or any animal, then want someone to label it as "brilliant". It is (a) immoral and (b) against the Geneva Conventions/Treaties. Israel is a signatory. So is the US. Intel services are not exempt from the unwritten and written codes. rules, and laws no matter how many times they tell one another in an echo chamber otherwise.
(2) Espionage and sabotage predate documented kinetic warfare. So do supply chains. While all 3 went by different names in different tongues, that doesn't mean they were coined and invented in my lifetime. All3 have been used, abused, and misused before. This time for mass assassination that didn't go as planned. Or in the alternative, the plan did involve killing and maiming civs, including wimmin and children. Brilliant or an act of state terrorism?
(3) Opening up Pandora's Box AND ignoring the Laws of Unintended Consequences is not brilliant. Disabling the electronic devices is a far more effective result than killing and maiming. Doing so humiliates the adversary and their leadership w/o any blood being spilled. For someone who has been in the business and that includes your circle, if you haven't learned that along the way, there is no hope will ever will. From humiliation rises the loss of confidence in leadership and with it growing doubt of the cause one signed up. And the 3rd order of effect is a grudging respect for the adversary who coulda taken life instead spared it. For people who actually do the fighting that is a BFD. For those who never did, they will never understand how any of that works.
The op was a failure by any objective measurement. Adjectives and superlatives are not objective, They shade and color reality to whatever one wants it to be. Israel acted w/o concern for all the legitimate links in the supply chain of pagers and comm radios. Of course, intel folk don't give 2chits about those sucked into something of which they had no part whatsoever (that too is burning in the real world).
The op is the definition of too clever by half including the part many drop ...and in danger of overreaching oneself. Brilliant is not a word to apply to violating Rule 80. The word is criminal.
"The D.C. press corps and the New York City journalism rumor mill should be ashamed and get back to work." You are much too kind, Lucian. With forty some days until the election, I would suggest that they finally START working before all that they have refused to report on as truthful reality takes
us all down.
On that note, "From Russia With Lev", produced by Rachel Maddow and MSNBC lays bare all that came down in regard to the first Trump impeachment and the "perfect call" to Zelinski. Lev Parnas' wife put all the docomentation of the thousands of texts and photos of the Gullianni Ukraine operation on her Cloud and Bill Barr's freezing of Lev's data means nothing. Rachel has it all and it is open season on the gangsters in the Trump Adminisration., all of them.
Any serious journalist worth their salt would be spured by the revelations, well documented, that premiered tonight with Rachel and Lev as a guest on MSNBC.
Perhaps Olivia Nuzzi's detractors are jealous that they don't get invited to the hot spots.
Everyone here needs to watch this. I'm impressed beyond measure by Lev Parnas's wife. And by him as well. Outstanding documentary. I'm sure MSNBC will air it again. Shown twice tonight. Great, unexpected ending.
Parnas and his wife Svetlana appeared live, in an extended interview, on The 11th Hour. Also very worth the time to watch, fills in even more detail that couldn't be fit into the 1 1/2 hour film.
Wasn't she SOLID. I recommend all to watch it.
That documentary was excellent and the ending really was astounding. I highly recommend watching it because it points out how Trump and Rudy are tied to Putin. Barr Nun must face criminal charges. He’s another sleaze-bag!