Olivia Nullity has won the Duranty-Blair Award for journalistic infamy, for being a complete Nuzzi (or, is it that Nuzzi Has Won the D-B for being a complete nullity?) Nullity/Nuzzi’s new york magazine editor-in-chief, David Haskell, has also won a D-B for sponsoring her

By Nicholas Stix

Olivia Nuzzi has achieved fame for allegedly sleeping with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a charge which she denies, but which the commissars at new york magazine took seriously enough to suspend her. Nuzzi/Nullity has been new york’s Washington correspondent.

Usually, I bestow the Duranty-Blair Award on media operatives for having lied, although I also bestow D-Bs for journalistic acts of wickedness or evil. But Olivia Nuzzi is different.

According to Oliver Darcy, “‘recently our Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi acknowledged to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures,’ a spokesperson for New York magazine said in a statement in response to questions from Status [Darcy].

[“Nuzzi’s RFK Relationship,” by Oliver Darcy, Status, September 19, 2024 (Darcy and Status are one and the same.)]

“‘Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign,’ the spokesperson added. ‘An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. She is currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review. We regret this violation of our readers’ trust.

“In her own statement, provided to Status after this story initially published, Nuzzi confirmed that ‘earlier this year, the nature of some communication’ between herself ‘and a former reporting subject turned personal. “‘during that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them [sic] as a source,’ Nuzzi added. ‘the relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at new york.’”

Nuzzi and Kennedy have both denied that they slept together, but this reporter is at a loss as to what could possibly have constituted a “personal relationship,” without sex. Nuzzi is not a spiritual or intellectual person. Note, too, the allegation that Nuzzi sent Kennedy nude pictures of herself.

If Nuzzi and Kennedy didn’t sleep together, that would be for me the most embarrassing thing about the scandal. Reportedly, she sent him nude pictures of herself, and spent time with him alone. To go that far, and not sleep together?

So, why am I giving her a D-B already?

I am not bestowing the most significant journalistic booby prize on Olivia Nuzzi for having slept with an heir of America’s most ruthless political dynasty, or having not slept with him, when she had the chance.

“Olivia Nuzzi, 24

“Washington correspondent, New York Magazine

“Nuzzi was hired by New York Magazine in January [2014] and has already had three cover stories -- including a buzz-worthy piece about Kellyanne Conway. As the magazine's first-ever Washington Correspondent, she covers Congress and national politics in the age of Trump, who she first interviewed about his political ambitions in 2014.”

“Buzz-worthy”? What does that mean? I am unaware of a single important article Nuzzi has ever written. I was so desperate, I even read her entry at The Pretend Encyclopedia.

The most dramatic thing I learned about her was that in 2018 she committed a home invasion (you know, a crime) against Trump campaign staffer Corey Lewandowski, and allegedly stole Lewandowski’s photo album.

Nuzzi confessed to the home invasion, though she used dishonest language, but did not respond to the charge of theft, and New York did not punish her for her crimes.

Now, I’m also not hitting Nuzzi with a D-B for her crimes against Corey Lewandowski, because I have favorably recounted that sort of thing in Chicago from Hearst reporters 100 years ago, and more recently, a couple of reporters who hacked into a telephone system, and exposed chiquita banana’s bribery of foreign governments. However, the Hearst reporters were breaking into the apartments of people who had just died or been murdered.

But Olivia Nuzzi committed crimes against people she was writing on, who were still alive, but she still didn’t come up with anything! (Note that democrats were so obsessed with destroying Lewandowski that they conspired to make false criminal charges against him, and got his cowardly boss to fire him, though the President has recently re-hired him.)

“The 31-year-old star [?!] political reporter was placed on leave after admitting a non-physical ‘personal relationship’ with a former 2024 campaign subject while reporting on the presidential campaign, the magazine said late Thursday.”

[“how NY mag’s Olivia Nuzzi covered RFK Jr. after alleged ‘sexting’ started — and the tweet that’s haunting her” by Emily Crane, new york post, sep. 20, 2024.]

[N.S.: If she was a “star political reporter,” I should have heard of all sorts of big stories she’d broken. Like what?]

“Neither Nuzzi nor the magazine divulged the identity, but sources told the post that the Washington correspondent had allegedly been sexting Kennedy — while she was engaged and he was married.” (new york post, Emily Crane, idem.)

Last April 22, Nullity was thrown out of the new york city federal court press room, where media operatives got to watch the President’s kangaroo court state “hush money trial” trial on monitors, for repeatedly flouting the federal law, which makes it a misdemeanor to “televis[e] or photograph court proceedings” without authorization.

The court officers threw Nuzzi out of the viewing room. She continued “reporting on” the trial, but without being able to view it from the monitor room, and without revealing this to readers. (How did she even write about the trial? Was someone in the monitor room writing notes for her?)

“When busted for the second infraction, she tried ‘sweet talking’ one of the officers in charge.

“‘I know, I’m a f–king idiot, I’m sorry,’ she said, a witness recalled.”

[“Olivia Nuzzi was banned from Trump’s hush-money [sic] for taking prohibited photos twice; didn’t inform readers,” by Susan Edelman, new york post, september 21, 2024.]

About the only things we know about Nuzzi as a journalist are: 1. She’s an ardent “democrat”; 2. She’s got a gutter mouth; and 3. She’s a very popular girl. The “reporting” on her and RFK Jr. is at a point where her friends speak for her, and his “friends” speak for him. (Kennedys don’t have friends; they have relatives and family retainers.)

[“RFK Jr. makes bombshell claims about ‘obsessed’ Olivia Nuzzi as friend says former presidential candidate found star reporter’s ‘pornographic photos and videos difficult to resist,’” by Stephen M. Lepore, Daily Mail, September 22/23.]

Nuzzi has been given “journalistic” awards—“30 under 30,” from Forbes, and the afsme “next” award. However, they never cited any work of hers.

“30 under 30”

“the honorees were chosen by a distinguished group of print and digital journalists. the judging was led by Jessica Pels, editor in chief [sic], cosmopolitan. the judges included Andrea Chambers, director, new york university center for publishing; Kelly Conniff, editor, time.com; Jon Fine, executive director, editorial, inc.; Samantha Henig, editorial director, audio, the new york times; Claire Howorth, executive editor, vanity fair; Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, co-founder, ceo and editor in chief [sic], her campus media; Jacklyn Monk, executive editor, essence; Caroline Smith, editor, photography and visuals, topic; Ganda Suthivarakom, managing editor, wirecutter; Siung Tjia, design director, the new republic; Dan Wakeford, deputy editor, people; and Allison Wright, executive editor, Virginia quarterly review.”

Thirteen mopes, of whom only two were White men. All racist and sexist, and I’m not at all embarrassed to say that I’d never heard of a single one. One asian male, Siung Tjia, has an instagram page full of celebrations of blm and George Floyd. Note that if her campus media were a real media company, it would have exposed the institutionalized sexism behind constant rape and sexual harassment hoaxes. Instead, it’s an arm of the dnc, and a marketing company.

“the asme next awards 2019 winners represent the astonishing range of talent working in magazine journalism today, from writers and videographers reporting on the political and social transformation [destruction] of our country to photographers and editors whose work brings print and digital media to life,” said Sid Holt, chief executive of asme. ‘the accomplishments of these five 20-something journalists explain the enduring appeal of magazine storytelling.

“the asme next awards honor outstanding achievement by magazine journalists under the age of 30. sponsored by the american society of magazine editors, the asme next awards were established in 2016 to support the development of print and digital magazine media by recognizing young journalists who have already demonstrated extraordinary promise at the beginning of their careers. honorees receive medals bearing the likeness of ‘elephant,’ the symbol of the national magazine awards.

“nominees submit portfolios of their work, including print and digital content, and are judged on their career accomplishments and their potential to make significant contributions to magazine media. previous honorees include Lindsay Peoples Wagner, now editor in chief of teen vogue, and Ben Taub, whose reporting for the new yorker was nominated for a national magazine award in 2017 and won the Livingston award for international [foreign] reporting, the overseas press club award for investigative reporting and the Robert F. Kennedy award for international [foreign] print reporting. for more information about the awards, visit asmenextawards.org.” The first time I heard of a “portfolio” of one’s work, it was when I was teaching in the cuny system in the mid-1990s.

cuny was using two scams to cheat on grading, in order to pass illiterate blacks and hispanics. One was called “holistic grading,” where the instructor was to ignore all of a testee’s grammatical, spelling, punctuation and style errors, and just pass him. The other called for “portfolios” of students’ work. The latter demand was redundant. Every teacher already has a portfolio of each student’s work on hand, or entered into his grading book. The “portfolio” demand was just another scam for passing failing students.

Each time I’ve won a journalism award, the issuing entity stated what it was for.

The first one, in 1995, was from the new york state press association, for best opinion column, for a column entitled, “Let Us Pray,” comparing Newt Gingrich’s call for a return to school prayer, to multicultural pedagogy, which I called morally equivalent, which I’d written in December, 1994, for the chelsea clinton news. The second one, in 2004, was from Orrin Judd, of the Brothers Judd blog, for one of the “Best of ‘04,” for my biographical essay, “George S. Schuyler, All-American.” The third and last award came in 2020, from Jared Taylor, of American Renaissance/new century foundation, for the first national exposé of the racially motivated hate crime massacre, the Knoxville Horror, which Taylor cited as the best article of the year from 2007.

I did find one decent piece of writing by Nuzzi, an obit for her father, John, in 2017.

But that’s not a journalism career.

[D-B boilerplate follows, followed by the list of previous honorees.]

Walter Duranty wrote a series of early 1930s dispatches from the soviet union, where he was times moscow bureau chief, in which he lied about the ukrainian Holocaust, in which Stalin deliberately starved millions of kulaks (farmers/peasants) to death, through a man-made famine. Instead of reporting the truth, Duranty reported that the peasants were happy and well-fed, and was rewarded for his lies with a Pulitzer prize.

Jayson Blair (here, here, and here) was an early 2000s black affirmative action hire, who alternately plagiarized reporters at other newspapers, and fabricated articles out of whole cloth, all for stories set hundreds and even thousands of miles away, while he sat in new york city cafés.


Previous Duranty-Blair winners are:

• Cbs news producer Mary Mapes in 2004;

• Seven reporters and editors at the new orleans times-picayune in 2006;

• abc news reporter Brian Ross in 2012;

• Peter Berger (not the brilliant sociologist), of the American interest, in 2013;

• associated press operative Tom Hays, in 2014;

• new york times operative Farhad Manjoo in September, 2016;

• CNN’s Symone Sanders (2), Don Lemon, and Kate Bolduan (2) (P.S. and Jeff Zucker [5]), in November 2016;

• New York Times Propaganda Officer Francis X. Clines in March 2017;

• CNN Activist Jim Sciutto, in May 2017;

• Associated Press “Reporter” Duncan Mansfield (posthumous), in September 2017;

• CBS Sports operative Jack Maloney, Chairman Sean McManus, and President David Berson, in October 2017;

• Associated Press operative Julie Pace, in October 2017;

• Associated Press Executive Editor Sally Buzbee and Managing Editor Brian Carovillano, in November 2017;

• “New York Times Operatives Richard Fausset (Alleged Reporter), Executive Editor Dean Baquet, and Managing Editor Joseph Kahn,” in December 2017;

• Foreign Policy’s Max Boot, Jonathan Tepperman, and Ben Pauker, in January 2018;

• Sports “Reporter” Les Carpenter, January 6, 2018;

• People Magazine “Reporter” Steve Helling and Editor Jess Cagle, August 3, 2018;

• Vanity Fair’s William D. Cohan and Graydon Carter, August 13, 2018;

• Vox Media Gang Member Zack Beauchamp, August 13, 2018;

• Politico Gang Member Daniel Lippman, September 18, 2018;

• CNN’s Manu Raju (and Jeff Zucker), on October 13, 2018;

• CNN’s Ana Cabrera, Marc Lamont Hill, and Zucker on October 18, 2018;

• CNN’s Kirsten Powers and Jeff Zucker, and USA Today’s Nicole Carroll, on October 27, 2018;

• Seven at the new criterion and pj media, on January 22, 2024;

• Two at deadspin and six at variety, on March 12, 2024; and

• publisher Lachlan Murdoch, editor-in-chief Keith Poole, and three others at the new york post, and Alesia Cullen at abc news, June 24, 2024