Semafors Ben Smith slammed for defending NY mag reporter Olivia Nuzzi: Who hasnt had an inappropriate relationship with a source?
A prominent journalist is getting raked over the coals online for coming to the defense of New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi, who was placed on leave over 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 Semafor received an anonymous tip about the affair before the news site was scooped by ex-CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, who dropped the bombshell on his independent newsletter.Nuzzi, the 31-year-old political correspondent who was engaged to now-former fiance Ryan Lizza before the scandal exploded, was placed on leave by the magazine over the weekend after it was learned she exchanged personal messages with the 70-year-old Kennedy, who is married to actor Cheryl Hines.The relationship was never physical, according to Nuzzi, whom Kennedy has accused of being obsessed with him to the point of circumventing a cell phone blockage in order to send him nude photographs.
The Post has sought comment from Nuzzi.Writing in Semafor, Smith offered a “slightly contrarian view” by noting that “reporters have all sorts of compromising relationships with sources.”“The most compromising of all, and the most common, is a reporter’s fealty to someone who gives them information,” Smith wrote.“That’s the real coin of this realm.
Sex barely rates.”Smith made a comparison to the United Kingdom, where “if you’re not sleeping with someone in a position of power, how are you even a journalist?”He then shared a text message that he received from an advice writer who observed that “the world would be much more exciting with more Nuzzis around, but alas the world is inhabited by anonymously emailing moralists instead!”Smith noted that Nuzzi’s critics “were furious at her” over a July 4 story which appeared in New York magazine detailing the e...