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- New York mag has hired a top media law firm to investigate the Olivia Nuzzi-Robert F. Kennedy Jr. matter.
- The probe, by Davis Wright Tremaine, concerns her relationship with RFK Jr. while reporting on the campaign.
- The scandal tests NY mag’s transparency and its top editor’s leadership amid a presidential election.
It may take a while for New York magazine to decide the fate of its star political reporter Olivia Nuzzi over a relationship she disclosed with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the onetime presidential candidate. But the Vox Media publication has signaled it’s not messing around in investigating the matter.
New York editor in chief David Haskell told staff at an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that it hired the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine to head the third-party probe. The firm is known in media circles as a heavy hitter. Media companies have hired it in the past to ensure press access to the trials of Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, and Sam Bankman-Fried. The firm has also defended Big Tech companies like Meta and Amazon, as well as creators who sued to stop a TikTok ban.
Two people who attended the New York all-hands meeting said Haskell only briefly mentioned the Nuzzi-RFK Jr. situation and didn’t answer questions about it. The meeting was a regularly scheduled monthly gathering that had been rescheduled from last week.
The scandal has had a series of twists and turns. This week, in court documents viewed by BI, Nuzzi accused her ex-fiancé, Politico reporter Ryan Lizza, of making threats of physical violence against her after they broke up and threatening to destroy her career by making personal information about her public. The court granted Nuzzi a temporary protection order. Lizza denied the claims in a statement to BI (Politico shares an owner with BI). CNN previously reported on the court documents.
The Nuzzi-RFK Jr. story has thrown a national spotlight on New York mag and its parent company, Vox Media. It’s an uncomfortable moment for the low-profile Haskell, who faces the possibility of losing his highest-profile political reporter in the midst of a presidential election. Nuzzi was put on leave in late September after her editors learned she’d had a relationship with Kennedy while reporting on the presidential race; news of the relationship was first broken by journalist Oliver Darcy in his newsletter, Status.
In a note to readers, New York called it a “violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures” but also said an internal review of her published work found no inaccuracies or evidence of bias. Employees were instructed by Vox Media’s general counsel Brian Leung to not discuss anything with Nuzzi or send any correspondence about the matter.
New York mag insiders previously told BI that some in the newsroom had expressed sympathy for their colleague and friend while still condemning her reported actions. There have also been questions about whether her career can survive and why she wasn’t fired on the spot, given her editors said she violated the magazine’s standards, and demands for more transparency about NY mag’s handling of the matter. Hiring Davis Wright Tremaine could be a signal Vox is building a rock-solid case to fire Nuzzi. On the other hand, should Vox decide to let her stay, it could have cover for doing so now that it’s hired a high-profile law firm for the review.
