Marianne, you are helping to keep me sane and grounded. I am so grateful for who you are and your expression of truth. Between you and Heather Cox, I hold the boarder perspective, the truth. Forever grateful 💕
I was so pleased to read your article, Marianne — or perhaps the word is grateful, or even relieved. I’ve watched with growing discomfort the relentless attacks aimed at Olivia Nuzzi, rising almost to a frenzy. More than critiques of a book that some didn’t appreciate, so many of these attacks felt deeply gratuitous and unmerited… mob mentality… “sadistic catharsis” … misogynistic missiles.
I had the honor of getting to know Olivia a couple of years ago. Yes, it felt like an honour. I came to see her as remarkable in so many ways. I have listened to the podcasts and interviews, I’ve found her to be candid, honest, humble, and deeply self-reflective, and her book to be an assemblage of words … a blur of colours so magnificent that I never want to put it down.
When the frenzy passes, I’ll be eagerly waiting for her voice to reemerge…clearer and stronger for having endured
Glad you shared this Marianne! This was so important to put out. On every point. And I think so much of mainstream media is addicted to and stuck in a fear-mongering, us-against-them mindset that keeps the status quo of division and collective trauma in place. It’s all a fast-moving hamster wheel to nowhere (or at least nowhere very good). But I so sadly get how some of the hamsters wouldn’t be able to relate to how Olivia shared her story in the book. The mainstream media are always looking for blood, and when they didn’t get it from her in the ways they thought that she should have for RFK and Trump, they turned on her and pointed their blades at her. I thought what she wrote was damning, but not in the standard, over-the-top way that mainstream folks like to peddle in. It was higher minded and also very artful. Mainstream didn’t get it, and they are obnoxiously heaping on Olivia. So unfair and immoral.
Olivia's only crime was finding RFKJr. attractive. For that, she may need therapy. But the treatment she has received is ridiculous. Thank you for calling it out.
She did more than find him attractive. And it wasn't the first time. She compromised her work because she could not think straight around someone whose charisma altered her perception of the events in front of her and drove her to behavior that compromised her as a reporter.
She's not evil because of that but she was deeply compromised. I truly believe she suffers from a mental and emotional condition that makes it hard for her to remain objective around charismatic men.
There is a way to address this condition but I think first Olivia needs to see it in herself and to recognize that she can't write her way out of it. She needs to surrender to the truth of it and get appropriate help.
If she does that her writing will be cleaner and her life will be saner.
I have a big heart for her.
I pray that she finds to help she needs and a community that will understand what happened to her psychologically and emotionally so she can move on in life with a more grounded personality.
Good GOD. TY! It is all so disgusting. The only thing that keeps me afloat is the sacred LIGHT. It gives me such hope. WHEN I remember that, the darkness (currently in power) lifts as it too shall pass. Meanwhile, people are beginning to wake UP.
Oh, projection that masks itself as rejection. Yes, mostly women who defy gravity, but also people who buck the system, in general-the independent-minded homeless, the border crossers who don't check all the boxes and those who are, horror of horrors, INSUBORDINATE irritate the very people who, as you say, got where they are by violating a good many moral laws.
Of all the people deserving shame and exposure, she wouldn't even come close to making the list of any sane person these days. There are so many greedy, grabby, amoral creeps who casually do much more harm, murdering people, kidnapping them, and who broke more actual ethical rules than someone who had an affair. Probably half the accusers align with that old saying that when you point the finger at someone, there are more fingers pointing back at you. It was nobody else's business. Being engaged means she was poised to take vows, but has not taken them yet. That's between them. It also didn't mean she couldn't separate her work from her personal life either and do a good job covering the campaign. Any reporter covering any campaign is going to have their own bias, leaning towards or against that particular candidate.
No, she was compromised. By the standards of modern journalism in an age where we desperately need objective reporting on American politics, she was compromised.
I saw Tim interview her on The Bulwark. That interview led me to the conclusion that she was not thinking straight when she was around Kennedy, and should have withdrawn from reporting on him the moment she realized she was emotionally artached to him.
Instead, she worked hard to platform him and she got deeply involved in the drama of covering up their affair.
She made serious mistakes.
She *can rectify them, but she has to come to terms with the fact that something may have been driving her besides her interest in politics and her talent for writing.
I care about her, as a person, but I do think she needs to withdraw from the public eye for a while. Get some treatment for her condition. Learn to call it what it is and take appropriate action so she never again causes the harm she did to herself, to her partner or to those people who depend on her journalism to make important decisions about the fate of our country.
Shockingly Marianne you have this very wrong. What was offensive and unethical was Nuzzi's complicity with her source to "protect his image." She betrayed another source who had evidence of RFKjr's bizarre behavior in dumping a dead in Central Park. Nuzzi advised him on how to "get out in front" of the story along with other political advice - that helped Brainworm Buddy to align with Trump. Her sins are of an unethical professional nature. You embarrass yourself when you defend an unethical journalist who plays the stories to her personal advantage and helps the MAGA lies and normalizes bizarre behavior.. Do NOT waste your precious and important efforts defending MAGA supporters. Nuzzi's book was panned because of poor writing - read it! It is an egocentric attempt to justify her unethical journalistic behavior. She evidences no ownership or agency in her unprofessional actions. It is an irresponsible defense of her choices in crossing journalistic ethics.
I was there, running in that campaign. The "ethical lapses" were soooo much worse than that, it's like comparing stealing an apple to robbing a bank. And she talks in the book about the bear story. Nothing she told him made a difference, and nothing she told anyone else made a difference either. I'm not basing my information on other people's tales. I read the book and did not find it "an egocentric attempt to justify her unethical journalistic behavior." In what way did she "play the stories to her personal advantage and help the MAGA lies and normalize bizarre behavior"??
I appreciate your respect for Olivia and for her work. I do think this is a very complicated story, and not everything Olivia says about it is true. If I'm right about the possibility that she suffers from an addiction disorder, she is an accomplished liar. About things that matter.
Some people lie because they crave power, attention, or some kind of material benefit. Some people lie because they are afraid and confused. She seems very afraid and confused. To me.
I misspelled the name of her former fiance in another comment here. Thank autocorrect 😆... His name is Lizza. And I'm still trying to decide how much he may be monetizing his part of this story and how much he may just be defending a career that she participated in shattering.
I've never met Olivia. You have. So I can't make direct observations about her. You can.
But her story is an awful one. People were definitely harmed in the wake of her little adventure with a man you have called a friend.
I wish her healing, I wish you well if you decide to pursue the Presidency again although I know it will never be yours. And I intend to study A Course in Miracles the coming year, as well as the books you've written that help me to do that effectively.
First, I've heard more than one person say that Olivia Nuzzi is an exceptional writer. I haven't heard a single person other than you say that they thought this book was excellent.
Second, having read your essay, I'm willing to give her book a chance.
But I will say that RFK2 it's not a singular event in her life. She has done this with other prominent men, with definite journalistic consequences. She didn't just sleep with a prominent man. She was paid to follow him and report on him as he was pursuing the American Presidency. The things that these journalists write become fuel for people to make decisions about who to elect to consequential offices.
So, as a journalist she catastrophically failed at her assignment. But I don't think she was lacking a moral center. I actually think that Olivia Nuzzi may suffer from an addictive disorder. Elizabeth Gilbert has it too.
I wish both of them well. I will wait to read American Canto, because the story is still fresh and I'm still sorting out everything I hear. But I will give it a chance. Someday.
And I think the way Ryan Lizzo is trying to monetize his portion of this pue is beyond shameful. The jury has yet to cast its vote on this shattered love story, and all the shattered love stories that feature Olivia Nuzzi.
Happy Solstice to you, Marianne.
And yes, I consider you an exceptional writer too. I hope it's true about her as well.
I have this humorous way of describing the paradox of someone behaving really badly and part of it was inspired by you and your wonderful work. I call the bad behavior assholery and ask “Have you met any assholes doing assholery today?”
Then after about 20 pages and a whole heap of threads that pulled together makes it easier to do, I lead the reader through a process of changing the inner world so as to affect the outer world – using your inspiration from a Melbourne event I came to, of “pray for them for thirty days and at the end of thirty days either they will have changed their behavior or you won’t care.”
Here's the page about it from my book Holy Sh*t Is That Really True? Also called 30 Seconds to Change Your Life after Facebook wouldn’t publish my book cover at one stage.
“Sweetness and light – picture me sitting at my desk and snorting with laughter.
I’ve had lots of gorgeous interactions where I’ve felt someone else’s stuff and it’s all been sweetness and light – specially when I’ve been helping someone through their “stuff”. But my biggest and most important change places have come from the other person behaving like an asshole or in a way that deeply upsets me. Understanding where they are coming from, understanding what’s going on behind their behavior or problem, has taken me through my change place and closer to creating that which I care about.
So… Have you come across anyone committing assholery that is helping you to joyfully create something different?
Maybe there’s even a pattern of attracting these sorts of people into your life, indicating one of those round and round in circles, stuck change places?
Yeah it would change everything wouldn’t it, if every assholery was in some way linked to us getting what we want – whether that’s a destiny, “what am I here on earth to do” thing or something yummy we’re creating.
Holyshit it would change everything, hey?
So… have we got anyone that we’d like to get curious about what’s behind their assholery? Have we got anyone we might even want to thank for their assholery some day? Yeah I’m snorting with laughter too.”
Brava, Marianne. Brava.
Marianne, you are helping to keep me sane and grounded. I am so grateful for who you are and your expression of truth. Between you and Heather Cox, I hold the boarder perspective, the truth. Forever grateful 💕
broader
Damn autocorrect 😆
Remember when you talked about the “dark and sinister forces“ in the 2020 race? And they all laughed? Who’s laughing now?
I was so pleased to read your article, Marianne — or perhaps the word is grateful, or even relieved. I’ve watched with growing discomfort the relentless attacks aimed at Olivia Nuzzi, rising almost to a frenzy. More than critiques of a book that some didn’t appreciate, so many of these attacks felt deeply gratuitous and unmerited… mob mentality… “sadistic catharsis” … misogynistic missiles.
I had the honor of getting to know Olivia a couple of years ago. Yes, it felt like an honour. I came to see her as remarkable in so many ways. I have listened to the podcasts and interviews, I’ve found her to be candid, honest, humble, and deeply self-reflective, and her book to be an assemblage of words … a blur of colours so magnificent that I never want to put it down.
When the frenzy passes, I’ll be eagerly waiting for her voice to reemerge…clearer and stronger for having endured
Glad you shared this Marianne! This was so important to put out. On every point. And I think so much of mainstream media is addicted to and stuck in a fear-mongering, us-against-them mindset that keeps the status quo of division and collective trauma in place. It’s all a fast-moving hamster wheel to nowhere (or at least nowhere very good). But I so sadly get how some of the hamsters wouldn’t be able to relate to how Olivia shared her story in the book. The mainstream media are always looking for blood, and when they didn’t get it from her in the ways they thought that she should have for RFK and Trump, they turned on her and pointed their blades at her. I thought what she wrote was damning, but not in the standard, over-the-top way that mainstream folks like to peddle in. It was higher minded and also very artful. Mainstream didn’t get it, and they are obnoxiously heaping on Olivia. So unfair and immoral.
The Divine Masculine welcomes the Divine Feminine.
Toxic masculinity cowers in fear.
Thank you!
Olivia's only crime was finding RFKJr. attractive. For that, she may need therapy. But the treatment she has received is ridiculous. Thank you for calling it out.
She did more than find him attractive. And it wasn't the first time. She compromised her work because she could not think straight around someone whose charisma altered her perception of the events in front of her and drove her to behavior that compromised her as a reporter.
She's not evil because of that but she was deeply compromised. I truly believe she suffers from a mental and emotional condition that makes it hard for her to remain objective around charismatic men.
There is a way to address this condition but I think first Olivia needs to see it in herself and to recognize that she can't write her way out of it. She needs to surrender to the truth of it and get appropriate help.
If she does that her writing will be cleaner and her life will be saner.
I have a big heart for her.
I pray that she finds to help she needs and a community that will understand what happened to her psychologically and emotionally so she can move on in life with a more grounded personality.
Good GOD. TY! It is all so disgusting. The only thing that keeps me afloat is the sacred LIGHT. It gives me such hope. WHEN I remember that, the darkness (currently in power) lifts as it too shall pass. Meanwhile, people are beginning to wake UP.
You are so precise and real. TY!
Oh, projection that masks itself as rejection. Yes, mostly women who defy gravity, but also people who buck the system, in general-the independent-minded homeless, the border crossers who don't check all the boxes and those who are, horror of horrors, INSUBORDINATE irritate the very people who, as you say, got where they are by violating a good many moral laws.
thank u for speaking up.
rfk Jr has got to go.
Well said. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Of all the people deserving shame and exposure, she wouldn't even come close to making the list of any sane person these days. There are so many greedy, grabby, amoral creeps who casually do much more harm, murdering people, kidnapping them, and who broke more actual ethical rules than someone who had an affair. Probably half the accusers align with that old saying that when you point the finger at someone, there are more fingers pointing back at you. It was nobody else's business. Being engaged means she was poised to take vows, but has not taken them yet. That's between them. It also didn't mean she couldn't separate her work from her personal life either and do a good job covering the campaign. Any reporter covering any campaign is going to have their own bias, leaning towards or against that particular candidate.
That said, Nuzzi was completely compromised. She just *was.
Not necessarily.
No, she was compromised. By the standards of modern journalism in an age where we desperately need objective reporting on American politics, she was compromised.
I saw Tim interview her on The Bulwark. That interview led me to the conclusion that she was not thinking straight when she was around Kennedy, and should have withdrawn from reporting on him the moment she realized she was emotionally artached to him.
Instead, she worked hard to platform him and she got deeply involved in the drama of covering up their affair.
She made serious mistakes.
She *can rectify them, but she has to come to terms with the fact that something may have been driving her besides her interest in politics and her talent for writing.
I care about her, as a person, but I do think she needs to withdraw from the public eye for a while. Get some treatment for her condition. Learn to call it what it is and take appropriate action so she never again causes the harm she did to herself, to her partner or to those people who depend on her journalism to make important decisions about the fate of our country.
My statement was not judgmental. Read it again and you will find a great deal of objectivity and compassion in my perspective.
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and I hope you have a good holiday.
You're right. I deleted it.
People deserving shame and exposure.
My oh my. Who among who would be first on that list (cough 45/47 cough)
Shockingly Marianne you have this very wrong. What was offensive and unethical was Nuzzi's complicity with her source to "protect his image." She betrayed another source who had evidence of RFKjr's bizarre behavior in dumping a dead in Central Park. Nuzzi advised him on how to "get out in front" of the story along with other political advice - that helped Brainworm Buddy to align with Trump. Her sins are of an unethical professional nature. You embarrass yourself when you defend an unethical journalist who plays the stories to her personal advantage and helps the MAGA lies and normalizes bizarre behavior.. Do NOT waste your precious and important efforts defending MAGA supporters. Nuzzi's book was panned because of poor writing - read it! It is an egocentric attempt to justify her unethical journalistic behavior. She evidences no ownership or agency in her unprofessional actions. It is an irresponsible defense of her choices in crossing journalistic ethics.
I was there, running in that campaign. The "ethical lapses" were soooo much worse than that, it's like comparing stealing an apple to robbing a bank. And she talks in the book about the bear story. Nothing she told him made a difference, and nothing she told anyone else made a difference either. I'm not basing my information on other people's tales. I read the book and did not find it "an egocentric attempt to justify her unethical journalistic behavior." In what way did she "play the stories to her personal advantage and help the MAGA lies and normalize bizarre behavior"??
.
I appreciate your respect for Olivia and for her work. I do think this is a very complicated story, and not everything Olivia says about it is true. If I'm right about the possibility that she suffers from an addiction disorder, she is an accomplished liar. About things that matter.
Some people lie because they crave power, attention, or some kind of material benefit. Some people lie because they are afraid and confused. She seems very afraid and confused. To me.
I misspelled the name of her former fiance in another comment here. Thank autocorrect 😆... His name is Lizza. And I'm still trying to decide how much he may be monetizing his part of this story and how much he may just be defending a career that she participated in shattering.
I've never met Olivia. You have. So I can't make direct observations about her. You can.
But her story is an awful one. People were definitely harmed in the wake of her little adventure with a man you have called a friend.
I wish her healing, I wish you well if you decide to pursue the Presidency again although I know it will never be yours. And I intend to study A Course in Miracles the coming year, as well as the books you've written that help me to do that effectively.
Many prayers for all. 🙏💟🙏
Too many men have such fragile egos they feel it necessary to demean women for any imagined slight.
Couple of things, having read your essay.
First, I've heard more than one person say that Olivia Nuzzi is an exceptional writer. I haven't heard a single person other than you say that they thought this book was excellent.
Second, having read your essay, I'm willing to give her book a chance.
But I will say that RFK2 it's not a singular event in her life. She has done this with other prominent men, with definite journalistic consequences. She didn't just sleep with a prominent man. She was paid to follow him and report on him as he was pursuing the American Presidency. The things that these journalists write become fuel for people to make decisions about who to elect to consequential offices.
So, as a journalist she catastrophically failed at her assignment. But I don't think she was lacking a moral center. I actually think that Olivia Nuzzi may suffer from an addictive disorder. Elizabeth Gilbert has it too.
I wish both of them well. I will wait to read American Canto, because the story is still fresh and I'm still sorting out everything I hear. But I will give it a chance. Someday.
And I think the way Ryan Lizzo is trying to monetize his portion of this pue is beyond shameful. The jury has yet to cast its vote on this shattered love story, and all the shattered love stories that feature Olivia Nuzzi.
Happy Solstice to you, Marianne.
And yes, I consider you an exceptional writer too. I hope it's true about her as well.
Olivia 💟🙏💟
Portion of *pie
I have this humorous way of describing the paradox of someone behaving really badly and part of it was inspired by you and your wonderful work. I call the bad behavior assholery and ask “Have you met any assholes doing assholery today?”
Then after about 20 pages and a whole heap of threads that pulled together makes it easier to do, I lead the reader through a process of changing the inner world so as to affect the outer world – using your inspiration from a Melbourne event I came to, of “pray for them for thirty days and at the end of thirty days either they will have changed their behavior or you won’t care.”
Here's the page about it from my book Holy Sh*t Is That Really True? Also called 30 Seconds to Change Your Life after Facebook wouldn’t publish my book cover at one stage.
“Sweetness and light – picture me sitting at my desk and snorting with laughter.
I’ve had lots of gorgeous interactions where I’ve felt someone else’s stuff and it’s all been sweetness and light – specially when I’ve been helping someone through their “stuff”. But my biggest and most important change places have come from the other person behaving like an asshole or in a way that deeply upsets me. Understanding where they are coming from, understanding what’s going on behind their behavior or problem, has taken me through my change place and closer to creating that which I care about.
So… Have you come across anyone committing assholery that is helping you to joyfully create something different?
Maybe there’s even a pattern of attracting these sorts of people into your life, indicating one of those round and round in circles, stuck change places?
Yeah it would change everything wouldn’t it, if every assholery was in some way linked to us getting what we want – whether that’s a destiny, “what am I here on earth to do” thing or something yummy we’re creating.
Holyshit it would change everything, hey?
So… have we got anyone that we’d like to get curious about what’s behind their assholery? Have we got anyone we might even want to thank for their assholery some day? Yeah I’m snorting with laughter too.”