Bloomberg has reportedly halted a promotional push for a new show featuring political commentator Olivia Nuzzi after a left-wing-led online campaign slammed the New York magazine reporter over an exposé about President Biden's mental breakdown.
Nuzzi, the magazine's esteemed Washington correspondent, was tapped by Bloomberg Television earlier this year to host the interview show “Working Capital.” A big launch for a mid-July debut.
But the headline of her New York magazine article read: “The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden” The show, which premiered on the Fourth of July, sparked backlash from X's liberal wing, leading Bloomberg to change plans and quietly launch the show instead. According to Semaphore co-founder Ben Smith:.
Nuzzi, 31, acknowledged that Bloomberg had been influenced by the online outrage.
“I have no illusions about the big corporate media organisations and their tolerance for the faintest whisper of a PR crisis, so I can't say I was surprised, but I was disappointed,” she told Semaphore.
Bloomberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Her exposé on the 81-year-old president, which came after Biden's disastrous debate performance, detailed a “conspiracy” to cover up the Democrat's mental breakdown.
Nuzzi's article reinforced concerns that Biden is unfit to serve another term and detailed the control the White House has over the president's public image.
“His words have a tendency to slip into the usual rhetorical pile-on that has only worsened in the four years since he ran for president for a third time in 2020,” Nuzzi wrote in a July article.
Nuzzi argued that Biden “can't spend too much time in the wild,” especially in an environment with “volatile variables that need to be actively managed.”
“The worry is not that Biden will be too outspoken or say something he didn't mean to say, but that he will communicate through his appearance that he is not actually there,” Nuzzi wrote.
Excited liberals rushed to X to denounce the reporter and complain about the story's cover cartoon of Biden wearing his trademark sunglasses and with his mouth wide open.
“When I write things that incite the right, I'm accused of being a liberal activist,” Nuzzi told Semaphore. “When I write things that incite the left, I'm accused of being a conservative activist.”
Some critics have combed through Nuzzi's digital footprint, uncovering years-old posts criticizing President Barack Obama.
After President Obama said he missed not having to wear a tie, Nuzzi tweeted, “You don't have to wear a tie in Kenya!”
A reporter from New York Magazine retweeted a photo of President Obama and a child eating pie with his mouth open, with the caption, “Kenyan anti-colonialist shows teeth to toddler.”
Democrats said the post was clearly racist.
But Nuzzi's defenders say the post was humorous given the context of the time, as Nuzzi may have been poking fun at a racist conspiracy theory that the first African-American president was born in Kenya and had a fake birth certificate.
“I know plenty of journalists who made the wise decision long ago to delete all their old posts to protect themselves,” Nuzzi told Semaphore.
She said she doesn't blame reporters for deleting old posts, but that being a journalist means encountering people in “grey areas.”
“Trying to hide jokes that I made in the context of the internet five, 10, 15 years ago, I see that as a kind of dishonesty that I don't want to be associated with,” she said.
X users slammed the Semaphore journalist who published Nuzzi's response.
“Maybe @Olivianuzzi is a racist and that's why no one wants to see him, Ben,” one X user posted.
“It's embarrassing that a male journalist has to constantly cover for Olivia Nuzzi's poor job performance,” posted another X user.
