American media is steeped in legendary tales of journalistic heroism. From exposing the horrific crimes of the Catholic Church in Spotlight to Woodward & Bernstein exposing the Watergate scandal in All the Presidents Men. Popular culture loves to extol the virtues of journalists achieving what they should, holding power to account.

But the flip side to that ideal, in all of its tawdry, unedifying glory, is currently unfolding in America. It’s the scandal that has Washington, DC, insiders and die-hard media watchers buzzing, with every new chapter highlighting why, at its worst, the access and power of journalism can absolutely corrupt.

Central to the scandal is Olivia Nuzzi, one of America’s young star journalists, and the dispatches that detail her “digital affair” with Health Secretary and heir to the Kennedy political dynasty, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza (right) with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Credit: The Age

At its heart, the scandal seemingly throws the key tenets of journalistic ethics - truth, independence, impartiality and managing conflicts of interests – into the bin.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr is the best known entity in this story. He is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, a former presidential candidate who was assassinated in 1968, and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy, the former president of the United States, also assassinated. Now 71, RFK Jr aborted his 2024 run at the presidency, endorsing Donald Trump in return for an appointment to become Health Secretary, while being best described as an anti-vaxxer and sceptic of commonly held health beliefs.

He is also a magnet for bizarre stories, such as having a worm live in his brain, or dumping a bear cub in Central Park in 2014, a story which he broke himself, in advance of a profile in The New Yorker in the lead-up to the presidential election last year.

He met Nuzzi, a rising star of print journalism and media more generally in America in late 2023, when she was commissioned to write a profile of him for New York Magazine (a different publication), where she was then Washington correspondent.

Now 32, Nuzzi is a one-of-a-kind figure in American politics, and has clearly always had lofty ambitions. As a 16-year-old, she attempted to launch a music career via........

© The Sydney Morning Herald