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We all know far too much about Olivia Nuzzi. The first excerpts from American Canto, her unwelcome addition to the “spliterature” genre about her affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have been unavoidable for the past few days. Cockburn can’t decide what’s worse: the revelations themselves or the windy prose in which Nuzzi’s editors have allowed her to inflict them on us. Her ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza’s addition to “the Discourse” last night didn’t help matters.
Rather than envisioning who sent pictures of what to whom, or getting jealous of a brainworm, Cockburn has found himself nostalgic. He’s casting his mind back to 2009, back when Nuzzi sought attention in a more innocent fashion: as an aspiring teen-pop starlet. Her MySpace page showcasing her singing talents as “Livvy” has unfortunately been deleted, but one enthusiast archived it so fans can at least see what it looked like.
“Livvy is a sixteen year old singer, songwriter and actress,” the page reads. “A former Wilhelmina model, she has appeared in various commercials, films, television programs and print ads since her start in the business at the age of five.” A child star… she never stood a chance.
The page begins with Nuzzi’s trademark modesty:
The day that Madonna released “Erotica”
The day that Andy Warhol made his first film
The day that Freddie Mercury sang his last note
The day that Judy Garland conceived Liza Minnelli
The day that Britney Spears told you to hit it one more time
The day that Cher first met a sequin
The day that Candy Darling took her last breath
The day that Mick Jagger first strut across a stage
The day that Pamela Anderson was introduced to silicone
The day that David Bowie sang “Lady Stardust”
The day that Michael Jackson first slipped on a white glove
… was the day that Livvy was born
Lower down, we are treated to a breathy description of Livvy’s vibe:
LIVVY is a pop chorus.
LIVVY is a rock ballad.
LIVVY is a hip hop beat.
LIVVY is the past.
LIVVY is the future.
LIVVY is now… and she’s about to blow your mind.
Eat your heart out, brainworm…
Comments on the page suggest Livvy was beloved. “hi pretty Livvy, you radiate beauty,” writes one rather intense young man. “omg i love your music its there a cd i could buy ??” asks another. Sadly not: we’ll have to make do with the looming American Canto audiobook. (Cockburn’s nieces prefer the stylings of Zara Larsson, for what it’s worth.)
The book itself is out December 2, in time for Christmas and to ruin Secret Santas across the District.
Fox News deploys Palantir’s AI in digital operation
Palantir is best known for the AI-powered cutting-edge software it provides to the federal government to give the US military and intelligence communities a leg-up over foreign competitors. Now, Palantir is in the news business as well.
Over the last six months, with the help of Palantir engineers sitting in on high-level meetings and advising everyone from executives to writers, Fox News has scaled up its use of Palantir’s algorithms in simplifying its workflows. Readers of the nation’s most read right-of-center news outlet are therefore now influenced by the nation’s most ascendant defense contractor for which stories they see and how they’re framed.
“We are building a first-class platform alongside Palantir engineers that will empower our editorial team to do great journalism and tell important stories,” a Fox News insider told Cockburn. “We are re-imagining and re-building every aspect of our workflow that will help our journalists be more effective and impactful in their jobs.”
Almost every journalist uses AI in some small way – Cockburn couldn’t live without Sonix, the software that transcribes his interviews. And the use of technology in deciding which stories to elevate up the page isn’t new. For years, media companies have utilized apps such as Chartbeat and Parsely that provide real-time info on which stories are under- or over-performing.
Fox News’s choice to employ Palantir’s Foundry – a data-integration tool employed by the Department of Homeland Security, Morgan Stanley and Merck, among others – is nonetheless a landmark one. Theoretically, use of the software could free up Fox’s journalists to spend more time on reporting and less on the menial tasks that have taken up a lot of digital-journalist time over the past decade or so.
When asked if the site is already seeing improvements following the Palantir partnership, a Fox News insider said, “Yes, big time.”
Not all Fox’s humans are delighted by the new tech, however. Homepage editors have been told that their role is mostly to “just check it [the AI’s suggestions] for factual mistakes,” a source with knowledge told Cockburn. “Everybody has been on edge and stressed as Palantir has essentially taken over Digital, especially the homepage,” another source told Cockburn. “Not only have the AI mandates bogged down writers like myself and others, but it has zapped the creativity out of us and made us lazier and more reliant on this technology.”
Cockburn has no beef with Palantir pitching their algorithms to willing American buyers. But still – if one of the nation’s most powerful defense contractors is influencing what news you end up seeing, wouldn’t you want to know? And wouldn’t you want that news outlet to disclose it when, say, that company’s CEO pops up on their business channel?
On our radar
ARABIAN DAYS President Trump has a full schedule of events with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman today. It’s the prince’s first visit to Washington since the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Tuesday’s foreign pooler, Nadia Bilbassy, comes courtesy of Saudi state media; the killing didn’t come up in questions or the briefing that was circulated ahead of time, to the chagrin of several other correspondents…
TATE WITH DESTINY Disgraced White House official Paul Ingrassia intervened in an official capacity on behalf of his former clients the Tate brothers, to get their cell phones returned when they were seized by Customs and Border Patrol, ProPublica reports.
VANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME A Michigan man called J.D. Vance has been jailed for two years for making online threats against an Ohio man called J.D. Vance (the Vice President) and his boss.
Summers lovin’, happened so fast
Former Harvard president and Clinton-era Treasury secretary Larry Summers is “stepping back from public commitments” and is “ashamed” at having asked Jeffrey Epstein for dating advice as recently as 2019 – the year Epstein didn’t kill himself – according to the New York Times. Summers wrote, while pursuing a “love interest” who was seeing another man, “I dint want to be in a gift giving competition while being the friend without benefits.” Oh no he dint! Epstein replied, “shes smart. making you pay for past errors. ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy.”
As the emails are revealing, Jeffrey Epstein was everyone’s daddy. Perhaps Summers would have been better off asking a different New York billionaire for dating tips…
Evening Wood
Cockburn sidled into the cocktail hour at the National Building Museum for the American Enterprise Institute gala a touch after 6:30 last night. Hundreds of guests donned black tie and gathered to see 91-year-old historian Gordon G. Wood receive the Irving Kristol Award. The nonagenarian New Englander drew inspiration from the Founding Fathers in his remarks. Beforehand, AEI president Robert Doar offered a brief tribute to former vice president Dick Cheney, an AEI trustee, whose funeral takes place in DC Thursday. Attendees sipped Cabernet Sauvignon and enjoyed small portions of short rib.
Spotted: Jonah Goldberg; Joshua Katz; Philip Klein; Katherine Mangu-Ward; Megan McArdle and Peter Suderman; Adam and April O’Neal; Chloe Ross; Robby Soave and Byron York.
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