The New York Times' Shameful Hit Piece on Nicole Shanahan (*Updated)

A Salacious, Misogynistic ‘Examination’ of Kennedy’s Running Mate is a New Low for the NYT

By Blake Fleetwood, columnist, The Kennedy Beacon

I love The New York Times. I have read the Times cover to cover for more than 60 years. I worked for the Times and wrote a number of front-page articles. I wrote a front-page magazine story.

It used to be a great paper, and sometimes it still is.

But on many issues it spews out relentless propaganda on behalf of the status quo or a favorite cause. If it takes the side of one political party, as it has done, how can anyone take it seriously as an impartial news agency?

The Times has gone berserk with its unethical and unprofessional coverage of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and anyone associated with him and all third-party candidates. They are blinded by a Donald Trump derangement syndrome and are convinced that Kennedy will take votes from Biden (unclear), which will lead to Trump’s re-election. The Times seems to be publishing a cascade of negative stories trashing Kennedy and anyone else they consider a threat.

As Kennedy says, “The New York Times has become a mouthpiece of the Democratic National Committee.”

The Times published facts illegally drawn from Kennedy's divorce depositions, which were sealed by the Westchester Surrogate’s Court, as reported by The Kennedy Beacon. (The divorce was never finalized.) Kennedy could potentially bring criminal charges against the leaker, but he probably won’t.

Now comes this startling smear—which the Times called “an examination”—against  Kennedy’s vice presidential running mate, Nicole Shanahan. Originally given the online, clickbait title “A Running Mate’s History: $1 Billion, Cocaine, a Fling With Elon Musk,” the Times chose to soften its tabloid headline in its May 23 print edition, with “Turbulence in ‘Fairy Tale’ Life Of Running Mate for Kennedy.” But the content of the article remains the same.

The article reports salacious gossip of a sexual nature more befitting supermarket tabloids National Enquirer, the Daily Mail, or the Star, spread by dozens of anonymous sources.

The Times reported that “Shanahan paid more than $200,000” to a photographer to take magazine photos. When asked, the photographer Will Davidson replied “Gee, I wish I could charge that much.”

What do we learn?

Shanahan used illegal drugs in her twenties (this startling gossip is sourced by eight anonymous people). Wow! So have 100 million other Americans under the age of 50 used drugs. Big deal. 

She had various relationships in her twenties. Misogynistic allegations. So have another 100 million people.

She had relationships with Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google (married him),  Jeremy Kranz (married him), and allegedly Elon Musk, which they both deny. She threatened to harm herself, three anonymous people said.

This is all pure People Magazine, which would have never made it into a story in the Times in the past.

Gossip from a former husband who is not named or directly quoted. 

If the Times wants to continue publishing this anonymous gossip, they should hire Donald Trump’s friend David Pecker from the National Enquirer. He is an expert at digging and paying for dirt.

“I’m shocked the NYT is letting you run something like this,” Shanahan texted reporter Kirsten Grind after being asked intimate questions about her sexual encounters.

Grind also tried to get something from Tony Lyons, co-chair of the super PAC, American Values 2024 [which funds The Kennedy Beacon]. In texts shared by Lyons with the Beacon, it’s clear Grind distorted the true focus of her article. “Just tell me a bit about the article so I can think about it a bit before we talk,” Lyons responded to Grind. She shot back, “Oh for sure - it’s just a profile of Nicole!” She added, “So from your perch, love to hear what donors think of her/why she was chosen, what you all knew about her etc. Have you ever been to burning man etc.”

In her article, Grind writes, without any named sources: “Mr. Kennedy, who is running as an independent, picked Ms. Shanahan without his advisers having looked fully into her history or where her money was coming from, two people familiar with the campaign said. By then, she had already become a crucial financier of his run.” Team Kennedy has vehemently denied this claim, saying Shanahan was fully vetted.

Some of the information on Shanahan may have come from Matthew Hiltzik, a lawyer and public relations guru with deep ties to Democratic politicians; he worked on the campaigns of Chuck Schumer, Eliot Spitzer, and Hillary Clinton. Hiltzik is one of the few people named in the article, which is usually a ‘tell’ that he influenced its contents. 

In the Times’ telling, Shanahan hired Hiltzik to help her become a famous philanthropist on the order of MacKenzie Scott. Grind disingenuously describes Hiltzik as “a publicist who has worked with Katie Couric and other high-profile women.” What she doesn’t tell readers is how many of his high-profile clients were big-name Democrats. Nor does she mention Miramax Films and disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, for whom Hiltzik was a key spokesperson until 2005. In fact, according to former Times Hollywood correspondent, Sharon Waxman, Hiltzik was one of several people who convinced the Times to shut down her 2004 expose on Weinstein, which would have included details about his procurement of women – years before #metoo and Weinstein’s downfall in 2017.

Equally important, Hiltzik is close friends with political strategist and “swamp creature” Lis Smith, who is part of Biden’s multi-million dollar hit squad set up to target Kennedy and peddle misleading stories on him to the mainstream media, notably the Times. Hiltzik encouraged Smith to write a book about her experiences, which was published as Any Given Tuesday in 2022.

The Times did not publish even a hint of Shanahan's incredible life story, which includes her transition from a food stamp childhood to college, law school, and a Stanford fellowship. It also includes her work as a tech entrepreneur, founder of ClearAccessIP and the Bia-Echo Foundation, Silicon Valley player, and philanthropist.

‘The paper of record’ did not ask her about her political views on AI, criminal justice, the health crisis in America, or what she intended to focus on as vice president. Normal questions for a political candidate. 

As San Francisco Magazine put it, “From criminal justice reform to regenerative agriculture and reproductive longevity, Nicole Shanahan is fighting the good fight.”

One wonders if the Times will do a similar “examination” of the sex life of Vice President Kamala Harris, who had a long affair with the powerful speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown, a married man; Harris was 29, and he was 60.  Brown appointed an unqualified Harris to high-paying state positions.

The internet is rife with accusations that Harris “slept her way to the top”. Brown admits that he helped Harris politically in her first race for District Attorney in San Francisco. “His career is over; I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing,” Harris told SF Weekly.

In 2001, Harris dated talk show host Montel Williams and several other powerful and connected men before settling on a rich husband. 

But this kind of dirt and scandal is not what we should be looking for in a person “one heartbeat away from the presidency." 

One Times reader, JDO, from Salem, commented on the salacious Shanahan article, “Does any of this have anything to do with how well she can govern now? I’m not voting for the Kennedy ticket, but I’ve always thought we put way too much emphasis on personal matters in US politics. Usually, it’s no one else’s business and has little to do with the ability to lead or govern.”

Another Times reader, Kristin, MD from Pennsylvania, wrote about Shanahan, “Great choice. It would be nice to see a real human being, imperfect like all of us, as a vice president.  I am voting for Kennedy. You should  too.”

The Times should be addressing the question of who is most qualified to deal with the existential problems facing Americans: the chronic health epidemic; the growing 34 trillion deficit; and the endless wars that are created by an aggressive military-industrial complex. 

Blake Fleetwood was formerly a reporter on the staff of The New York Times and has written for The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Daily News, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Village Voice, Atlantic, and the Washington Monthly on a number of issues.