On a week when Congress is getting its collective act together to release everything related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, the press reminded us that they're not much better. Epstein, by himself, was a symptom of the much broader rot in the political, media, and finance ecosystem, and we have the press to thank for proving it.

The other story running in tandem this week is the ever-growing scandal around Olivia Nuzzi and her illicit relationship with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In any normal period, we'd look at this and see an everyday affair. It's not good that it's between a journalist and the man she was tasked with covering, but it's also what we've come to expect from the Kennedy clan.

RFK Jr. is a lot of things, but he didn't fall from the tree when it comes to unfaithful dalliances with women. There's not a wife in that family that hasn't been cheated on or flat-out mistreated.

But that's not where the focus is. This week, that focus has turned back on the woman he was cheating with, Olivia Nuzzi. She has somehow resurrected her career at Vanity Fair and is releasing a book about her time with Kennedy. The book "American Canto" is getting the exclusive treatment at Vanity Fair, which has released an excerpt.

This might have been where it all ended, but we do not live in the Garden of Eden, and these are not saints.

The part Nuzzi left out of most of her telling is that she was engaged throughout this entire episode to another man, Ryan Lizza. And he's raining on her parade by telling his side of this at the same time on his personal substack. They're both using this moment to attack each other and grow their own personal brand.

The brain sickness aside, what he revealed took this entire episode to the next level. It turns out not only was she cheating on Ryan Lizza, but she'd also had an affair with Keith Olbermann, of ESPN and MSNBC fame, and also had an affair with Mark Sanford, the former disgraced Republican Governor of South Carolina.

That last bombshell revelation, her affair with Sanford, was while she was covering his brief presidential run in the 2020 race. I had to go back and remind myself that he'd actually run in 2020. Because Mark Sandford is actually famous for disappearing as Governor, claiming he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, when in reality he was hiding his own affairs in another country.

The Sanford affair was one of the wildest incidents during the Obama administration.

In short, we have a reporter sleeping with what feels like most of her primary subjects. Internet observers were quick to note that she also covered Mike Pence closely, but Pence, famously, has a policy of not meeting alone with single women like Nuzzi. Mike Pence's rule likely saved him from a massive liability in the form of Olivia Nuzzi.

As much as we can dwell on the sewer-dwelling lives of the rich and famous, the broad observation here is that Olivia Nuzzi is in the middle of a career rehab. She's moved from the East Coast to the West Coast, but she's still covering politics for Vanity Fair. She's being welcomed in with open arms by a press that sees little wrong here and is actively painting her as the victim.

Lizza, for all the embarrassment this brings him, is going to use it to build his own audience. Neither of them is worth following for any unique insights or wisdom. They are distinctly below-average journalistic replacements. And yet, the elite public opinion makers are rushing out to protect their own.

And this is the point about people like Jefferey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and the rest. They were protected for years because these same press outlets and journalists protected them. Epstein had numerous stories spiked by other outlets. It's only because we got a real journalist, Julie K. Brown, breaking this story at the Miami Herald that Epstein's empire got toppled.

Weinstein controlled Hollywood and outlets like Vanity Fair. When they finally broke, we got the truth after decades of everyone joking about it.

For all the things we allegedly learned from the #MeToo era and more, what this week teaches is that little has changed. The press is protecting its own, despite overwhelming evidence that Nuzzi has no business being anywhere near political reporting. If you're a man and she covers you, why would you let her anywhere near your campaign? She can't be trusted.

I'm not saying she shouldn't work again. But I am saying this is a moment where the press is beclowning itself. Just this week, everyone is faking outrage in the media because Trump called a female reporter "Piggy."

I'll openly admit Trump's remark was wrong. He shouldn't have said it. But it's also just that, a remark. Where is the accountability from a mass of people who are openly welcoming a woman who sleeps with her journalistic marks?

Olivia Nuzzi is single-handedly setting back female journalists in the profession. Those kinds of questions come from a press hyper-interested in Trump. And only because Trump is in office do we get scrutiny of Epstein.

When the Epstein story actually mattered, when he was alive and victims were being harmed, the press spiked these same stories. They never saw the light of day. It's hard to feel anything but contempt for a group that hides the big stories, protects the profane within its midst, and only attacks its political enemies.

Trump can call them whatever he wants at this rate. What standing do they have to combat them? Olivia Nuzzi, Ryan Lizza, Harvey Weinstein, and Jeffrey Epstein are all cut of the same cloth as CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and the rest.