"Yesterday," one reader tweeted me, "adultery had one of its greatest days in history." And one of its lamest, to boot.

The sexiest news in the afternoon came out of North Carolina, where Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson vehemently denied reports that he'd engaged in X-rated talk on adult websites two decades earlier. Later, he also denied having opened an account on Ashley Madison, the notorious adultery exchange, after his email was discovered in the archives. 

But then overnight, we found even more Sex In The City, so to speak. New York magazine suspended its star political reporter Olivia Nuzzi after discovering that she had a sexting relationship with the subject of her reporting ... Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Adultery has gotten weird, man:

New York magazine’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi was placed on leave after she had an alleged romantic relationship with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while covering his campaign. 

Nuzzi, without naming the 70-year-old Kennedy scion, admitted in a Thursday night statement that earlier this year, “the nature of some communications between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal.” ... 

Sources told The Post that Nuzzi and RFK Jr. — the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy — were allegedly sexting while she was engaged and he was married. 

Nuzzi penned a profile on Kennedy that was published in November 2023, and sometime after that, the two began their alleged fling, STATUS news reported, citing sources. 

This is certainly awkward. RFK married actress Cheryl Hines ten years ago, and she has endured a significant amount of personal backlash over the past year after RFK decided to challenge Joe Biden, first as a Democrat and then as an independent. That pales in comparison to the anger and damage Hines has taken after Kennedy endorsed Donald Trump and began campaigning with him. If this is true, it's a terrible way to repay one's spouse for her loyalty.

It's also awkward in the other direction. Nuzzi had been engaged to another political-media star, Ryan Lizza, until very recently. They apparently split up a few weeks ago, according to the New York Post, but few knew why. This might be the reason, but that's unclear at the moment.

And it's also awkward because Nuzzi has publicly pushed back on the idea that women in media use their sexuality to get stories and advance their careers. Instapundit's Ed Driscoll reminds us of this bon mot from over nine years ago:

It's still a valid criticism of Hollywood, but ... it would help if journalists didn't feed into the stereotype.

Nuzzi insists that the relationship never turned physical, and RFK seems to be avoiding the question entirely. That's not the point, however, when it comes to journalistic ethics. You don't report on a subject with whom you have a personal relationship, especially a sexual (or quasi-sexual) relationship, without disclosing it. NY Mag claims that they have gone through Nuzzi's reporting and haven't found any bias in it, but how do we know? How can we trust it? 

One last point nags at me as well, given where we are in the cycle. Having two major sex-ish scandals break against GOP-oriented political figures may just be coincidence, and in fact probably are. But still -- Robinson has been a MAGA favorite, and Kennedy had just started campaigning for Trump a few weeks ago. Suddenly, two media-exposed sex scandals erupt to neuter both of them within 24 hours, and with less than 50 days to the election. That seems very fortuitous to Democrats. Coincidence? Hmmmm.