Not Beating The Charges

Journalists - people who work for the New York Times, people who used to work for the New York Times (white ones, anyway), people who desperately want to work for the New York Times, especially - will defend that place to the death against the rabid lambs of the internet, and then the New York Times does this. 

A couple of times I saw Nuzzi/Lizza referred to as a journalism "power couple." I don't think journalism should have "power couples" and I think if journalists were serious about defending the, well, seriousness of their practices and institutions they would vocally object to such things themselves.

If her journalism and her "ethical" practices related to journalism are what gets elevated by the people who make such choices, then you should consider that their critics have a point.

There might even be a defense of a kind of "fallen star" memoir if she had, in fact, fallen, instead of just being handed an editor gig at one of the few publications that still pays salaries (Vanity Fair).