Vanity Fair And Their Epstein Puff Piece

​In her March 2003 Vanity Fair profile, "The Talented Mr. Epstein," journalist Vicky Ward portrayed Jeffrey Epstein as a mysterious financier with opulent tastes and elite connections, including ties to Leslie Wexner and flights with celebrities like Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey. However, the article omitted serious allegations from sisters Maria and Annie Farmer, who had shared with Ward their accounts of sexual abuse by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in the 1990s. Ward later revealed that these on-the-record claims were excluded from the final piece, allegedly due to pressure from Epstein himself, who confronted Vanity Fair's editor-in-chief, Graydon Carter, during the article's fact-checking phase .

This editorial decision has been widely criticized as a significant journalistic failure. Ward has expressed that she felt intimidated by Epstein's threats, which included personal menaces during her pregnancy, leading her to hire security for her newborn twins . The omission of the Farmers' allegations allowed Epstein to maintain his public image and continue his abusive behavior unchecked for years. It wasn't until 2019 that investigative reporting by Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald brought renewed scrutiny to Epstein's crimes, culminating in his arrest and subsequent death .

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source:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/why-didnt-vanity-fair-break-the-jeffrey-epstein-story