Writer Hannah Seligson knew she had a great story on her hands that offered a new look at the controversy surrounding F-Factor diet founder Tanya Zuckerbrot. She pitched it to Elle magazine in February as a look at a new breed of online predators, a narrative that hit at the intersection of wealth, celebrity, and cancel culture.
In April, Seligson filed a draft of her report. Clocking in at 5,000 words, it described — using leaked screenshots of group chats and interviews with former participants in them — a three-year-long vicious revenge campaign by an anonymous online army defending Zuckerbrot from critics of her diet and lifestyle.
The campaign had its roots in a feud between Zuckerbrot and fashion influencer Emily Gellis Lande, who has accused the F-Factor weight loss plan of making people sick and promoting unhealthy diet culture. Zuckerbrot has sued Lande twice for defamation; the cases are pending.
The draft was edited and underwent a legal review by Hearst counsel Andrea Butler and a publish date on Elle’s website was being discussed, Seligson told BI.
But in June, Elle suddenly spiked the story, Seligson said. An email from the article’s editor to Seligson gave no specifics for the decision, citing “editorial judgment.”
“I was irritated they didn’t give me more of a reason,” Seligson told BI. “It’s not sour grapes. Things get killed. It’s about the reasons it got killed.”
A few weeks later, the article’s editor told Seligson the decision was made by Elle’s editor-in-chief, Nina Garcia. Garcia had been in meetings where the story was discussed, according to a knowledgeable source. But at the 11th hour, Garcia expressed concern that the story would be a “takedown,” Seligson’s editor told the writer. The editor called the decision “immensely disappointing.” (BI viewed screenshots of the text exchange between Seligson and her editor.)
Seligson was paid a standard kill fee and took her reporting elsewhere, and in early November, the Daily Beast ran a version of her article. Titled “Inside the Mean-Girl Army Going to War for a Celebrity Dietician,” it runs some 4,500 words and was published one day after a longer Daily Beast investigation on Zuckerbrot’s complex feuds with Gellis Lande and another frenemy influencer. The Daily Beast story was similar to the draft Seligson had filed to Elle, which Business Insider reviewed.
The Daily Beast editor-in-chief Tracy Connor declined to comment.
Sources said Garcia and Zuckerbrot were friendly
Seligson said she emailed Garcia in June asking for an explanation about why the story was killed. “It’s troubling if wealthy and powerful people are seeking to suppress legitimate reporting on an important topic, especially one which you have not let me — the reporter — plead my case on,” she wrote. Seligson said she didn’t hear back.
Two other sources with direct knowledge told BI that Garcia was among the F-Factor diet’s celebrity followers and friendly with its founder. One of the sources said Zuckerbrot pleaded her case with Garcia before it was killed, saying the story would cause her mental distress, citing “everything that was going on.”
At that point, F-Factor was winding down sales of its associated products and had closed its private practice in New York City — a development Zuckerbrot blamed on negative online campaigning against her, the Daily Beast reported in the story published the day before Seligson’s. Zuckerbrot also faces a lawsuit filed by a group of women alleging they were harmed by her products; Zuckerbrot has denied the allegations in court filings and the suit is pending.
Garcia and her reps haven’t responded to multiple requests for comment. Zuckerbrot’s lawyer shared a statement saying: “Tanya Zuckerbrot does not control the media; If she did so, F-Factor, who received unsupportable negative treatment by the media, would still be in business.”
It’s unusual for an editor to kill a story at such a late stage, after it’s been edited and legally vetted. Elle is best known for its fashion and beauty fare, but it has a history of complementing that with coverage of politics and other serious topics; Garcia has pointed to Elle’s reporting on reproductive rights and women’s sports under her leadership.
The episode also points to the sticky territory top editors can find themselves navigating around their personal ties to story subjects and the repercussions those relationships can have on coverage decisions.
Garcia was appointed to her role atop Elle in 2017, succeeding longtime editor-in-chief Robbie Myers. Garcia has spent her career in fashion glossies and has helped redefine the role of fashion editors as a longtime judge on reality TV competition “Project Runway.” In taking the helm at Elle, Garcia said she was “looking to amplify the DNA of the brand. It’s bold, it’s provocative, it’s inclusive, democratic, it’s innovative.”
Two years into Garcia’s tenure, Elle was at the center of a controversy when it fired 26-year columnist E. Jean Carroll, who had published a book that year accusing Donald Trump of raping her. Carroll blamed her firing on his having damaged her reputation; Elle said the decision was business-related and not about politics, The New York Times reported.
Esquire, also owned by Hearst, drew headlines in 2019 when top Hearst executives killed an exposé on Hollywood bigshot director Bryan Singer; The Atlantic went on to publish the story.
Zuckerbrot has denied directing online supporters
Zuckerbrot for her part is known to be vehement in going after her critics. She’s promoted messages on social media that question the integrity of journalists covering F-Factor, and she broadcast where Seligson’s children go to school on Instagram Live, according to Seligson’s Daily Beast article.
Zuckerbrot has insisted she didn’t direct her online supporters to defend her and denied she has any control over what they post, but she’s praised and thanked them publicly online, Seligson reported. Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out October 7, Zuckerbrot has stopped talking about F-Factor on social media and has focused largely on the conflict.
The intensity of Zuckerbrot’s fan base is on full display in an Instagram Live that Zuckerbrot broadcast after Seligson asked her for comment for the Daily Beast article. While the broadcast is no longer available, screenshots of it viewed by BI show how zealously Zuckerbrot’s fans can behave in the face of threats of negative press coverage of the F-Factor founder.
“Let’s go to the editors — between us we all know so many people,” wrote one commenter. “You are vile Hannah Seligson” wrote another.
When Seligson reached out to egtruthfully, an Instagram account that’s been a fierce defender of Zuckerbrot and which she has praised and thanked on Instagram Live, for comment on the Daily Beast article, the account responded with a long tirade, also viewed by Business Insider, calling her a “bottom feeding sad, pathetic woman who is desperate for relevancy at any cost.”
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