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The terminated New York Times Editor is telling her side of the story to just about everyone.
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Jill Abramson gave a personal interview to Katie Couric for Yahoo News in which she quelled many of the rumors that surrounded her recent firing as the editor of the New York Times.
One issue was the rumor that she clashed with her former deputy and eventual replacement Dean Baquet.
She told Couric, “We’re, like, really in the grassy knoll, Katie, and I’m not going to jump in there with you.”
“It’s like another area, like, of autopsy that, you know, anyone who’s really interested in that issue can go back and read all that was written about it, ” Abramson added.
The journalist also dismissed allegations that she was fired because of sexism, saying, “I don’t see gender as being the whole explanation by any means of what happened. It’s somewhat irksome to me to see so much focus on the issue of why was I fired.”
She is still proud of having made a breakthrough for all women professionals. “I felt that responsibility and am very proud of being the first woman… I was the first woman Washington bureau chief, the first woman managing editor. I wanted definitely to do a good job on behalf of all professional women.”
Abramson says that losing her job did not leave her feeling like a loser. “I was not defeated by being fired. People get fired in this country probably every hour. It was important for to me to show that you can still hold your head up and be resilient and continue a great working life, even if you lose a particular job.”
On criticisms of her management style she said, “As managing editor for eight years and as executive editor for three years, I put out a terrific news report. I am hard-charging, I was certainly aware that some people had already described me as tough. I think a lot of people who worked for me found that inspirational, some people didn’t like it. That is how it is at every news organization that makes a difference.’”
Yahoo is currently attempting to expand into original programming through live streaming. To that end it hired Couric who once co hosted NBC’s the Today Show and also once anchored the CBS evening news.
