Jill Abramson Strikes Defiant Tone in New York Times Feud
Stand Her Ground: Fired New York Times editor Jill Abramson is not backing down in her feud with publisher Arthur Sulzberger. And she’s not getting rid of her famed ‘T’ tattoo, either. Image by getty images
(Reuters) — Ousted New York Times editor Jill Abramson struck a defiant note in her first public remarks since the newspaper fired her, urging a group of university graduates to fight back in the face of adversity.
“Some of you, and now I’m talking to anybody who has been dumped … You know the sting of losing and not getting something you badly want. When that happens, show them what you are made of,” she said during a commencement speech at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
Abramson’s remarks came less than a week after her dismissal by publisher Arthur Sulzberger, which has triggered accusations of sexism and management issues at the Times and cast a spotlight on the internal politics of its newsroom. Sulzberger is a member of the family that controls the New York Times Co .
David Carr, the newspaper’s media columnist, on Monday compared the fallout from her firing to a bloody episode of “Game of Thrones.”
The media frenzy surrounding the circumstances comes on reports that Abramson refused a payout package.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
While she acknowledged the controversy, Abramson never directly addressed the acrimonious details during her speech.
Instead she touched on many influences in her life, including her parents, Katharine Graham – who led her family’s newspaper as publisher of The Washington Post, and her Times colleague James Risen.
She said her fighting spirit was lifted by a message sent to her last week by Anita Hill, the attorney who had accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during hearings on his nomination as U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1991. Abramson co-wrote a book with New Yorker writer Jane Mayer about Thomas.
“Anita wrote me last week to say she was proud of me. That meant so much,” Abramson said.
During her tenure at the Times, Abramson famously had the newspaper’s iconic “T” tattooed on her back. When asked if she was going to remove it, she answered “not a chance.”
“I thought it was great,” said Kelley Thompson of Maumelle, Arkansas, who was at Wake Forest to see her son graduate, after Abramson’s speech. “She approached it head-on. It was a difficult problem and she didn’t hide from it.”
Abramson was the first woman to serve as the top editor of the Times. She was replaced by her deputy Dean Baquet, who is the first African-American to lead the newsroom.
SULZBERGER ON THE DEFENSIVE
In a statement on Saturday, Sulzberger defended his actions, saying it was Abramson’s management skills that led to her firing. He ticked off a list of reasons for the decision, including Abramson’s “arbitrary decision-making and public mistreatment of colleagues.”
One incident that may have contributed directly to her dismissal was Abramson’s courting of Guardian editor Janine Gibson to serve as her deputy without informing other senior editors, according to media reports. That angered Baquet and Sulzberger, the reports said.
In his statement, the publisher also flatly denied accusations that Abramson was paid less as executive editor than her predecessor or she was fired because of her gender.
In closing her speech, Abramson related an anecdote about her mother’s knitting projects: some of them turned out and others were itchy, she said, but her mother never stopped working hard and taking chances.
“So today, you gorgeous brilliant people, get on with your knitting.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
