The New York Times Fires Jill Abramson, First-Ever Female General Editor

Well, that didn’t take long. The New York Times, often criticized (or lauded, as the case may be) for its liberal bias, has fired Jill Abramson, its first-ever female Executive Editor, after only three short years.

And why did the New York Times fire her? Apparently, she was “pushy.” Whatever that means. I was under the impression that “pushiness” was a desirable trait in a newspaper man, er, woman. Apparently not in this case.

The problem was that Abramson wasn’t just pushy about getting stories. She was also pushy with her superiors … about money. Especially contentious was the fact that she wanted a pay raise in order to make her compensation commensurate with the former male general editor of the New York Times, Bill Keller.

And that really puts an interesting spin on the situation:

Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times, said that Jill Abramson’s total compensation as executive editor “was directly comparable to [former executive editor] Bill Keller’s”—though it was not actually the same.

Hmmm. What exactly does “exactly comparable” mean, anyway? And good job hiring a woman as your spokesperson for this announcement, New York Times. That softens the blow just a little bit. And on top of that, it was a veritable master stroke of PR management to replace Jill Abramson with a black man, Dean Baquet. It would be terrible, of course, if he were just a man. But at least he’s black.

The real issue here is that the New York Times probably made more of a financial decision than a political one. It’s likely that they’re suffering, along with all print media, in a digital world, and paying an executive editor more just doesn’t make much sense in that scenario.

But isn’t it interesting how, even for a liberal paper, economics ultimately trumps political correctness—when it’s not someone else’s money you’re spending, that is.

15 responses

  1. Wheres the outcries of war on women???!!!! Where’s @LAbobie talking about how this is anti women?? Where are all the Liberal commenter damning the NY Times???

  2. Does anyone still read that elitist propaganda rag? When was the last time they reported anything important.

  3. Quoting a recent State Dept. head, “What difference does it make….?” Gender is not all that important at a place that makes cat litter box and birdcage liners, is it? The invention of a good self-cleaning cat litter box will put most so-called newspapers around this country out of business, particularly the Grey Lady. It’s not just the internet, it’s their latter day inability to understand what the term Journalism actually means.

  4. There are a number of theories as to why she was fired. Those theories include that because she’s a woman, she was getting lower pay when compared to her peers, her poor attitude, too ambitious for a woman and short temper.

    So far, no one knows the reason why she was fired – including the author of this article. I’d like to know more facts.

      • How true. When boardrooms want to keep secrecy they usually offer a nice golden umbrella and a separation contract. Contracts usually outline what the former employee can say about the company.

        If I were her I’d take the money and run.

    • I hope you don’t get all your “hard information” from a site like Last Resistance. Isn’t the purpose of an online paper like this the fact that most of its writing is done VOLUNTARILY by people expressing their OPINIONS?

      I’m glad to hear other opinions when I know they’re opinions… rather than being told an article is fact when it really IS just liberal opinion crafted to sound factual.

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  6. Yeah, but she drove the NY Times readership to new all time lows. If it weren’t for libtard, MSM “news people” the Times wouldn’t have any readership at all.

  7. Actually 2 of my 3 younger children (43 and 37) live in Battery Park and Brooklyn. Both have MAs from UT/AUSTIN. After BAs from JHU and Pomona.
    They are so busy, I have no clue if they have time to read anything.
    retired expatriate MD: NBME; ABIM; ABNM; ABR w/spec comp NR

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