The Jewish Daily Forward: Jill Abramson Champions Freedom of the Press

“She was reading the New York Times before she could transfer to a bottle,”Gail Sheehy said of Jill Abramson, at the July 15 reception she hosted at her Manhattan duplex for the former executive editor of The New York Times.

Author of 16 books — including megahit “Passages,” Sheehy touted Abramson as “among the first to invade the all-male testosterone preserve at Harvard…and because of her, the New York Times has an equal number of men and women on [its] masthead.”

Sponsored by The Common Good as part of its Leadership Series, the more than 50 guests included former, still active and young wannabe journalists. Standing on a white plastic stool — so she could be seen — barefoot in-a-chic-black and white pattern sleeveless dress, Abramson declared: ”The First Amendment is first for a reason… Jefferson famously said if you had to choose between having a country with a government and no newspapers — or the opposite — he would say that having newspapers is more important than the government. The founders of this country were desperately afraid of highly centralized power and believed that a free press was necessary to hold the government accountable to the people” and that “stories from [accused] whistle-blowers — if they are indeed the sources — were very much in the spirit Jefferson envisioned.”

- Masha Leon for The Jewish Daily Forward (now Forward), READ MORE

NY Daily News: Jill Abramson Gives First Interview Since Fired From Executive Editor Job at N.Y. Times, Says She Has ‘Very Few Regrets’

Jill Abramson, former executive editor of The New York Times, has “very few regrets” about her tenure at the paper, she said Tuesday in her first broadcast interview since her public firing.

“I look back on it with a lot of pride. I had a wonderful time (at the paper), I loved being both a reporter and an editor there,” she told Pat Kiernan and Rita Cosby, co-hosts of 77WABC show “The Ride Home.”

Abramson, 60, was abruptly fired from her executive editor spot by Times' publisher Arthur Sulzberger in May — allegedly over her rough edges in the newsroom and her complaints when she discovered she was being paid less than her male predecessor.

The veteran journalist said it had been tough on her when the news broke — and she found herself the topic of the day's headlines[…]

Abramson, who was scheduled to give a speech later Tuesday for The Common Good, a nonpartisan reform coalition, loosened up when the talk turned to the state of political reporting.

She expressed concerns that social media had elevated the importance of "momentary buzz" over real, on-the-ground political reporting.

- Ginger Adams Otis for the NY Daily News, READ MORE

Women’s Wear Daily: Jill Abramson’s Media Blitz

Jill Abramson, the recently ousted executive editor of The New York Times, is suddenly everywhere. Perhaps to the dismay of her former employer.

Abramson, who was dismissed in May, gave two interviews on Tuesday, one on WABC 77 AM radio with Rita Cosby and Pat Kiernan, and the other with nonprofit organization The Common Good. While the latter touched on the state of political journalism, the former addressed her departure from the newspaper[…]

- Alexandra Steigrad for Women’s Wear Daily, READ MORE

New York Post: Jill Abramson is ‘not ashamed’ of NYT firing

Ousted New York Times editor Jill Abramson said she feels no shame following being fired – and doesn’t even really miss the prestigious gig, a new interview revealed Tuesday.

“Is it hard to say I was fired? No. I’ve said it about 20 times, and it’s not. I was in fact insistent that that be publicly clear because I was not ashamed of that,” Abramson, 60, said.

“And I don’t think young women — it’s hard, I know — they should not feel stigmatized if they are fired. Especially in this economy people are fired right and left for arbitrary reasons, and there are sometimes forces beyond your control.” […]

- Bob Fredericks for The New York Post, READ MORE