Abramson out as NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Now that is funny.

 

A handful of female NYT journalists don't seem to appreciate the way others are trying to hijack the narrative to make this all about gender, when they'd like you to understand the truth is, Jill was a pretty awful manager. They're voicing some of this on Twitter tonight. Lydia Polgreen and Patricia Cohen in particular. Lots of male NYT journalists joining in to agree she was just bad at that job and the gender bias stuff is people grasping for a narrative, including Sam Dolnick, deputy sports editor.

Also, Dylan Byers now saying Pinch fired her mostly because she lied about Baquet and one other deputy editor being on board with a hire, when she hadn't actually even consulted them. He's either doing the Times dirty work or throwing more water in the whole "It's because she wanted a raise!" thing.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/arthur-sulzberger-jill-abramson-new-york-times-106796.html#.U3geMZ3ZFPw.twitter

 

Reminds me of baseball, oh, about 39 years ago after Frank Robinson was hired as the first black manager. Real progress, someone said, will have come when a black manager can get fired (on merit, just like any other manager, the implication was).

Feminists should rejoice that we've reached the point where a woman can be dumped for being poor at her job, same as any man. Or is that impossible to concede?

Everyone should stop effin' counting by tribe.

 

Letter to Romenesko

From DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., New York Times science correspondent: A perspective from a member of the Guild’s negotiating team during the 2011-2012 labor struggle. And someone who has been at the Times since 1976.

For those of us in the union, the news that Jill self-destructed over her pay package is bitter. During the negotiations, when we asked newsroom management to fight for us and stop corporate management from gutting our pensions and giving us sub-inflation raises, she carried water for them, making speeches saying we all just had to buckle down and work harder for less. Dean, by contrast, met with us, and listened.

http://jimromenesko.com/2014/05/17/veteran-nyt-reporter-public-spats-hurt-the-times/

 

Arthur speaks out:

"Only I can be autocratic!"


http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/18/arthur-sulzberger-jill-abramson-new-york-times

 

If there's one thing sports journalists ought to know something about, it's firings. They've covered thousands, and some of them, like me, experienced them. The manner of Abramson's dismissal contradicts the statements it was really business as usual, a bad choice being replaced by the chooser. If that was the case, why not the usual platitudes, hypocritical good wishes on all sides press conference, etc? This was personal.
I also would not be surprised if a significant percentage of newsroom employees hated Abramson's guts. I'm sure that's been true of every Times executive editor in its history, as it's pretty much the norm at all newsrooms large enough to develop cliques, factions, etc.

 

I thought the quote was, to the effect, ... when a black manager can get fired (on merit, just like any other manager) but then also gets rehired.

Any black manager can get fired for sucking. But it's giving some of those black managers a second (or even third) chance in a new environment that would mark true progress.

Something like that, anyway.

 

I know NFL coach Ray Rhodes said it, whether he was the first I can't say. Rhodes then became an African American coach who was fired, rehired, and fired again.

 

At this point I think the Cavs are just fucking with Mike Brown.

I'll put 10 bucks on them hiring him one more time, just to fire him. Maybe he's their Billy Martin.

 

Drudge right now:



FIRED FOR BEING A BITCH?

 

Sulzberger said that "the saddest outcome" of his decision to remove Abramson was that it "has been cast by many as an example of the unequal treatment of women in the workplace." Instead, he said it was "a situation involving a specific individual who, as we all do, has strengths and weaknesses."

http://news.yahoo.com/york-times-publisher-outlines-reasons-abramson-ouster-225947806--finance.html


I love that Sulzberger told the entire newsroom, "don't go speculating or trying to find out what happened," and planned to not speak about it any further, but now that he was being made to look bad, is trashing her in every way possible.

 

More from Auletta: Why Jill Abramson Was Fired: Part III