Fired NYT Editor Jill Abramson Says She Never Saw It Coming (Video)

I’m “a hard-charging editor and I’m sure people worked for me that didn’t like that style,” she tells Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren

In the first television interview since her very public firing, former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson talked candidly about what she described as the “hurtful situation” on Fox News’ “On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren.”

Abramson said she didn’t see the firing coming, though she did admit to what she described as “bumps” and “difficult situations” with her bosses during her tenure as the Times’ top editor. “Yeah. I mean, of course,” Abramson answered Van Susteren’s question about whether it’s tough to get fired. “It’s like a hurtful situation. And my firing was so public, as you just pointed out. It’s mighty strange from going one day from being an editor of stories to being the story.”

Also read: Greta Van Susteren Outfoxes Katie Couric With Jill Abramson Scoop

Van Susteren then asked Abramson why she lost her job. “It was said, because of my management style,” she answered. “And a hard-charging editor and I’m sure people worked for me that didn’t like that style.”

Abramson, a former investigative correspondent and Washington editor of the Times, was the first woman to serve in the paper’s top job. She was named executive editor in 2011. In May 2014, she was replaced by Dean Baquet.

Also read: Jill Abramson to Teach at Harvard This Fall

Despite everything, Abramson said she still loves the Times. “The bottom line of the situation is that when I was executive editor, I loved The New York Times and so believe that it’s the best publication there is,” Abramson said. “And after I was fired, I believe exactly the same thing. I spend more time reading it now than I could when I worked there.”

Abramson is in the middle of a media blitz. On Tuesday morning she gave an interview to WABC-AM 770’s drive-time radio show, “The Ride Home,” with Pat Kiernan and Rita Cosby, while an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, conducted six weeks ago, was also published Tuesday. She’s also set to talk to Katie Couric for Yahoo News on Thursday.

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