PASSING THE BUCK

Sulzberger Blames Abramson for Drama

In his first interview.

New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. gave his first interview Tuesday after the controversial firing of Jill Abramson last week. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Sulzberger squarely placed the blame for the PR disaster surrounding the executive editor's resignation on the woman herself. “We originally drafted the whole thing to be very amicable,” Sulzberger said of the Times statement, but “Jill said no.” He added: “It wasn’t as though we went out to hurt her. We didn’t.... It was my hope for Jill that we could make this go away as peacefully as possible.” Sulzberger claimed Abramson alienated herself from her colleagues by being aloof and not spending enough time in the newsroom. Ultimately, Sulzberger said he had to choose between keeping her and Dean Baquet, the then-managing editor. Losing Baquet also meant potentially losing other staff members who would've followed him out the door, Sulzberger said.