Ousted New York Times editor Jill Abramson shot down reports that she clashed with her former deputy Dean Baquet as “grassy knoll” speculation in an interview with Katie Couric.
“We’re, like, really in the grassy knoll, Katie, and I’m not going to jump in there with you,” Abramson said during Thursday’s sit-down with Couric, Yahoo’s global news anchor.
The former first female executive editor of the broadsheet also blew off questions about her compensation and reports that she was paid less than her male counterparts at the paper.
“It’s like another area, like, of autopsy that, you know, anyone who’s really interested in that issue can go back and read all that was written about it,” she told Couric.
“I’m not going to talk about my pay on your show.”
Abramson also appeared exasperated when Couric — no stranger to gender politics as the first female anchor on the evening news — asked if gender played a role in her dismissal.
“I don’t see gender as being the whole explanation by any means of what happened,” she said. “It’s somewhat irksome to me to see so much focus on the issue of why was I fired.”
Abramson, who is suddenly making the media rounds after Baquet replaced her as executive editor in May, also dismissed the idea of writing a book about her experiences, saying “maybe 20 people in the universe” would be interested in reading it.