If you had never heard of Jill Abramson before, last week was probably your week. When Abramson was unceremoniously fired from her post as the executive editor of the New York Times last week, Twitter tweeted the news in circular fashion. Media outlets delved deeper, and then deeper still, trying to glean what had really happened and figure out what it all really meant. The rest of the world was surely not as enthralled with the dramatic trickle of information about the Times’ former top newsperson, but, it turns out, not everyone in the media was that into it either.
Enter Ira Glass. The host of “This American Life” gave a brief interview to New York magazine on Monday, and Glass, invariably, was asked what he thought of the whole week-that-was at the Times. And the answer, in short, was: not much.
Here’s a brief excerpt from the interview:
[NYM:] Jill Abramson was fired.
[Ira Glass:] I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Jill Abramson got fired from the New York Times.
Okay. And she was who?
The executive editor.
Okay. I read the newspaper, but I live in my own little bubble. When did that happen?
Wednesday. And it’s been a massive … the blogosphere is going wild.
I hate reading media news so I actively sort of — I’m not interested in someone getting fired. No disrespect to people that are, but I literally had no idea who she was, or that she got fired until this moment.
