Former Top NY Times Editor Thrilled to Say 'Hillary Clinton Would Make a Good President'

November 9th, 2014 7:33 AM

Kelly McBride at Poynter.org reported former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson’s hour-long “keynote interview” at a women’s journalism conference last weekend in La Quinta, California. Among her newsworthy statements: “Hillary Clinton would make a good president.” McBride added: “Abramson said she enjoyed being unfettered enough to say that.”

This is interesting, since in July, Abramson complained Hillary expects the press to be "100 percent in her corner," especially if you're female:

Hillary Clinton, whom she met in 1978, while Bill Clinton was running for governor. At the time, Abramson found her to be friendly and very helpful as a source. But once Hillary became first lady, their relationship cooled. “Hillary is incredibly unrealistic about journalists,” Abramson told me. “She expects you to be 100 percent in her corner, especially women journalists. She got angry with me because when I became the top-ranking woman at the New York Times, she thought I should be loyal. An editor is going to be independent, always.”

So Abramson wants a female president who expects female journalists to be her “100-percent” publicists.

“I think maybe one of the points Jill was making is that I do sometimes expect perhaps more than I should,” Clinton responded in July in an interview on NPR. “And I’ll have to work on my expectations, but I had an excellent relationship with the State Department press that followed me for four years and enjoyed working with them, and whatever I do in the future, I look forward to having the same kind of opportunities.”

In other words, she wants a press corps full of "team players" like Anne Gearan of The Washington Post or Amie Parnes of The Hill.

Abramson said Hillary expects the press to be "100 percent in her corner," especially if  you're female:

Hillary Clinton, whom she met in 1978, while Bill Clinton was running for governor. At the time, Abramson found her to be friendly and very helpful as a source. But once Hillary became first lady, their relationship cooled. “Hillary is incredibly unrealistic about journalists,” Abramson told me. “She expects you to be 100 percent in her corner, especially women journalists. She got angry with me because when I became the top-ranking woman at the New York Times, she thought I should be loyal. An editor is going to be independent, always.”

- See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2014/07/19/former-nyt-editor-hillary-expects-journalists-be-100-percent-her-corner-#sthash.6MhVH1kY.dpuf