In Media Res: Jill Abramson proves ’60s-era predecessor wrong; ABC lands Duggard exclusive

Joe Pompeo
·Media Reporter

Dead man eats words: "No woman will ever be an editor at the New York Times." That is what Clifton Daniel, the paper's former managing editor told Eileen Shanahan, its first female Washington bureau reporter, during a job interview in 1961. Of course there went on to be many women editors at the Times. And not least, there's the woman who eventually inherited Daniel's old job, Jill Abramson. Abramson has been promoted from ME; she is taking over the top editorial slot at the paper starting Sept. 6, around the same time that Daniel, who died in 2000, is expected to roll over in his grave.

But who is this Jill Abramson character, anyway? For one, she is on the cover of this week's redesigned New York Observer, which includes a lengthy profile of the soon-to-be "Lady of Gray." What will change at Times once she takes the reins? "There will be a far different management style from up top," writes WWD's John Koblin, whose senior newsroom source tell him: "She's just a much bigger presence."

The case of the not-real 30 dead bodies: Perhaps Abramson will take care to avoid flubs like this one, in which the paper of record's official Twitter account blasted out a news alert reporting that "Up to 30 Dismembered Bodies Found Near Houston"--only to swiftly retract the alert once the 30 or so dismembered bodies failed to turn up near Houston--or anywhere else for that matter. To be fair, the Times was re-sourcing a Reuters news alert--which in turn relied on "local media reports" that turned out to be wrong. All that authorities were actually doing was trying to investigate a tip they'd received about these alleged dead bodies. And said tip actually came from an area psychic.

So the lesson to be learned from all of this? "That even in this age of intense competition and instant reporting, it's important for news outlets to remember that they should stick to what they know, not what they think on stories like this," writes Mark Memmott of NPR, which is no stranger to breathless reporting errors. (Remember when NPR killed off Gabriel Giffords in its reporting on the Tucson, Ariz., shootings earlier this year?) " And that some seemingly old-fashioned kinds of things — such as attributing information, waiting to hear from multiple sources and being very, very careful about how we phrase our reports — are still important."

Exclusive: Multiple news organizations were gunning for an interview with Jaycee Lee Dugard, the 31-year-old California woman who endured 18 years of isolation and sexual abuse after a psychotic couple had kidnapped her at age 11. ABC News has landed the first one, to be conducted by Diane Sawyer and aired sometime in July to coincide with the release of Duggard's memoir, "A Stolen Life." According to a press release, "Dugard will be asked about the extraordinary and heartbreaking story of her captivity, her reunion with her family," and the book.

Media Moves: Matt Cooper has been named editor of National Journal Daily. Columbia Journalism Review is looking for an editor-in-chief. The New York Times is on the hunt internally for a deputy media editor. We hear that New York Observer real estate reporter Laura Kusisto is jumping ship for the Wall Street Journal. And that Elizabeth Dwoskin is leaving the Village Voice to become a staff reporter at the Washington D.C. bureau of Bloomberg Businessweek.

(Photo of Abramson via nytimes.com)