Ex-NY Times Editor Jill Abramson Admits Her New Book Has Problems, Will Correct In Future Editions
Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson admitted today that several passages in her new book, Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts, might contain passages that substantially mimic the language found in other sources.
Abramson has been under fire after a Wednesday night report from Vice News outlined that some of her book’s passages seemed to be taken from other sources. The accusations were made in a series of tweets by reporter Michael Moynihan. Vice News is one of four news organizations Abramson studied in the book.
She responded today in a statement issued through her publisher, Simon & Schuster.
“I was up all night going through my book because I take these claims of plagiarism so seriously,” she said. “I tried above all to accurately and properly give attribution to the many hundreds of sources that were part of my research.”
Abramson conceded, “The notes don’t match up with the right pages in a few cases and this was unintentional and will be promptly corrected. The language is too close in some cases and should have been cited as quotations in the text. This, too, will be fixed.”
Simon & Schuster told The New York Times that it would work with Abramson to correct the passages and clarify sourcing in future print editions and in the e-book.
Moynihan cited articles from The Ryerson Review, The New Yorker and The Columbia Journalism Review that contained passages similar to those appearing in Abramson’s book.
Abramson was fired as the Times executive editor in spring 2014.