Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts

by Jill Abramson

Any narrative, even one that is scrupulously factual and deserving of the omniscient third-person voice of the journalist-historian, is subjective by nature. The lens through which events are seen inevitably colors how they are interpreted and presented. The story I have presented is an attempt to be factual and historical, to be guided by reporting and the testimony of key participants. Because I am inextricably connected to the New York Times, and during this time was managing editor, the second in command of the newsroom, the events that follow involved me in such a direct and personal way that the detachment necessary for distanced authority is impossible. A third-person accounting of my part in the story would be disingenuous. Just as there is no pure objectivity in journalism, a profession filled with human frailties, I cannot pretend to be objective about all of my experiences at the Times.

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