Former NYT Editor Jill Abramson Spars with Fox’s Harris Faulkner Over Bari Weiss Resignation: If You ‘Dish It Out’…

Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson sparred with Fox News Channel’s Harris Faulkner, Wednesday, over the controversial and very public resignation letter from now-former opinion editor for the NYT Bari Weiss.

Abramson was on guard from the start of the interview on FNC’s Outnumbered Overtime, offering as her first point that the news of Weiss departing and writing her scathing letter were relatively trivial, implying Fox and Faulkner were blowing it out of proportion.

“Jill, you and I tend to come together at these moments, when there is crisis at The Times,” said Faulkner. “Talk to me about this particular one, and the importance of now your — wider public understanding, potentially, that there is a quieting of centrist and conservative views in the opinion section of The New York Times.”

“I think that the departure of one junior-level opinion editor at The New York Times is really a molehill, compared to the mountains of news developments that you have just been talking about on your show,” said Abramson. “Her — Bari Weiss’ letter was a strong letter, certainly. And it was bound to get some reaction, but, in the scheme of things, it does not spell crisis for The New York Times.”

Abramson added that the paper is “doing just fine” and that President Donald Trump is wrong saying people are “fleeing” from the publication.

“The truth is, it has more subscribers than ever in its history and more readersm. And that’s really the measure of success, not who is coming on staff and who is departing,” she said, glossing over the major and ongoing discussion and controversy about bias that resulted from the scathing letter. A discussion that is taking place in arguably the most charged media atmosphere in American political history.

“You know, I appreciate you wanting to compare it to what’s happening today with the NYPD top uniformed officer being attacked,” Faulkner smoothly fired back. “And, of course, we all know the difference between that and an employee leaving The New York Times. So, I — I don’t know that we needed the lesson on that, as much as we need to understand from someone who led so many at The Times how valuable it is to have voices from everybody.”

She asked Abramson to respond to the notion that valuing diversity of viewpoints has not been happening at the paper “post your departure.’

“Well, number one, I think it is happening,” said Abramson. “And before my departure, I spent an awful lot of my time as executive editor, when I would speak publicly, defending The Times from charges that it was a big supporter of the Iraq War and was carrying water for George W. Bush’s administration. So, that was a kind — a ridiculous charge now. And the idea that The New York Times is edited by a cabal of left-wing journalists is just not true at all.”

“So, you think this woman is lying when she said she was bullied?” Faulkner asked.

“No. I regret, of course, if anyone is bully — bullied. That’s terrible,” Abramson replied. “But I don’t think it’s true that moderate voices are being hushed at The New York Times. Most of the opinion columnists at The Times are centrists. They are center to liberal.”

Faulkner brought up the idea that Weiss may have grounds for a legal complaint against the paper, over bullying or harassment, and Abramson said that she is “very sorry if [Weiss] was bullied by any of her colleagues. That should not be tolerated in any organization, and The Times does not tolerate it. They have a set of written rules of the road which prohibit that kind of behavior.”

“So, I’m sorry. I’m sorry if she had a rough time,” Abramson continued, a “but” hanging in the air.

“But, you know,” she said, delivering on the foreshadowing, “Bari Weiss is someone, you know, she was — she has, like, thousands of Twitter followers herself. She has been in there on Twitter throwing some — some punches herself at people she disagrees with.”

“Wow,” said Faulkner as everyone watching thought the same.

“I’m not saying she is a bully,” said Abramson about her implication that Weiss is a bully, “but, you know, if you are going to dish it out, you have got to be ready to take it.”

Dish it out meaning bullying. Which she said she wasn’t saying in her remarks saying that.

Watch the wow clip above, courtesy of Fox News Channel’s Outnumbered Overtime.