“Do you ever look at the news cycle and ask, what could come next—locusts?” David Carr asked Jill Abramson, whom he earlier described as “smarter than most, tougher than the rest." Photo by Kelly Davidson Savage

It wasn’t until 45 minutes into her Monday night talk at the Tsai Performance Center on the future of media with David Carr, New York Times media and culture critic, that the paper’s former executive editor Jill Abramson addressed the question on everyone’s mind—how exactly did she go from being executive editor to former executive editor?

“When you got pushed out…” Carr began, before Abramson interrupted: “Just say fired!”

“I dedicated my career to telling the truth,” she continued. “I was fired. My kids are 31 and 29, and I wasn’t going to say, ‘I decided to spend more time with my family.’”

The revelation was one of many during the discussion between Carr, BU’s Andrew R. Lack Professor, and Abramson about the new media landscape. Presented by WBUR in partnership with the College of Communication, the conversation, titled Fast Forward: David Carr Talks with Jill Abramson, was recorded in front of a full house (the conversation will air on Sunday, October 26, at 8 p.m. on WBUR 90.9 FM).

Asked by Carr if she missed working in a newsroom, especially with the recent onslaught of important stories, ranging from Ukraine to the Ebola crisis, Abramson said she misses “the chase first and foremost,” but that “there are big stories that jump out at me that aren’t being covered.” She went on to note, “I don’t wish I was running Ebola coverage,” much of which she derided as disgraceful, because it incited panic even here in the United States, where none was warranted.

Phones came out and tweets were sent when Abramson, who has been teaching undergraduate courses on narrative nonfiction at Harvard, announced her next project: a partnership with journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill (founder of American Lawyer magazine and Court TV) on a new start-up that she promised will do “great, killer journalism” and pay journalists “money they can live on.” She said she plans to recruit writers and edit pieces, and that she and Brill would each work on one big story a year.

When asked by an audience member what role sexism played in her firing from the Times, Abramson coyly responded, “I’ll let David take that one.” Carr, who had previously written about her ouster, said he did not believe that sexism was involved in the shakeup, telling her he “never heard much about your gender until the end.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Abramson retorted, pointing out that her gender had always been well publicized, given that she was the paper’s first female executive editor, managing editor, and Washington bureau chief.

The main theme of the evening’s discussion, which was moderated by WBUR’s Jeremy Hobson (COM’04), was the relentless 24-hour news cycle that newspapers, magazines, videos, podcasts, and the web have adopted. “Do you ever look at the news cycle and ask, what could come next—locusts?” Carr asked Abramson, whom he earlier described as “smarter than most, tougher than the rest.”

“I’m now a consumer of news, and I have to roll my eyes about the Ebola panic,” she said. “Who caused this overreaction? People are scared because of ceaseless cable TV…that has contributed to the panic.”

The two veteran journalists threw out a few recent media start-ups that have proven to be Times competitors, including Vice, the Huffington Post, and even BuzzFeed. “The insurgent media like Vice and BuzzFeed and established media are marching towards each other,” Abramson said. “I think Jon Stewart is brilliant, and if he’s your only news source, you’re not doing too bad.”

As both practitioners and academics, Carr and Abramson are uniquely positioned to survey the world of media. At Harvard since September, Abramson had previously taught at Yale and Princeton. Carr edited alternative papers in the Twin Cities and Washington, D.C., before landing at the Times, where he covered business and entertainment prior to becoming the paper’s media columnist. This is his first semester teaching at BU, and he said he has learned that “whatever you expect from students, you have to expect from yourself.”

Earlier in the evening, Hobson asked Carr what advice he’d give to a student majoring in print journalism. “I would advise them to major in something more forward-looking, like blacksmithing,” Carr quipped. “No, I kid. There’s very much a place in journalism for someone who can create a 400-to-1,000-word piece of writing. I’m a print bull—that’s how I eat.”

Following the conversation between the two journalists, Hobson, cohost of Here & Now, led a Q&A session with the audience.

Fast Forward: David Carr Talks with Jill Abramson will air this Sunday, October 26, at 8 p.m. on WBUR, BU’s National Public Radio station.