{"id":79156,"date":"2014-08-13T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=79156"},"modified":"2014-08-12T16:16:15","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T21:16:15","slug":"jill-abramson-hates-censorship-and-so-do-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=79156","title":{"rendered":"Jill Abramson Hates Censorship (and So Do I!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Jennifer Reisch, Senior Assistant, INALJ NYC<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Jill Abramson Hates Censorship (and So Do I!)<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"2013-11-30<\/a>I recently had the opportunity to hear Jill Abramson, former executive editor of\u00a0the New York Times<\/em>, speak at the Chautauqua Institution. Her talk was on the\u00a0ethics of privacy, and I was struck many times throughout her presentation on the\u00a0similarities between librarians and journalists. In addition to issues of privacy, she\u00a0also talked a bit about her experience working in a male-dominated profession.\u00a0Abramson, the first female executive editor of the New York Times<\/em> in its 160 year\u00a0history, spoke of the thrill of following in the footsteps of Alfreda Irwin, the editor of\u00a0the Chautauquan<\/em> from 1966-1981 and Ida Tarbell, who got her start in journalism\u00a0at the Chautauquan<\/em>. Abramson described herself as \u201cpart of a tradition of push\u00a0women journalists that began here at Chautauqua.\u201d<\/p>\n

While our workdays look very different, there is quite a bit of overlap between\u00a0the goals of librarians and journalists; we just go about achieving those goals from\u00a0very different angles. Both journalists and librarians are passionate about getting\u00a0accurate and useful information to people everywhere. Both professions value\u00a0democracy and support the existence of an informed citizenry, able to keep the\u00a0government accountable.<\/p>\n

Abramson said her talk should actually have been called \u201cI Hate Censorship.\u201d\u00a0Librarians categorically fall into the role of censorship haters as well! In her talk she\u00a0mentioned warrantless searches on U.S. citizens, secret subpoenas of news agencies,\u00a0NSA use of computers for eavesdropping by cracking encryption all as examples of\u00a0information the government did not want shared that journalists published anyway.\u00a0Most libraries keep as few records as possible on patrons so that those records of\u00a0private citizens are not available to subpoena.<\/p>\n

Ultimately it is the role of journalists to accurately report facts. According to\u00a0Abramson, when they do so the weight of that evidence directs people to the\u00a0truth. When librarians help patrons research their areas of interest we are there\u00a0to help them find the accurate information they need to pull together the truth for\u00a0themselves.<\/p>\n

Librarians and journalists also can sometimes face a similar dilemma: What if\u00a0sharing information can cause more harm than good? In journalism there is a\u00a0term for this, and Abramson explained the \u201cbalancing test.\u201d Before publication\u00a0journalists must consider how much running a story could endanger U.S. security\u00a0or safety for U.S. citizens against how much people need to know the facts to keep\u00a0the government accountable. Sometimes librarians can\u2019t know what a patron will do\u00a0with information they ask us to help them find.<\/p>\n

Abramson contends that the first amendment is number one for a reason. Given\u00a0the importance of journalism in keeping the citizenry informed, Thomas Jefferson\u00a0said he would choose newspapers without government over government without\u00a0newspapers. She thinks it is impossible for citizens to keep government accountable\u00a0without a free press.<\/p>\n

After her talk was over, Abramson took questions. An audience member asked her\u00a0for advice for women leaders. Abramson said that women must stick up for their\u00a0principles and be forthright and honest about the calls we make. We must all be our\u00a0authentic selves. If we second guess ourselves and pull our punches, then we won\u2019t\u00a0be so great. Librarians certainly do not work in a male dominated profession, but we\u00a0all can work hard to be our most authentic and greatest selves as we help nurture an\u00a0informed citizenry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Jennifer Reisch, Senior Assistant, INALJ NYC Jill Abramson Hates Censorship (and So Do I!) I recently had the opportunity to hear Jill Abramson, former executive editor of\u00a0the New York Times, speak at the Chautauqua Institution. Her talk was on the\u00a0ethics of privacy, and I was struck many times throughout her presentation on the\u00a0similarities between librarians…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":73026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,5485,6463,3655,6299,6462,5079,6464,6465],"class_list":["post-79156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-censorship","tag-free-press","tag-inalj-nyc","tag-jennifer-reisch","tag-jill-abramson","tag-new-york-times","tag-newspapers","tag-the-chautauquan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2013-11-30-15.31.58.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-kAI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}