Bill And Willie Geist Think Jill Abramson's Gender Was A Reason Behind Her Departure

Bill Geist has seen plenty of media happenings over the span of his 30-plus years in journalism. In the wake of New York Times' Executive Editor Jill Abramson's ousting last week, he reflected on his own years at The Times and concluded that the notoriously strong-willed Abramson's gender most likely played a role.

"I worked there, and a lot of those factors were there then. Not just male-female, but I mean just who has the spotlight on them, who's making more money," he recalled in a HuffPost Live interview on Tuesday. "I don't think it's totally a male-female thing, but The Times is an interesting mix. It's the top of the heap for journalists."

But that "male-female" dynamic did play a role in the management change, Geist said.

"There's a gender aspect," he re-affirmed of Abramson's forced exit. "But I think there are a lot of other factors that come into play, too."

His son Willie Geist, a current co-anchor of the third hour of "Today," noted that media coverage of Abramson seemed particularly gendered because of the words ascribed to her.

"I thought the words -- especially on that first day or two -- the adjectives used to describe her were just horrible," he said. "I mean, 'pushy,' mercurial,' 'bossy,' -- you know, we heard all these words that if like, if we were a big chest-thumping guy [we'd be] like, 'Yeah, he's the boss! He's in charge! He runs a tough newsroom, he doesn't take crap from anyone!' So I thought that was unfortunate."

Pick up Bill and Willie Geist's father-son memoir, "Good Talk, Dad: The Birds and the Bees...and Other Conversations We Forgot to Have" in bookstores now.

Watch the rest of Bill and Willie Geist's HuffPost Live conversation below: