Gwen Ifill Moderator
Co host of conservative “The News Hour” and protégé of RepublicanTim Russert, to act as moderator for Vice presidential debates
Ifill book about emergence of young African American politicians has been hailed on Amazon and Random House websites for months.
Bio & Current Job
Gwen Ifill is a 53 year old American journalist/broadcaster raised by preacher parents in the Methodist Episcopal (AME) church. Ifill holds the post as editor and moderator for Washington Week which appears on PBS. She is also senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Not only was Ifill the first female to ever moderate the show (or any major political forum show on television), she was also the first African-American. Gwen serves on the board of the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Museum of Television and Radio and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
It should be no wonder that Gwen Ifill has been selected to moderate the Vice Presidential Debate on October 2 between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Ifill is eminently qualified given her credentials and years of experience in the Washington scene.
Best Known Work.
Many will remember Gwen Ifill’s honest and assertive performance in 2004 when she moderated the vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. In the debate, Vice President Cheney quipped:
"I can respond, Gwen, but it's going to take more than 30 seconds."
"Well, that's all you've got." she told Cheney.
Some democrats were grinning like Cheshire cats over her remark to Cheney, interpreting it as a chastisement of the VP of the United States. But that wasn’t Ifill’s point at all – the rules say he can only have 30 seconds to answer the question. These are not Ifill’s rules; she did not make them up to poke at Dick Cheney.
Some democrats are now grinning at Ifill’s perceived dissing of Sarah Palin’s performance at the RNC. PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler said he received complaints from some viewers who said that Ifill looked “dismissive” in her attitude when reporting on the Republican event. Getler conveyed that some callers also said Ifill had a look of "disgust" while reporting on the Republican candidate.
Watch Gwen Ifill as she reports from the Republican National Convention:
It’s true that Ifill is not rejoicing as she reports on Palin’s speech but she’s a journalist with ethics, a professional. She is supposed to remain apart so as to not portray any bias she may personally hold. Her ability to objectify the events and the people involved is one of the traits that earned Gwen Ifill the moderator’s job.
Meanwhile Ifill does not spend much time worrying about the criticism. She has just completed her book called The Breakthrough, a discourse on contemporary politics and understanding the future of American democracy.
Debate Controversy
Some in the blogosphere are making a big deal over the fact that Gwen has a new book set for release on Inauguration day. The big deal they say is that the book is about Barack Obama and the politics of race in America. Barack Obama is not only black but worst of all he’s a Democrat. The title of the book is The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
Greta Van Susteren at Fox reported that the McCain campaign had no prior knowledge of the book and its imminent release. Said Susteren: "I am stunned...the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair -- in law, this would create a mistrial." Well, Greta Van Susteren may be stunned but the book was already being hailed on the Amazon and the Random house websites.
Bill Hemmer at Fox joined the fray with analyst Juan Williams who spoke highly of Ifill for her journalism but also said "it looks like she has some investment" in the outcome of the election and that "there's a perception problem." The perception problem no doubt in part coming from bites on the Fox News website like this: "VP Debate Moderator Pens Pro-Obama Book."
FOX News political analyst Michelle Malkin poisoned the pot with his blog on National Review. He wrote “Ifill is so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running."
The fact is that the Washington Post covered the story last month when Ifill discussed it with Howard Kurtz in the only public statement she had made prior to the debate. You would think someone in the McCain camp would have noticed all this hiding that Ifill was doing when she talked openly with Kurtz about the book.
In that discussion Ifill talks about the essence of the book - the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential campaign and the emergence of young African American politicians whose destinies will pave a new path to political power. It is not a book about Barack Obama.
Watch Gwen Ilfill discuss her book, why she wrote it and about whom she wrote.
Perhaps the most debatable controversy of all is that Ifill has long shown a bent for bi-partisan ethics. The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer for example has often been cited as a pro-right wing Republican voice. It is said that Republican Tim Russert, who passed away in June 2008, was a mentor of Ifill’s. But the conservative right wing voice is saying she is way too close to Democrat ideology for their liking and this is what stirred up the debate about the debate as some have come out openly saying that Ifill’s objectivity would appear to be one-sided.
