Gwen Ifill
If I may state the obvious, the fact that Gwen Ifill apparently has a forthcoming book titled Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama is a huge advantage for Sarah Palin. If you look at the demographic breakdowns of any poll, you could probably count on one hand the number of college educated African-American women who are favorably disposed toward Palin. But because of the book, and because Ifill has a reputation as a professional to maintain, she’s now in a situation where she’ll bend over backwards to avoid appearing too hard on Palin.
Meanwhile, if you watch Palin’s interviews you’ll see that she’s perfectly capable of parrying an initial question with some nonsense and then shifting to her pre-prepared talking points. What was so devastating about the Katie Couric interview is that Couric would gently — very gently — prod Palin with follow-ups that revealed she doesn’t know anything about anything. But with this cloud of suspicion hanging over her, Ifill will probably treat Palin with kid gloves and she’ll be able to turn in the sort of competent performances she offered on the Hugh Hewitt and Sean Hannity shows.
67 Responses to “Gwen Ifill”
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October 1st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I’ve seen a lot of progressive bloggers making this argument, and was wondering if one of them could follow-up by explaining exactly why they think Ifill has any reason to feel as though she needs to satisfy people like Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt who are unarguably call Ifill biased (and already are) unless she essentially accuses Joe Biden of being a serial rapist on national television.
If Sarah Palin doesn’t answer a question, Ifill should make her. There are about three or four things that actually encompass the “job” of a moderator and that is, you know, fucking one of them. Whether or not she’s writing a book about Obama doesn’t affect Palin being able to answer a question or not.
October 1st, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Asking follow-ups are key. The reason Palin will do okay to pretty well in this debate is that the format makes it difficult to ask follow-up questions. She will also be very aggressive and attacking often. The post-debate spin will be nauseating. “Palin fights back!” “Take that, liberal media!”
October 1st, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Why is Ifill moderating this debate? Isn’t there a clear conflict of interest here? It’s obviously better for her book sales if Obama wins the election. This is obvious to anyone, no matter which side of the political divide you favor. Shouldn’t she recuse herself from the proceedings?
October 1st, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Same reason Tom Brokaw felt he had to genuflect to the McCain campaign. Condi throws a great dinner party!
October 1st, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Will somebody please explain to me why writing a book that so much as mentions Obama in the title automatically means you’re biased? The book doesn’t appear to even really be ABOUT Obama – as far as I can tell, it’s about racial politics in the Obama era, not an Obama booster propaganda book. What, is acknowledging that a black president would be a huge development in racial politics a radical position now? Surely even John McCain could acknowledge that Obama’s run has many, many ramifications to the way we think about American politics w/r/t race.
Besides which, oh please – can anybody honestly say the McCain camp wouldn’t have been bitching to beat the band about Ifill’s “bias” anyway? Come on. You know in your heart of hearts that, with or without the book, they would have spun the whole thing as, “Well, of course you know she’s in the tank for Obama, she’s African-American!”
October 1st, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I don’t think Ifill changes a thing. It’s not like she’s at one of the corporate cable news stations. She’s a professional, her credentials are impeccable, she’s personally close to some members of the current Bush administration, and it’s not like Sarah Palin has distinguished herself to the American people as it is giving anyone reason to give her the benefit of the doubt.
The only people that working over Ifill will have any credibility with are the Republican base. Everyone else at this point simply want a thorough and evenhanded debate. I think Ifill is the perfect choice to deliver.
October 1st, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I do not think Ifill has a lot to worry about. The response from the mainstream press that I have seen is “McCain, are you serious?”
Everyone knows that Ifill is a professional and the fact that she is publishing a book, and have not even written the chapter on Obama yet, about race in America does not make her bias, on that alone.
The McCain camp had access to this information a while ago, so failure to point this out is their own fault, and should rightfully look bad on them.
Plus I doubt the people who might throw a fuss know who Ifill is. It is just another tactic by the McCain camp, to attempt to show that the entire world is against Sarah Palin.
October 1st, 2008 at 7:57 pm
If Matt is correct and Ifill abandons journalism to avoid the appearance of bias, then that would be tragic. Ifill could start out the debate by announcing that her book will have nothing to do with her job as moderator, and that both candidates should expect equal treatment from her on questioning and follow-ups. Then she should ask pointed questions of Biden to make the point, and then do the same for Palin. The Couric interview might be helpful to Ifill as a guide for asking gentle, yet pointed follow-up questions.
October 1st, 2008 at 7:59 pm
August, you are right, but it will be difficult for ANY moderator to run this debate and appear fair. The reason for this is that Sarah Palin, by her nature, gives many more evasive responses that require follow-up questions than Joe Biden does.
But asking a follow-up question is in its essence a confrontational, sometimes aggressive act. While good journalism requires follow-up questions, if Ifill asked follow-up questions based solely on the quality of n Palin and Biden’s answers, she’s going to ask Palin a lot more follow-ups, and thus come off as unfairly attacking Palin to the average viewer.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:01 pm
The point is that whatever Ifill ends up doing, the rightwing noise machine is certainly trying to work the refs here, and will continue to attack Ifill after the debate is over. The question is, how sensitive is Ifill to this attack? I for one am not as confident as August J. Pollak. She is, after all, just another Beltway cocktail party circuit rider, and journalism is not always the number one priority among those folks.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
OK, Gwen Ifill is Black, and Obama is Black, so obviously, if Gwen Ifill is writing a book about Obama, she must be in the tank for Obama. She’s a friggin journalist, writing a book about what’s changed in American politics that results in an Obama becoming the Democratic nominee. And let’s not forget that she’s probably got more experience doing “serious” news and interviews than Couric. Let’s see, how many years was Couric on the Today Show doing puff pieces; and how many years has Ifill been doing actual serious news.
When was the last time that Ifill was accused of being partisan? Brokaw on the other hand….
October 1st, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is called “working the refs.” And it’s been previously discussed.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I don’t know who Ifill is for personally. She’s educated, and most educated people are for Obama. And she’s black, and black people are overwhelmingly for Obama. So I’d guess she’s probably for Obama. But maybe not.
But REGARDLESS of her personal feelings, she has a conflict of interest with the book. It won’t be “the age of Obama” if Obama loses…her book will be helped if Obama wins. I think they should have found someone else.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:06 pm
This is all inside baseball. Everyone who gives a hoot about this is already on the internet. 10,000 wingnuts vs. 60,000,000 viewers.
Yawn.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
“If you look at the demographic breakdowns of any poll, you could probably count on one hand the number of college educated African-American women who are favorably disposed toward Palin.”
Matt, what does this have to do with anything? The moderator wasn’t picked at random from a pool of college educated African-Americans. She’s Gwen Ifill. She’s a professional. Her race, education, and gender have nothing to do with her ability to be fair.
You are arguing that if Ifill wasn’t writing this book, then it would be easier for her to show her bias. I disagree with the premise of your argument, that there are situations where she would let her biases show but she can’t now because of the book she is writing. Do you have any justification for insulting her professionalism?
October 1st, 2008 at 8:15 pm
The McCain supporters whining about the book would have had a little more credibility if they hadn’t waited until the day before to start the preemptive excuses. The book was announced months before McCain agreed to have Ifill as the moderator.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
It’s smart for republicans to push this line. If Palin performs poorly, they can say she was hamstrung by another partisan hack. If she performs competently, they can say she marched into an ambush and triumphed. Regardless, I can’t imagine this debate affecting the race unless, against the odds, Palin is either stellar or abysmal. Do vice presidential debates ever matter?
October 1st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Jason, where does Matt say Ifill would have shown her bias? His argument is that because of the Republican criticism, she’ll effectively be biased toward Palin, not that she’ll be hiding her bias toward Obama.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:23 pm
The Sarah Palin who emerged from the convention could give evasive non-answers to questions and clever soundbites, but I think if she does that during the debate now after the Couric and Gibson debacles, people will assume the worst. Somehow she needs to be able to demonstrate that she can actually think about a question and come up with a real answer. She needs to prove that she has some grasp of the subject.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:31 pm
No matter how well Palin does, we can assume she’ll do terrible on, at least, some questions for which Republicans will blame Ifill’s “bias” and offer her book as proof of that bias.
Now they won’t have to say what they were already thinking:
That she favors Obama because she’s black.
Or she’s liberal.
Or she’s PBS.
Or she’s MSM.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I think we should rely on a compromise moderator as agreed to by John Boehner’s House GOP conference.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Anyone who is questioning the choice of Ifill on the eve of the debate, when her selection was announced weeks ago, cannot but be disingenuously trying to affect the questions to their advantage. One cannot have a discussion with people who so cavalierly lie about their intentions.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I suspect all this will have very little influence on what Ifill does as moderator.
Incidentally, I also want to note what a silly argument this is. For example, why don’t we take a look at some of Hewitt’s books:
A Guide to Christian Ambition: Using Career, Politics, and Culture to Influence the World
Painting the Map Red: The Fight to Create a Permanent Republican Majority
If It’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It
Now THAT is someone with a vested interest in the political fortunes of Sarah Palin.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Given Ifill’s book, etc, the only way to make the interview fair is to let Palin ask her own questions, plus let her assign tasks to Biden — “Joe Biden, field dress this moose while outlining the course of events leading to the collapse of former Yugoslavia”
October 1st, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Gwen Ifill is one of the most respected, objective and professional journalists in the United States.
You think she gives a shit what Michelle Malkin (Hey, I’m gonna make my name by being that Asian woman who writes a book arguing in favor of the internment of the Japanese!) and Hugh Hewitt think. As Bill Maher says, “Honky Puuuuleeeeaaaasssseeee!!!!”
October 1st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Funny how no one had a problem with her book before Sarah Palin was chosen. Hell, funny no one had a problem with it until about, oh 12 hours ago.
What a complete and pitiful hive mind the right wing is.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I think you make a really gross assumption.
Ifill is an impeccable journalist, and I think this is all sound and fury here.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I don’t know who Ifill is for personally. She’s educated, and most educated people are for Obama. And she’s black, and black people are overwhelmingly for Obama. So I’d guess she’s probably for Obama. But maybe not.
Last time I checked, Condi Rice — who’s a friend of Ifill’s, and presumably earns some treatment in Ifill’s book — hasn’t declared who she’s voting for.
As for Hewitt, let’s remember that the former Nixon Librarian was an ardent backer of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court until she stepped aside. He’s that much of a arse-licker for the GOP.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Sure, replace Gwen Ifill. With Whoopi.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I thought allowing her to moderate was IDOTIC and STUPID, STUPID, STUPID on the part of the Obama campaign and this is BEFORE I found out she had a book coming out.
You can espouse all the crap (it shouldn’t matter, colorblind, if she were…) you want. A previous poster is absolutely correct, Couric skewered her slowly be exposing her with follow ups. So much for that tomorrow, Palin is skating on this one guys. Give Mac and his girl a few points back.
Way to be really smart about this Obama campaign, there was absolutely NO upside to having her as a moderator even with Romney or Jules or TP…none at all.
Plouffe and Axelrod got taken to school on this one.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:23 pm
By jumping all over Ifill, the McCain-Palin camp have confirmed that they are not ready to prime time. The format of the debate was dumbed down to accommodate Palin’s lack of ability. She appears to be losing IQ points as the campaign goes on, each blithering clip from her interviews prove she is about as stupid as a box of hair.
McCain isn’t helping either, by running around DC like a toddler throwing a tantrum, whining about Nancy Pelosi and Obama not being nice to him.
Palin could morph into Winston Churchill tomorrow night, but nothing less than Bill Gates showing up with $100,000 checks for every American is going to make anyone except the fundicrat kool-aid drinkers vote for McCain-Palin.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Clearly, Rachael Ray would be a much better choice. Or Ty Pennington.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I completely agree. Matt, I’m sure you’ve watched Gwen on the Newshour, and she’s no Wolf Blitzer or Tom Brokaw. She doesn’t have an enormous ego and won’t be particularly swayed by a bunch of Fox News Republicans. It would be beneath Obama to suggest replacing her because of this stunt.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I actually would love to see Ifill drop from this. It seems unlikely, of course, but just remembering back to her moderation of Cheney v Edwards is enough to leave me red in the face. It was, without question, one of the most poorly moderated debates up to that point. Go back and watch it, get a sense of how totally lobsided she is capable of making her questions. We could all gain by having her leave the post.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Get Megyn Kelly. THAT would be fun to watch.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I wouldn’t sell Ifill short just yet. That, however, doesn’t guarantee Matt will be satisfied.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I think Katie Couric should moderate it.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I think Gwen Ifill is going to favor Sarah Palin because she’s a woman.
Can we stop it with this garbage? Gwen Ifill? Gwen Ifill?
If Sarah Palin makes a fool of herself because she can’t handle Katie Couric-level questioning (which, apparently, is all it takes to get her off her game), and they campaign starts going into whine mode about an obviously-professional Gwen Ifill, they’re just going to look like idiots.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:43 pm
But with this cloud of suspicion hanging over her, Ifill will probably treat Palin with kid gloves and she’ll be able to turn in the sort of competent performances she offered on the Hugh Hewitt and Sean Hannity shows.
Which is exactly what the McCain set out to do by initiating this controversay!
Just about everyone in America knows who Gwen Ifill is They also know her to be an impeccable journalist so I sincerely doubt that any of us would ever think she’d be any less now, just because she’s hosting this debate. The fact that she was writing this book was publicized in July. Watch “Countdown” tonight!
I hope Gwen won’t be intimidated. The McCain camp has used an awful lot of bullying tactics latley and it’s time they are called on it. She should just she ask whatever questions she had prepared and let the chips fall where they may.
Hopefully they’ll fall on John McCain’s head, then he might wake up and realize what a despicable person he’s become for trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 am
Saying some small bore stuff like Ifill’s erring on the side of nice is going to help Palin is kind of like saying that rainy weather will help North Texas in their football game against Oklahoma. It’s arguable and anyway the effect is minimal compared to the point spread.
Sure, the worst debater in the world can survive by hunkering down and sticking to the talking points. But what are the talking points, exactly? The actual case McCain is making is such a minefield (change, but experience!…conservative, but anti-Bush, and pro-regulation!..bi-partisanship, but Obama’s a terrorist!) that it’s very hard to drill it. There’s really no substitute for being McCain himself and knowing vaguely what you’re talking about. And unfortunately for Palin some of the questions are going to be about her.
BTW: Gwen Ifill is a fine journalist. But she really did a bad job at the VP debate in 2004. It was a big mess. The format this time also will gum up with could have been an amazingly entertaining debate. It will still be more fun than an Obama debate, though.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 am
“Just about everyone in America knows who Gwen Ifill is ”
Are you kidding me? I could ask *literally* every single person I know and I highly doubt I’d get a single positive response. I’d put myself in the top 1% of knowledgable people in the US and I wouldn’t know if she didn’t moderate the 2004 debate. PBS anchors may as well be invisible to anyone who doesn’t watch PBS, which is, uh, everyone.
Which just means this story is absurdly inside baseball and will affect a total of 14 people.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:55 am
Jim Lehrer is white and old and male.
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 am
It’s obvious to anyone that Gwen will be rewarded financially by higher book sales if Obama wins and she will do worse if Obama loses. How can it be “The Age of Obama” if he loses?
What’s worse here is that she now plays the race card, disgusting and indicative of her defensiveness.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:08 am
It is the ‘age of obama’, for now, when it comes to the new generation of black politicians, regardless of whether he wins or loses. The age of obama, given the context of the WHOLE title, is perfectly relevant to what she’s writing about (of which obama is but a part).
Gwen Ifill is a solid journalist, with, btw, connections to the Bush administration as well. I can’t wait for the other distractions the mccain campaign will start throwing at us in the coming weeks (do I hear wedding bells? *retch*)
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:11 am
How can it be “The Age of Obama” if he loses?
If you’d bothered reading the blurb, it describes Obama as the most prominent of a new generation of black politicians whose careers owe a debt of gratitude to the Civil Rights movement, but whose politics aren’t bound to those of the Civil Rights era. Gosh, here’s a lengthy, detailed Prospect piece on that generation:
It also quotes John Conyers from a year ago questioning whether this new generation of black politicians passes progressive muster — and hoping for a Clinton-Obama ticket.
If Obama loses, he gets lumped with Harold Ford Jr. — particularly if the McCain campaign tries, as seems likely, the same tactics that were thrown at Ford late in his campaign — and that becomes the conclusion to Ifill’s book.
But thanks for the passive-aggressive bullshit.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:50 am
Palin isn’t going to be able to cry “bias” when she has to sit down and negotiate with Putin or other world leaders, if McCain is elected and bites it.
I don’t understand why Republicans are in denial about how stupid a decision this is. Yes, I understand that they’re backing their “team” and at first it looked like McCain picked a great new quarterback as his first draft choice.
But now that his quarterback has been shown to have no game, wouldn’t the Republicans WANT to get rid of her and get someone else in the game?
Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s great, because I support Obama. But if I were an Obama supporter and he picked some loser, I’d be the first person to hope he’d bench him.
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:07 am
Competent performance in the Hannity and Hewitt interviews? It is impossible to demonstrate competence when presented with such softball questions.
It’s like doing 1 and 1/2 rotation forward flip with no twists in a diving competition. It’s so easy that no matter how flawless you are, it doesn’t demonstrate any skill whatsoever.
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
Seeing the piece on CBS News last night where both candidates answered the same questions, I’m feeling much better about this debate. Sarah Palin’s answers versus Joe Biden’s without any interaction, etc. speak volumes for themselves.
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 am
I wish Margaret Warner had the gig rather than Ifil. Warner is one of the best interviewers on television. She knows her subject matter and so knows enough to ask follow-up questions.
I think Ifill has gained greater exposure than Warner because she is Republican leaning. It’s really comical that the two republican black women (Ifill and Rice) are actually friends.
October 2nd, 2008 at 9:28 am
The McCain campaign would not have forced the debate into this narrow format if they thought it would allow follow-up questions or any pressure on La Sarah.
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:25 am
Ifill should have used her broken leg as an excuse to withdraw from moderating and let someone else from PBS take over. This debate is too important for the media to get mired in some right-wing generated hysteria over whether the moderator is “in the tank” for Obama, or for Ifill to feel like she has to pull her punches to appear moderate.
And any claims that the McCain campaign didnt know about the book are highly doubtful. I think they were entirely aware of it, and chose to ignore it until now, knowing that they could use it to their advantage.
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Ifill can stay but only if Brokaw immediately breaks his ankle.
(That’s when the Piranha Brothers came up with the Other Other Operation.)
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Don’t you hate it when people secretly write a book in two days?
That’s what happened, right? Because otherwise none of this makes any sense.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I have to build on what I wrote earlier. Here are some quotes from the last VP debate Ifill moderated.
Ifill to Cheney:
“IFILL: Mr. Vice President, a new question for you. You have two minutes to respond.
When the president says that Senator Kerry is emboldening enemies and you say that we could get hit again if voters make the wrong choice in November, are you saying that it would be a dangerous thing to have John Kerry as president?”
What the hell kind of question is that at a debate? At best it’s a softball. She might as well have asked, “Mr Cheney, please take a few minutes to explain how horrible John Kerry is, and how we’ll all die if he is elected.”
Here’s another gem, this one to Edwards
“IFILL: Senator Edwards, new question to you, and you have two minutes to respond.
Part of what you have said and Senator Kerry has said that you are going to do in order to get us out of the problems in Iraq is to internationalize the effort.
Yet French and German officials have both said they have no intention even if John Kerry is elected of sending any troops into Iraq for any peacekeeping effort. Does that make your effort or your plan to internationalize this effort seem kind of naive?”
Um, leading a bit, are we? Gee, I hope Ifill talks about naivete at this debate. I remember someone else talking about people being naive recently…
And, possibly my favorite, this back and forth between Ifill and Cheney.
“IFILL: In that case, we’ll move on to domestic matters. And this question, I believe, goes to Senator — to Vice President Cheney.
The Census Bureau…
CHENEY: I think it goes to Senator Edwards.
IFILL: It goes to the Senator. I see you. I just asked him about Israel, even though he didn’t actually talk about it much.
CHENEY: I concede the point.”
What. The. Hell.
Please. Please stop defending Ifill. I hope she does a good job tonight, but her track record is less than stellar.
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