Gwen Ifill

All you want to know about Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill
Born September 29, 1955 (1955-09-29) (age 53)
New York City, New York, USA
Education Simmons College
Occupation Journalist
Notable credit(s) The New York Times
News Hour with Jim Lehrer
The Washington Post
Washington Week

Gwen Ifill (born September 29, 1955) is an American journalist, television newscaster and author. She is the managing editor and moderator for Washington Week (PBS) and a senior correspondent for The NewsHour (PBS). She is a political pundit, appearing on various programs and moderating the 2004 and 2008 Vice Presidential debates. She is the author of the forthcoming book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Ifill was born in New York City, the fifth child of African Methodist Episcopal minister, Urcille Ifill, Sr., a Panamanian of Barbadian descent who emigrated from Panama, and Eleanor Ifill, who was also from Barbados.[1][2][3] Her father's ministry required the family to live in several cities throughout New England and the Eastern Seaboard during her youth. In her childhood Ifill lived in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts church parsonages and federally-subsidized housing in Buffalo and New York City.[4] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts in 1977.[5]

Career

Ifill first interned for the Boston Herald where she was later hired as an apology by editors after a co-worker left a note for her that said "Nigger go home."[4] Later she worked for the Baltimore Evening Sun (1981-1984), The Washington Post (1984-1991), The New York Times (1991-1994), and NBC.[5] In October 1999, she became moderator of the PBS program Washington Week in Review. She is also senior correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Ifill has appeared on various news shows, including Meet the Press.[6]

She 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.[6]

With Kaitlyn Adkins, Ifill co-hosted Jamestown LIVE!, a 2007 History Channel special commemorating the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, Virginia.

The Ombsudsman for PBS, Michael Getler, has twice written about the letters he's received complaining of bias in Ifill's news coverage.[7][8] The letters complained about Ifill's deragatory tone and words in describing the Republican National Convention.[9]Ifill was also criticized by some viewers for questioning whether Sarah Palin can be a mother to five kids and an effective vice-president.[10][11][12]

First book

Ifill's first book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, is scheduled to be released January 20, 2009, Inauguration Day.[13][14] The book is expected to deal with several African American politicians, including Barack Obama as well as other up and coming black politicians such as Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker. The publisher, Random House, says of the book "Drawing on interviews with power brokers like Senator Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict and the 'black enough' conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history."

Vice-presidential debates

On October 5, 2004, Ifill moderated the vice-presidential debate between Republican candidate Dick Cheney and Democratic candidate Senator John Edwards. During the debate, Cheney said that he would need more than the allotted 30 seconds to react to a statement by Edwards, Ifill replied: "Well, that's all you've got." Ifill said that, although it was not her intent [citation needed], Democratic partisans were delighted with her because she was seen as being "snippy" to Cheney.[15]

Ifill also moderated the October 2, 2008 vice-presidential debate between Democratic Senator Joe Biden and Republican Governor Sarah Palin at Washington University in St. Louis.[16] The debate's format offered Ifill freedom to cover domestic or international issues.[17]

Prior to the 2008 Vice-Presidential debate, there was controversy over Ifill's neutrality, related to her failure to disclose to the debate commission or her PBS news program audience that she had an upcoming book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama to be released on inauguration day.[18] The book was reported on in the Washington Times[19] and appeared in trade catalogs as early as July 2008, well before Ifill was selected by the debate committee; however, the commission and the campaigns were not aware of the book until the day before the debate. Several reporters and analysts raised concern about the conflict of interest and perceived bias considering the book's subject matter and that the sales of her book could benefit greatly from an Obama-Biden win.[20][21][22] Kelly McBride, head of the ethics department at Poynter Institute, a journalism training center in Florida, said, “Obviously the book will be much more valuable to her if Obama is elected.”[23][24] Ifill responded to criticism by stating, "I've got a pretty long track record covering politics and news, so I'm not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation. The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate tomorrow night and make their own decisions about whether or not I've done my job."[25] After the debate, Ifill was generally praised for her performance with the Boston Globe reporting that she "is receiving high marks for equal treatment of the candidates."[26][27]

Bibliography

  • Ifill, Gwen (2009). The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, First edition, New York: Doubleday. ISBN 9780385525015. 

References

  1. ^ "Gwen Ifill Biography". Biography (2008). Retrieved on 2008-09-18.
  2. ^ Carol Brennan (2008). "Black Biography: Gwen Ifill". Contemporary Black Biography. The Gale Group. Retrieved on 2008-09-18.
  3. ^ Gwen Ifill (9 March 2006). "RTNDF First Amendment Awards Dinner". Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. Retrieved on 2008-10-04.
  4. ^ a b Claire Suddath (2 October 2008). "Debate Moderator Gwen Ifill", Time. Retrieved on 2008-10-03. 
  5. ^ a b "Gwen Ifill". The Notable Names Database (2008). Retrieved on 2008-09-06.
  6. ^ a b Russert, Tim and David Broder, John Dickerson, Gwen Ifill, Andrea Mitchell, Richard Wolffe (April 27, 2008). "Political Roundtable", Meet the Press, NBC. Retrieved on 2008-04-27. 
  7. ^ PBS Ombudsman http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/
  8. ^ http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2008/09/ombudsmans_mailbag_27.html
  9. ^ The PBS Ombudsman column http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2008/09/ombudsmans_mailbag_27.html
  10. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpXKBZVuK9I
  11. ^ PBS News Hour Transcript Sept. 2, 2008 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec08/gopwomen_09-02.html
  12. ^ Gateway Pundit article and video of Ifill discussing motherhood issue for VP candidate http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/10/gwen-ifill-questioned-whether-palin.html
  13. ^ Michael Calderone (1 October 2008). "Ifill's Book Was No Secret", Politico. Retrieved on 2008-10-04. 
  14. ^ Evan Mantyk (1 October 2008). "VP Debate Moderator Writing Pro-Obama Book", Epoch Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-04. 
  15. ^ Howard Kurtz (4 September 2008). "In a Historic Year, Ifill Has One Thing to Do: Her Job", The Washington Post, pp. A24. Retrieved on 2008-10-05. 
  16. ^ Santucci, John (2008-08-05). "Who Gets to Ask the Tough Questions?", ABC News. Retrieved on 2008-08-05. 
  17. ^ Dabid Bauder (21 September 2008). "Ifill hits jackpot in moderating VP debate", The Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-10-04. 
  18. ^ Jim Rutenberg (2 October 2008). "Moderator’s Planned Book Becomes a Topic of Debate", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-01. 
  19. ^ "Today on the Presidential Campaign Trail", Washington Times, July 25 
  20. ^ Kinney Littlefield (23 July 2008). "Smiley Faces Blog Anger: Obama Remarks Targeted", The Washington Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-01. 
  21. ^ (2008). "Doubleday Spring 2009 format=.PDF". Doubleday Books. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
  22. ^ Jim Rutenberg (2 October 2008). "Moderator’s Planned Book Becomes a Topic of Debate", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-01. 
  23. ^ (2008). "Doubleday Spring 2009 format=.PDF". Doubleday Books. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
  24. ^ Jim Rutenberg (2 October 2008). "Moderator’s Planned Book Becomes a Topic of Debate", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-01. 
  25. ^ Questions raised about moderator's impartiality, The Associated Press, October 1, 2008
  26. ^ James Rainey (2008). "Gwen Ifill was a true journalist: fair", The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-03. 
  27. ^ Foon Rhee (2008). "Ifill proves the critics wrong", The Boston Globe. Retrieved on 2008-10-03. 

External links

Persondata
NAME Ifill, Gwen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American journalist, television newscaster and author
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City, New York, USA
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Ifill"

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