The Vice Presidential debate at Washington University will be moderated by Gwen Ifill, a highly respected correspondent and moderator for nationally televised public broadcasting news programs on PBS. Gwen Ifill is moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." She is also frequently asked to moderate debates in national elections, including the Vice Presidential debate during the 2004 election. Ifill is also the author of the forthcoming book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. During the 2008 campaign season, Ifill brought Washington Week to live audiences around the country on a 10-city tour.
Now in its 40th year, Washington Week is the longest-running news and public affairs program on public television. Each week, Gwen Ifill brings together some of the best journalists in Washington to discuss the major stories of the week. Ifill has bolstered the program's journalistic roots and its commitment to hearing from the reporters who actually cover the news. Ifill joined both Washington Week and The NewsHour in 1999, interviewing newsmakers and reporting on issues ranging from foreign affairs to politics.
Before coming to PBS, she spent five years at NBC News as chief congressional and political correspondent, and still appears as an occasional roundtable panelist on Meet The Press. Ifill joined NBC News from The New York Times where she covered the White House and politics. She also covered national and local affairs for The Washington Post, Baltimore Evening Sun and Boston Herald American.
Ifill was born 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. Her father's ministry required the family to live in several cities throughout New England and the Eastern Seaboard during her youth. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts in 1977.
Ifill has received more than a dozen honorary doctorates and is the recipient of several broadcasting excellence awards. She serves on the board of the Harvard University Institute of Politics, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Newseum and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Ms. Ifill dismissed conservative questions about her impartiality because she is writing a book that includes material on Senator Barack Obama. Ifill said Wednesday that she hasn't even written her chapter on Obama for the book "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," which is scheduled to be published by Doubleday on January 20, 2009, the day a new president is inaugurated. She said it was the publisher, not herself, who set the Inauguration Day release date. It will be released then whether Obama wins or loses.
In its online description of the book, Doubleday says that Ifill "surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama's stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power." Ifill said Obama's story, which she has yet to write, is only a small part of the book, which discusses how politics in the Black community have changed since the civil rights era. Among those subjects is former Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as other up and coming Black politicians such as Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker. The publisher says of the book "Drawing on interviews with power brokers like Senator Obama, Vernon Jordan, 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."
"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," Ifill said. "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." Although the topic of Ifill's impartiality was raised the day before the debate, the PBS journalist said that Time magazine noted she was writing a book in August, and that it has been available for pre-sale on Amazon.com. The book also is mentioned in a September 4 interview she gave the Washington Post.
Ifill questions why people assume that her book will be favorable toward Obama. "Do you think they made the same assumptions about Lou Cannon (who is White) when he wrote his book about Reagan?" said Ifill. Asked if there were racial motives at play, she said, "I don't know what it is. I find it curious." In 2004 Ifill was accused of favoring the Republican? There was much concern about her friendship with Condoleezza Rice.
While Joe Biden and Sarah Palin may have listened to dozens of mock questions in their debate preparation, they're sure to get one or two from Ifill that they don't expect. What she asks might touch on any topic imaginable under the negotiated rules, which call for Biden and Palin to be situated behind lecterns with short discussion periods and two minutes each for closing statements. Given Gwen Ifill's hard-news background, her questions are unlikely to be softballs.
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