Debate moderator criticized over book
Conservative pundits angry Gwen Ifill's upcoming book has chapter on Obama
News correspondent Gwen Ifill is shown at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.
(AP Photo/The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, Don PerduePublished: Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 4:43 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 4:31 p.m.
In mid-August, shortly after the Commission on Presidential Debates named Gwen Ifill of PBS as a moderator of the coming vice presidential event, she wrote an essay in Time magazine that identified her as the author of a coming book, "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama."
A couple of weeks later, an article in the Washington Post about her moderating duties described the book as focusing on "the Democratic nominee and such up-and-coming black politicians as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Newark Mayor Cory Booker."
But on the eve of the debate, Ifill and her book became the fresh object of outrage on conservative talk radio, blogs and cable news after a right-leaning Web site, WND.com, posted an article late Tuesday with the headline, "VP debate moderator Ifill releasing pro-Obama book."
The expressions of shock that met the headline were almost instantaneous, starting with the Drudge Report, which devoted a huge two-line headline to the article: "VP Debate Moderator Releasing 'Age of Obama' Book On Inauguration Day."
"Let's get real here. What would journalists say if in 2004 Jim Lehrer wrote a book called 'Breakthrough, the age of Bush?' " Joe Scarborough, the former Republican congressman and now MSNBC host, asked rhetorically on Wednesday morning.
Bill Hemmer, the Fox News anchor, questioned how Ifill could fairly moderate the debate as the author of a book he described as including "a glowing profile" of Obama.
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, chimed in on Wednesday, saying he was confident Ifill would do "a totally objective job," though he added, "Does this help that if she has written a book that's favorable to Sen. Obama? Probably not."
Ifill's authorship of a book that delves into the career of Obama has raised some concern among independent media analysts, who cited potential appearances of conflict of interest.
But some Democratic strategists -- and even one former adviser to McCain -- describe the right-wing criticism as an effort to warn Ifill away from tough questioning of Palin (or to pre-emptively undermine Ifill's credibility in the event Palin turns in a bad performance).
In an interview, Ifill said that she began writing the book, about the new generation of post-civil-rights-era black leaders, in spring 2007, long before Obama seemed likely to win the Democratic nomination. She said she had yet to write the chapter she plans to devote to Obama and argued with descriptions of her book as "pro-Obama."
"Since I haven't finished the book, it's interesting people think they know what's in it," she said.
With the criticism, Ifill joined legion with many of her fellow debate moderators this year, whose motives and views have been widely questioned before their events -- when they are formulating their questions -- and after them, when partisans on both sides seek to cast the results in the most favorable terms possible for their candidates.
Though moderators face questions over their personal views and motives in every campaign, this year's debate over the debate officiators has been unusually intense, perhaps a natural result of such a hard-fought and close election.
Other moderators who have been excoriated by viewers and partisans include Tim Russert, Brian Williams and Chris Matthews of NBC News and George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson of ABC News.
But the debate surrounding Ifill was heated, even by this year's standards, coming before what both sides have come to view as a crucial test for Palin, who has turned in uneven performances in several highly watched interviews.
Ifill came under scrutiny shortly after McCain named Palin as his running mate. Michael Getler, the PBS ombudsman, reported receiving letters from viewers who wrote they believed Ifill's facial expressions while reporting on Palin's convention speech betrayed "disgust."
Noting that Ifill had, in fact, reported that delegates "exploded with excitement" in reaction to her speech, and "couldn't have been happier," Getler concluded that Ifill had turned in a "solid" performance.
The original article in World Net Daily highlighted the letters -- though not Getler's defense of Ifill -- as well as complaints from conservatives four years ago, when she was the moderator of the debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator who was Sen. John Kerry's running mate.
During that debate, when Cheney had told her that he would need more than his allotted 30 seconds to respond to an accusation from Edwards regarding his former company, Halliburton, Ifill had said, "Well, that's all you've got."
In an interview on Wednesday, Mary Matalin, a longtime adviser to Cheney, said of Ifill, "I do think she's fair."
But, she said, given what she said was the well-earned distrust of the news media, especially among conservatives, "In this emotional climate, more care should have been taken to eliminate any aggravating factor."
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." Still, she said, "I don't necessarily see an absolute conflict of interest, it's not like it's his biography."
Bob Shrum, a Democratic strategist, accused conservatives of pushing the issue to make Ifill think twice while addressing Palin during the debate. "I just think they're trying to build every shield they can in case it doesn't go well," he said.
Ifill, a former reporter for The New York Times, said she was tuning it out. "I have to let people judge me by my work," she said.
But she found a defender in John Weaver, a former adviser to McCain, who warned the senator's supporters away from focusing on Ifill. "All of this hand-wringing, excuse-making and whining keeps McCain's economic recovery plan away from the public," he said.
"Gwen Ifill is as honorable and fair a journalist as there is, and all of us in our business know that."
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