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Right Wing Goes After Gwen Ifill

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From Africa: Third World “Consuming News Ravenously”


Juan Williams tells Fox News’ Bill Hemmer of Gwen Ifill’s "perception problem."

Ifill’s "Objectivity" a Nonissue; 95% Say She Was Fair

The vice presidential debate ended Thursday night with hardly a word in the instant commentary about moderator Gwen Ifill’s role, and much about Republican Sarah Palin’s performance, a sign that the right-wing drumbeat about Ifill’s supposed lack of objectivity failed to gain traction.

In a CNN poll of those who watched the debate, "Respondents overwhelmingly said moderator Gwen Ifill was fair . . . repudiating critics who said that Ifill, of PBS, would be biased because she is writing a book that includes Biden’s running mate, Sen. Barack Obama," CNN said, referring to Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.

"Ninety-five percent of those polled said Ifill was fair."

As soon as the debate ended, the National Association of Black Journalists issued a statement commending its longtime member, saying she "served with resilience, grace and tenacity; the traits of an exemplary debate moderator."

"Gwen set a steady hand, a sound voice and balanced tone through what became a civil debate between two history making rivals", said NABJ President Barbara Ciara. "We’d expect nothing less from one of our country’s most highly-respected political journalists."

The NABJ statement continued, "Ifill’s stellar performance as moderator paves the way for future opportunities for Black journalists and others of color to participate more fully in coverage of Presidential elections. In July, with its annual Thumbs Down Award, NABJ noted how journalists of color were not represented proportionally in this coverage."

In the instant analysis, most pundits agreed that Palin did a creditable job after disappointing performances in television interviews over the past week that cast doubt on her fitness for the job.

Time magazine’s Mark Halperin, on "The Page," wrote: "No big moments, no news, little to spoof about Palin, no major Biden gaffes,

"Issues include taxes, health care, energy, Iraq, same sex marriage, climate change, education, the bailout bill, differences with their running mates, role as a veep.

"Mark Halperin’s grades:

"Palin: B

"Biden: B"

CBS News said a nationally representative poll of 473 uncommitted voters conducted by CBS and the Knowledge Networks found, "Forty-six percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed say Democrat Joe Biden won the debate, compared to 21 percent for Republican Sarah Palin. Thirty-three percent said it was a tie. . . . Both candidates improved their overall image tonight."

CNN said, "The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. said 51 percent of those polled thought Biden did the best job, while 36 percent thought Palin did the best job.

"Both candidates exceeded expectations — 84 percent of the people polled said Palin did a better job than they expected, while 64 percent said Biden also exceeded expectations."

On MSNBC, host and commentator Chris Matthews professed astonishment that Palin proposed to expand the powers of the vice presidency in light of incumbent Dick Cheney’s accumulation of power in the office.

He also said it was extraordinary that the Alaska governor said she did not want to give any more interviews that were "filtered by the mainstream media.

"Not a lot of humanity there," Matthews said.

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, speaking after a focus group on Fox showed many reacting positively to Palin’s just-folks touches, said, "I’m a Midwesterner. I like plain talk," regardless of whether she agreed with what was being said. "She’s a plain talker and that’s very attractive to people," Van Susteren said.

"She held her own this evening," former Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., now an MSNBC pundit, said of Palin. He also said, "Biden was pretty much on throughout," but Palin’s performance drew most of the commentary.

That was mostly because of lowered expectations. "I was expecting her to lose it," one man in the Fox focus group said. "Biden was boring," conservative columnist Pat Buchanan said in his role as MSNBC pundit. "Boring and right versus exciting and wrong," retorted his liberal counterpart, Rachel Maddow.

The format agreed to by the political parties provided the candidates no time to speak to each other directly, and to choose not to answer the question on the table if they did not want to.

"She had a game plan," said David Gregory on MSNBC, speaking of Palin: "Answering those questions she wanted to answer."

"She has a certain charm, but I wonder how viewers are reacting to the way she just declines to answer the question at hand and pivots to more solid ground," Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson wrote in his blog while the debate was in progress.

"I confess, though, I don’t know what anybody is making of this. I don’t even know what I’m making of it. This is the strangest debate I’ve ever seen. It seems like an interplanetary exchange, with poor Gwen Ifill trying to keep the Enterprise from falling into the wormhole." [Updated Oct. 2]

McCain Changes His Position, Criticizes Choice

"Hours ahead of the vice presidential debate, Sen John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized the selection of PBS’s Gwen Ifill as moderator because she is writing a book called ‘The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,’" Mike Allen reported Thursday on Politico.com.

”Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama – let’s face it,’ McCain said on ‘Fox & Friends.’ ‘But I have to have confidence that Gwen Ifill will handle this as the professional journalist that she is.’

"’Life isn’t fair, as I mentioned earlier in the program,’ he added.

"Ifill is moderator and managing editor of ‘Washington Week’ and senior correspondent of ‘The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.’ She is viewed as one of Washington’s fairest journalists.

". . . McCain took a different tack the day before, telling Fox News in another interview: ‘I think that Gwen Ifill is a professional, and I think that she will do a totally objective job because she is a highly respected professional. Does this help that if she has written a book that is favorable to Senator Obama? Probably not, but I have confidence that Gwen Ifill will do a professional job. And I have that confidence.’"

Sarah Palin, the vice presidential candidate told conservative radio host Sean Hannity on Wednesday that the supposed conflict would just make her "try harder." [Added Oct. 2]

Moderator’s Fairness Questioned on Eve of Debate

Right wing Web sites and columnists, together with Fox News, are going after Gwen Ifill, questioning whether the respected PBS host is qualified to moderate Thursday’s vice presidential debate because she is working on a book about Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee.

The Drudge Report trumpeted, "VP Moderator Ifill Releasing ‘Age of Obama’ Book on Inauguration Day."

"VP Debate Moderator Pens Pro-Obama Book," read the headline on the Fox News Web site on Wednesday.

"A Debate ‘Moderator’ In the Tank for Obama" bannered a column from the conservative columnist Michelle Malkin.

"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 to be published by Doubleday on Jan. 20, 2009, the day a new president is inaugurated," David Bauder reported for the Associated Press.

"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 told Bauder. "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."

At issue are whether the book-in-progress is pro-Obama, whether it is a revelation that the book is being written, and whether Ifill can be a fair moderator.

It fell to PBS "NewsHour" spokeswoman Anne Bell to say, in the Fox News story, "The book has been a known factor for months, so I’m not sure what the big deal is."

Fox commentator Juan Williams simultaneously held the roles of "senior correspondent" on National Public Radio and "analyst" on Fox News, until NPR recognized the conflict and changed his job title to "analyst." In this space, he defended maintaining his correspondent’s job and writing a book attacking some of those he might interview, saying, "Reporters have brains and opinions."

Williams said on "America’s Newsroom" that Ifill had a "perception problem."

"Clearly her books aren’t going to do as well unless Obama wins, so it looks like she has some investment, literally, in one candidate or the other. And she’s supposed to be sitting there as a neutral arbiter during the debate," said Williams. "I think the world of Gwen Ifill but I know there’s a perception problem."

"Fox News commentator Greta Van Susteren reported the McCain campaign didn’t know about the book," Bob Unruh wrote Tuesday night for WorldNet Daily, claiming an "exclusive."

"’It simply is not fair – in law, this would create a mistrial,’ she said."

It is not news that the book is being written. Howard Kurtz wrote in the Washington Post on Sept. 4, "To the extent she can carve out any spare time, Ifill is working on a book called ‘Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.’ She focuses on the Democratic nominee and such up-and-coming black politicians as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Newark Mayor Cory Booker."

References to the book can be found this past summer in places as diverse as U-Wire, a service for college newspapers, and the Jacksonville (Fla.) Free Press, a black newspaper.

Ifill also interviewed the Obamas for an Essence magazine piece, "The Obamas: Portrait of an American Family."

Nicole Dewey, publicist for the book, said she would not comment. However, Ifill responded to questions about her objectivity in the same Kurtz piece.

"On one level, Ifill says, she views this moment as the daughter of a black minister who marched in civil rights demonstrations and who she wishes were alive to see what Obama has achieved," Kurtz wrote. "But as a journalist, she says: ‘I still don’t know if he’ll be a good president. I’m still capable of looking at his pros and cons in a political sense.’ Besides, Ifill says, ‘no one’s ever assumed a white reporter can’t cover a white candidate.’ "

Kurtz said Wednesday on CNN’s "The Situation Room": "I think it is a smear to assume that a black journalist can’t be objective about politics when a black politician happens to be involved, whereas you would never raise that question about a white journalist covering white politician."

The topic dominated the discussion Wednesday on the e-mail list of the National Association of Black Journalists.

"I think any of us who even remotely know of Gwen and her reputation for being a strong and fair person as well as journalist all know here that she will be ‘punked’ by no one," one member said.

"I think it’s funny that Gwen’s book isn’t being categorized as a historical chronicle of politics, much like the multi-volume books Bob Woodward writes," said another.

Others called it a diversionary tactic by supporters of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee.

One pointed out the irony of Fox News questioning Ifill’s credibility, noting a Sept. 20 story by James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times.

"Fox News tough guy Sean Hannity assured us this week he would press Sarah Palin for real answers — no going easy on the woman who could be the next vice president of the United States," it began.

"’No topic,’ Hannity intoned, ‘is off limits.’

"A couple of nights earlier, Fox’s hard-talking lawyer, Greta Van Susteren, promised to take us to unknown places in her exclusive interview with Alaska’s so-called First Dude, Todd Palin.

"’You will see this,’ Greta declared, ‘nowhere else!’

"No, you won’t. And mercifully so. Because Hannity and Van Susteren produced three nights of infotainment so frothy, slanted and off-point that they challenged even their cable network’s low standards."

Diversity on the Rise at L.A. Daily News

Diversity at the Los Angeles Daily News has improved since Carolina Garcia was named new executive editor in April.

Mariel Garza, who had been a City Hall reporter, was promoted from editorial writer/columnist to editorial page editor.

Oscar Garza, editor in chief of the short-lived Tu Ciudad magazine, and deputy editor of the Los Angeles Times magazine before that, was hired as senior editor/content. And Julio Morales, a recent Cal State Northridge grad, was hired as an online reporter, Veronica Villafane notes on her Media Moves site.

"I also hired two reporters and two copy editors, and they also were diverse candidates, Asian American, African American and two Latino reporters," Garcia told Journal-isms on Wednesday. "On the copy desk we hired [Cliff] Redding and Kay Scanlon and the two reporters were Justino Aguila and George Sanchez." Garcia arrived after a number of cutbacks."Overall, I am down by four folks from the moment I was hired," she said.

"The Parity Project team played a direct role in helping that paper to hire several of its new personnel, including NABJ member Cliff Redding," Kevin Olivas, director of the diversity project of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, told Journal-isms.

Viewers of Color Still Prefer ABC’s "World News"

"NBC Nightly News" might be the leader among all viewers for the last 12 years, but African Americans and Hispanics continue to prefer ABC’s "World News with Charles Gibson" among the three major broadcast networks’ evening newscasts, according to Nielsen ratings provided to Journal-isms by ABC.

For the period Sept. 24, 2007, to Sept. 21, ABC led among black viewers, 1,127,000 to 1,003,000 for the "CBS Evening News" and 732,000 for "NBC Nightly News." The order was the same for the crucial 25-54 demographic group.

For Hispanics during that same period, ABC was again the winner, with 350,000 viewers, followed by "NBC Nightly News," with 290,000, and "CBS Evening News" with 280,000. Same order for the 25-54 group.

The network did not offer a reason for its dominance, but when similar figures were released two years ago, Paul S. Mason, senior vice president of ABC News, said ABC’s owned-and-operated stations, which are in major markets, tend to do very well. Those markets have higher concentrations of African Americans and Latinos. Also, the "Oprah Winfrey Show" serves as a strong lead-in for those stations’ evening news shows in many cities, he said.

The viewership figures for the networks were lower in 2007 than they were in 2006, however.

That mirrors the trend for the general audience. The New York Times’ Brian Stelter reported last week:

"The ‘CBS Evening News,’ in Katie Couric‘s second year as anchor, averaged 6.15 million viewers, down from 6.74 million in the previous season. ABC’s ‘World News with Charles Gibson’ averaged 8.18 million viewers, down slightly from 8.36 million. ‘NBC Nightly News,’ the top-rated newscast, averaged 8.52 million viewers, up a bit from 8.4 million last season. ‘Nightly’ has ranked No. 1 among evening newscasts for 12 years."

U.S. Relents After Denying Reentry to Cuban Journalists

"The United States has reversed itself and decided to allow two journalists for the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina to return to their posts at the United Nations, the State Department said Wednesday," the Associated Press reported.

"The department’s original decision to deny re-entry to husband and wife team Tomas Granados Jimenez and Ilsa Rodriguez Santana had drawn condemnation from the press advocacy groups Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists."

"Based in New York for the past three years, the couple were not given any explanation by the US authorities for the refusal, which Reporters Without Borders regards as arbitrary. They were, however, given a form suggesting they are regarded as a threat to the United States," the press-freedom organization said on Tuesday.

"This measure is both persecutory and incomprehensible. Since when could journalists who have been accredited to the United Nations for three years suddenly pose a ‘threat’ to the United States? That is what the US authorities seem to think, to judge by the clause they brandished without further explanation."

Army Gives Mourners Some Control Over Media Access

"In the face of criticism, the Army has for the first time formally outlined a policy outlining media access to military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, giving clear but limited control to mourning families while reserving the final word for cemetery officials," Jordan Zappala wrote for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

"Under the policy, family members will be able to grant or deny varying degrees of media access to funeral services: none, visual or visual and ‘limited audio.’ In the latter category, the main speaker is outfitted with a wireless microphone to transmit the eulogy to the media; reporters cannot hear family members speak or approach them at the site.

"The informal policy came under fire this spring when the Washington Post ran an article about the media being kept from covering Lt. Col. Billy Hall’s funeral, even though the Marine’s family gave reporters permission to be there."

From Africa: Third World "Consuming News Ravenously"

"What is exciting is that as newspapers seem to be experiencing an unraveling in America and much of Europe, the opposite is true in the developing world, where large numbers of people are moving into the working and middle classes for the first time and are consuming news ravenously," Dele Olojede told Journal-isms Wednesday via e-mail.

As reported on Monday, Olojede, a former Newsday foreign editor who was named co-winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, is in Africa planning NEXT, a continent-wide daily news outlet. The development was reported by the New Times newspaper in Kigali, Rwanda.

"But we are also not making the mistakes of traditional newspapers," Olojede continued. "We are building this from scratch as a multichannel news offering, delivered to people wherever they are, so that we don’t have an ink-stained newsroom. The web is not going to be the printed paper’s poor cousin. We are also focusing rather intently on turning the mobile phone — Africa’s favorite communications tool — into a news delivery vehicle from the beginning.

"We expect to launch early next year. . . . It will start in Lagos, to get our feet firmly planted for the first 18 months or so, before starting to print simultaneously in multiple cities across the continent, perhaps starting with Johannesburg, Nairobi and Cairo and then adding others. We expect to staff bureaus across the continent as we expand out of Lagos."

He did not disclose how the project would be financed.

Short Takes

  • Yolanda Woodlee, a Washington Post reporter who recently took a buyout, has joined San Francisco-based Chase Communications’ Washington office as director of media strategy. Chase is a public relations and marketing communications agency.
  • Helena Andrews, Politico’s only African American writer, who left the publication in September, is working on "Bitch is the New Black," which she describes as "a memoir by a late-twentysomething who is a little Carrie Bradshaw, a little Bridget Jones, and yet looks nothing like them. I’m calling it my rebuttal to the Washington Post’s ‘Being a Black Man’ series and CNN’s "Black in America" — both of which gave young professional black women the side eye." Andrews, 27, told Journal-isms the book is to be published by HarperCollins in the spring.

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