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Gwen Ifill, Powerful Role Model, Dies at 61

by richard5 2547

‘Platinum Standard for Political Journalists’

Gwen Ifill roasted at the National Press Club in 2014 (Credit: Neshan Naltchayan)
Gwen Ifill was roasted at the National Press Club in 2014. (Credit: Neshan Naltchayan)

‘Platinum Standard for Political Journalists’

Eartha Kitt, the politically active actress and chanteuse whose “Santa Baby” still lights up holiday playlists, was on her deathbed in 2008 when The HistoryMakers, an organization honoring black achievement, decided to honor Kitt with a tribute to be televised on PBS. The entertainer had only one condition, and it was the same one as Diahann Carroll, Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy Jr., who were similarly honored.

They wanted Gwen Ifill.

“For all these people, that’s the only one they wanted to interview them,” Julieanna Richardson, founder of The HistoryMakers, told Journal-isms by telephone Monday. “They saw someone who was smart, right on the money. . . . These people like Berry Gordy, they wanted to know that their story was going to be handled right. That was the only one on television that they thought they respected.”

Ifill, who reached the firmament of political as well as African American journalists as co-anchor of the “PBS NewsHour” and moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week with Gwen Ifill,” died Monday of cancer. She was 61 and had not publicly discussed her illness.

As might be expected, nearly everyone with whom she came in contact had a memory to share. For this columnist, it was when she proferred a public kiss from the dais at an awards ceremony soon after “Journal-isms” launched, signaling her approval. Her photo remains at the top of the journal-isms.com home page.

“I have no words,” her good friend, NPR journalist Michel Martin, messaged. “She stood up for me at my wedding, was one of the first people to see my children when they were born, cheered every accomplishment, forgave every misstep. What can I possibly say?”

Ifill’s pastor, the Rev. William H. Lamar IV of Washington’s Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, called her “a woman of deep faith” who “used her platform to mentor countless young people and her fame to give back to her beloved church and community. When Gwen published the best-selling The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama in 2009, she donated some of the proceeds to help restore Metropolitan’s historic building,” he said in a statement.

Not far away, President Obama, whose name graced Ifill’s book, began a news conference by noting the groundbreaking achievements in Ifill’s career and said she “did her country a great service. (video)

“She not only informed today’s citizens, but she also inspired tomorrow’s journalists,” the president said. “She was especially a powerful role model for young women and girls who admired her integrity, her tenacity and her intellect, and for whom she blazed a trail as one half of the first all-female anchor team on network news,” co-anchoring the “NewsHour” with Judy Woodruff.

Vanessa Williams, a Washington Post reporter and past president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said in an NABJ statement, “Gwen was the platinum standard for political journalists and she was such an inspiration to African-American women in the business. She was a tough, smart reporter, with a warm, generous spirit who never hesitated to help, financially and with her time and talents, when asked, whether by NABJ or by a student who approached her for a few words of advice and a selfie.”

Ifill’s status as a black journalist was prominent in many of the news stories Monday, but the respect she earned from peers and the public transcended demographic groups.

In a 2005 Q-and-A with Fannie Flono of the Charlotte Observer, Ifill cited Tim Russert, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in explaining why she went into public television after two decades in the mainstream press.

“It was mostly an opportunity that came. My whole career has been kind of like that, where opportunities just presented themselves. If you had asked me when I got my first job in journalism what I would do for the rest of my career, I hoped that I would one day be an elegant columnist like Mary McGrory. My plan was to spend my career in newspapers.

“I liked writing and I liked deadlines. And it was only when I was talking about work at NBC with my pal Tim Russert did I even consider doing television full time. And only after I was at NBC for a while did the stars come together, which made the chance to host my own program on public television and take part as a senior correspondent on a second program.

” ‘The NewsHour’ is how I think news should be. It’s serious and it’s smart and it covers things in a way that other people don’t. It gives me a chance to pursue the sober side of my interest in journalism and also have the impact of television.”

Journalists such as ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz and John Harwood of the New York Times joined in a 2014 roast of Ifill by the American News Women’s Club at Washington’s National Press Club. Raddatz pronounced herself and Ifill “girlfriends all the way,” calling herself a “61-year-old grandmother, just like Gwen’s target audience.”

Harwood, a frequent “Washington Week” panelist, called Ifill “the Queen Latifah of political journalism.” Queen Latifah played Ifill on “Saturday Night Live” after Ifill moderated the 2008 vice presidential debate between Joseph H. Biden Jr. and Sarah Palin.

Broadcast journalist Ray Suarez, who said he and Ifill both started at the “NewsHour” on Oct. 3, 1999, told the roast audience that at news meetings, the two “supplied most of the melanin in the room.”

Suarez said Monday on NPR’s “Here and Now” that Ifill succeeded because she was “even-handed yet tenacious” and added that she had “a wicked sense of humor.”

PBS NewsHour said in a statement on Monday, “It is with extremely heavy hearts that we must share that our dear friend and beloved colleague Gwen Ifill passed away this afternoon following several months of cancer treatment. She was surrounded by loving family and many friends whom we ask that you keep in your thoughts and prayers.”

Kelsey Sutton and Hadas Gold noted for Politico, “Ifill, who was born in New York, graduated from Simmons College, a women’s college located in Boston, in 1977, before beginning her career at the Boston Herald-American. She held reporting positions at The Washington Post, The New York Times and NBC before becoming a moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week in Review” in 1999.

“Ifill’s first book, ‘The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,’ was released on the day of President Barack Obama’s first inauguration. One of the most visible African American female broadcast journalists, she received more than 20 honorary doctorates, had been honored by the Peabody awards, Radio and Television News Directors Association, Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center, and The National Association of Black Journalists among others. She also served on the boards of the News Literacy Project, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and was a fellow with the American Academy of Sciences.

“Ifill’s acclaimed career was also marked by the obstacles she overcame as a black woman in the news business. As an intern at the Boston Herald-American, a staffer left a note that included a racial epithet telling her to ‘go home;’ Ifill would go on to be the only black moderator and the only woman moderating the 2004 vice-presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards, and then the 2008 vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Ifill also moderated a primary debate between Sen. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton last year. . . .”

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5 comments

Greg Thrasher November 14, 2016 at 8:25 pm

Wow this hurts … RIP Gwen

Reply
richard November 15, 2016 at 1:09 am

From Charlayne Hunter-Gault

My heart is hurting, but Knowing Gwen, she has already started giving assignments to the Ancestors, while sharing with them all the wonderful things that made her such a great friend and voice to the world. RIP, Gwen, but I know that’s not advice

your’re going to take as I am sure you will be busy watching and guiding us and helping us to be all that we can be, especially during these trying times when your voice , your grace and your integrity are so sorely needed… I’m gonna try my damndest to make you proud.

But I will still miss you here on earth. Long Live, Gwen Ifill, Long Live!

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richard November 15, 2016 at 8:59 am

From Keith Harriston:

I want to share a few anecdotes about Gwen Ifill, the co-anchor of PBS’s nightly news program and host of Washington Week. I share hoping to give those who weren’t lucky enough to be touched by Gwen some idea of why so many journalists are deeply saddened by her death today.

I started working as a reporter at The Washington Post in September 1985 in the Prince George’s County, Md., bureau. Gwen was in the bureau then. I was replacing her friend Sandra Gregg, who sadly died many years ago. When I arrived at the bureau office on my first day, Sandy wasn’t there. She was downtown in the main newsroom. But she left something for me with Gwen. A list of her sources on the beat I was inheriting–law enforcement and courts. Phone numbers and short backgrounds on most were included. Gwen passed it to me with a message that generally was that that is how we–black reporters at The Post–look out for each other. That never happened again during my time at the newspaper.

About a month or so later, Gwen organized a Sunday brunch for reporters of color at the newspaper at Hogate’s in Southwest DC. I didn’t know what to wear–I was young and so naive that I thought that my outfit that day would matter. Since I was young, I also didn’t make much money. And it showed in many ways, including my wardrobe. But I did own one new decent suit that was really for cold weather. Of course I wore it to the brunch on a day it was in the 70s. A few at the brunch didn’t wait to jone on me about the suit. My reply was something about looking like a journalist. The only person came to my defense was Gwen. She said she agreed that looking like a journalist was important and I was right. She did that I’m sure because she knew most likely why I wore that suit that day. I had limited salary and limited wardrobe.
Gwen was always getting groups of us together. She did it in October 1985 for Patrick Ewing’s first game as a pro. It was only preseason, but it was Ewing at the new George Mason U gym. That’s where I first met Michael Wilbon. Gwen did that, too.

In June 1986 Len Bias died. On my beat. I had been at The Post 9 months. I arrived at the bureau the morning Bias died to find scores of journalists at the courthouse. Gwen was covering state politics and more then. But she called me with a warning. Don’t let them take this story from you. This is a big deal. I hadn’t even considered that a possibility. I was a bit naive. Gwen took care of that. Next thing I knew, the team of investigative reporters for the Metro staff were calling many of the people I was calling: lawyers, cops, prosecutors. But thanks in large to Sandy and Gwen–and those who thought like them–I was sourced. And those sources let the downtown crew know that they had already talked to me and would be talking to me.

I worked every day on Bias for months. Sometime in September, Gwen and I found ourselves in the same room. Your working hard and doing good stuff, but you have do things for you, too. We ended up going to a movie that night. Not together. We met at the theater, the West End Circle. Blue Velvet was playing. I don’t know whether it was my idea or hers, but we both thought it was one of the weirdest movies we’d seen.

In the early 90s, Gwen had already left The Post. Of all places, I saw her on Interstate 95 near Philly during Thanksgiving week. My wife and I were headed to her relatives there, Gwen to hers. We kept waving to each for a mile or so.

In the early 2000s while still a newsroom manager at The Post, I taught journalism as an adjunct at Howard. First person I called to speak to my class was Gwen. She was a broadcast star by then. But she didn’t hesitate to come. She shared inside details about her specific experiences, not all of them pleasant. She didn’t leave until the last question from the last student had been answered.

I didn’t know Gwen well. The last time I talked with her was summer of 2014 at a celebration gathering for Kevin and Donna’s son Skye. She was distressed about the state of journalism. But you have such an important job, I said. Yes, she answered, but who’s watching and does it matter. She said she was tired.

She was special, a great journalist and an even better person.

Reply
richard November 15, 2016 at 9:30 am

From Dan Balz:

On this sad day, Gwen Ifill’s friends are remembering her for all the good things she brought to our lives and the lives of others. I remember her with fondness and joy and with the knowledge that I was among those lucky to call her both colleague and friend.

We worked together at the Washington Post as she was rising through the ranks of journalism. We remained friends when she moved on to other organizations. She was kind enough to invite me to share many Friday evenings around the Washington Week table, where we all talked about the events of the week with civility and respect for one another. The viewers loved her.

She was as vibrant as anyone I knew, with a million-dollar smile that spread light whenever she was near. She was a woman of faith and spirituality, full of life and vitality. That she was taken away so swiftly is one of the cruelties that none of can easily understand. She slipped away on Monday, private in her suffering and yet surrounded by family and from afar by the love and affection of so many people.

Accolades and awards seemed to come easily to her as she reached the highest peaks of television journalism, but they came only after she had paid her dues, honed her talents, worked the beats and learned her craft, first in print and then in television. She mastered them all with hard work and determination. The acclaim she received as an anchor and moderator was well earned and the respect she enjoyed from colleagues and the politicians she covered was richly deserved.

She was a barrier breaker and a role model. Mostly she was just a pro who never took lightly the responsibility that came with her standing. She was hard on politicians, hated spin and never flinched from seeking answers and truth as much as it can be found. She went after stories aggressively. She remained open-minded about what that story would be. She was always skeptical of those in power. She wanted to hear what ordinary people thought. Those qualities will be passed on to younger generations of reporters who can look to her for guidance and inspiration in the years ahead.

John Dickerson put it so well in his tribute to Gwen. “If you were on Gwen’s show, you became a collector of compliments,” he wrote in Slate. Those compliments came from people all over the country — viewers who had a special bond with Gwen and wanted you to pass that along to her. Her rare combination of warmth and authority radiated out from flat screens in homes all around the country. People tuned in to the NewsHour and set their clocks for Washington Week on Friday nights. They felt they were listening to a trusted friend. They were.
We won’t get to see Gwen on television anymore. We won’t get to enjoy her good company and her laughter and her loyalty. We will keep her close, however, and count all the good things. May God bless her.

Reply
richard November 15, 2016 at 10:36 am

From Kevin Merida:

I knew Gwen for 38 years, and she never changed. That is sometimes said of many in death, but with Gwen it is actually true. Neither success nor fame seemed to alter her purpose or carriage, the way she absorbed life and cared about the lives of others.

She was regular. She danced and laughed and knew the lyrics of Broadway musicals. She came to a graduation party for our sons. She was intellectually curious, but she was also curious about you.

What a wonderful gift it is to have a friend and know that no matter when you see her, she’s still the same. The same warmth, the same smile.

I was honored to participate in the PBS NewsHour’s special tribute to her. More tributes will follow for sure. We’re all going to miss her — our profession, the public, her family and friends. She was a great connector of people — her annual New Year’s Day open house party kept growing in size. None of us who attended ever wanted to miss it.

This summer I marveled at how good she was, along with Judy Woodruff, co-anchoring the NewsHour/NPR live coverage of the political conventions. I knew it must have been difficult for her. We exchanged notes. She told me how tiring it was, but how determined she had been to shine. Her determination, throughout her career, was fierce. Her work ethic was a model for all journalists who emulated her–or tried.

Let’s be honest here: there were times in her career when she was under appreciated and undervalued as a black woman in our profession. But she did not let slights or the idiocy of others deter her — and she also wasn’t one to let disrespect slide. It’s easy, even in our sudden grief, to see why so many journalists admired her. And so many young black journalists looked up to her and wanted to become her.

I feel like an important piece of my [life] just passed. I was only a couple of years behind her during that tense busing era in Boston. To watch her land a job at The Boston Herald right after graduating and make it in that newsroom was like, wow.

To Gwen. Forever.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/remembering-gwen/#

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