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Did anyone notice how Ifill happened to mention Obama's "bounce" on Washington Week in Review on Sept 5, then talked around to ask McCain "erasing" that? ''.... She was unable to force herself to use unbiased wording. As a "respected journalist" she should have been able to simply ask the panelists about a similar bounce for McCain, and their views on that possibility. . And she is supposed to moderate a debate -- sounds likes it will be Ifill and the Democrat aqainst the Republican.

AN AFRICAN AMERICAN WHO HATES REPUBLICANS AND LOVES AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN POLITICAN...WHO'D HAVE THUNK IT!

Fixed -- thanks, brat!

Will she be able to restrain herself from using the phrase "Taming of the Shrew" when referring to the VP debate?

Please check out this story from Alaska about an anti-Palin Rally to see if it is true and if it is I wonder why it was never picked up by National media? We (voters) deserve to know everything we can about her since so few reporters are allowed around her without her script and handlers. The story came from XLNT Alaska. I got a copy of the video 21 September '08

One would only hope that Gwen would remember all the biases against her as a black woman. We the public are smart enough to make up our own minds and we don't need or want them playing this gotcha crap. If she does it, I hope she never gets the opportunity again.

Amazing how whites attack black, minority people with impunity and of course see bias which is a case of seeing themselves, in any minority public person. I have if anything found Gwen Ifill bland bending over backwards as most minorities do in western countries to be 'fair' almost to a fault.
I am myself of dual heritage, Bengali-India and English. I thank my English mother that she loved India and raised us, her children there with my father and did not wish to return to England. I see my counterpart, of dual heritage as having suffered so much living and growing up in the West in a dominant white culture. What is it with whites that they so dislike people of colour, is it the terrible misdeeds of their forbears?

I think that everyone should allow God to move in this election and stop the judging and racisim that has cancerized our country for over 200 years.
Let Go and let God!!!!!!!

Eyetsemitan...Life does not end; it goes on.

Ifill is deep in the tank for Obama, has a financial interest in the outcome of the election with her book and increasingly shows her distain for whites and Republicans. What in the hotel was the Presidential Debate Comm thinking when they chose this tainted shill?

Why are Republicans so afraid letting Palin debate? Gwen Ifill is a paragon of objectivity. See for PROOF:
watch?v=9cKAFqn4Y8Q

Racism is unacceptable, whether fueled by someone who is white or black. Black racism exists, just say it and now we've identified the "duck". She walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, she's a duck!

It's not the color of her skin - it's the color of her politics that is the problem.

Amazing...obviously nobody on this board has watched a presidential/vice-presidential debate.

Seeing as the moderator doesn't get to interject one's own opinion and asks virtually the same questions of both candidates, allow the debate to either expose her alleged "bias" or Palin's incompetence.

But this junk here is only indicative of racism...the personal and racial insults over a perceived "bias" only proves there's more racism in this race than media bias. If the comments were strictly kept to a political critique, that's one thing. But the extras? That says it all.

Interesting how Republicans are afraid for Palin to stand up to Gwen Ifill, but are fine with her "standing up" to Iran or Putin if president.

Gwen should not be allowed to moderate this vice presidential debate on Thursday. It's not what you say, it's how you say it?Feelings and looks are as strong as the spoken word.
I'm hoping there is enough pressure from the public to have her step down graciously.

She really gives journalists a bad name! Unfair and bias, in it for her own good Just like Barack Hussin Obama!
Moderator" is a nonpartisan person presiding as an officer of a town meeting." But there is nothing "moderate" nor nonpartisan about where Ifill stands on Barack Hussin Obama. She's so far in the crack of the Democratic presidential candidate's ass that you can't tell were she starts or ends. How can she be allowed to be the moderator of the VP debate? Who made that choice?

So what!!!!!!!

So what, if she don't like Republicans! So what, if she wrote a book about Obama!!
So what if some people are only voting for Obama because he's black!
but...isn't that the exact reason you RACIST MOFO's isn't voting for him!!!!!

You people hate that our skin pigment is darker, yet you are always running to the tanning booth!!

Hypocrites, just like McCain/Palin.

you pale people are the ANTI-CHRIST!!!

As "a typical white person" I'm a bit confused by all of the racits talk. I hear that 95% of black people are voting for Barock. I wonder are they racist or for the first time in history has one person found a message that 95% of one race agrees with. I agree with the duck message. She loves Barock, she hates Palin and she's so deep in the bag for Barock she wrote a book with his name in the title. That's a duck. Also, just like 95% of black people she is going to vote for Barock. I'm sure she will be fair and balanced, not doubt about it. If you believe that I've got a $700 million deal just for you. Good luck suckers!

She needs to go as moderator. Even if, a really big "IF"....she writes negatively asbout Eegg-Obama, she shouldn't be moderating a nationally televised debate. I hope that feisty Sarah tells it like it is at the outset so that there is no doubt in viewer's minds about Ifill's BIAS. Can the bitch!

Wow. Folks here sure know how to hate and prejudge. The book isn't even OUT, and it's being criticized for being favorable to Obama. And "she hates Palin"??? Uh, any evidence to support that? Oh, yeah. She "wrote a book with his name in the title." A trenchant analysis by a small mind, methinks.

Instead of all the handwringing in anticipation (more, I believe, from legitimate concern about how poorly Sarah might perform, rather than anything GI might inject) of the debate, how 'bout we see HOW the debate is conducted and plays out first. Then come back IF the criticism now being leveled becomes real.....

Wow, a lot of racists sneaking in little comments here, but mostly just a lot of misinformed people. I love it when people start talking about Black racism or reverse racism. I grew up listening to that kind of mistaken reasoning which assumes that racism is synonymous with identifying with someone that has the same color skin as you.

If you are a white person living abroad in japan for a few years, and you see another white person on the street, you probably immediately identify with that person. This does not make you a racist. If you go up and talk to them instead of the other people on the street, you are not a racist. If you decide to write a book about that person once you've talked to them... you are still not a racist!

On the other hand, if the Japanese people one day decided to kill any white-skinned people they see on the street, and then made jokes about how dumb or ugly or weak white people are for decades afterward, or even if they just decided to rarely hire white people for jobs or to make it hard for them become citizens, because white people are "on the average not as trustworthy" as Japanese people -- now that would be racism!

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means!

To be honest, I haven't followed PBS or NPR for many years (back when Robert McNeil was at PBS). Until tonight I didn't know what Ms. Ifill looked like.
I do now recognize her as one of the commentators at the republican convention. I felt her commentary at that time expressed an obvious disdain for the proceedings. It was patently different from the commentary of her more conservative-leaning counterparts.

In any event, I am concerned that an obviously liberal journalist (one of the large majority of journalists) who has written a pro-Obama book to be released on inauguration day (big $$ if he wins) is going to "moderate" the VP debate. This seems questionable at best. I do hope that each candidate gets equal treatment. We need the chance to hear them both.

Just another dagger in the heart of american journalism. i grew up trusting my papers and television reporters, but, as i've grown older, i've come to realize that most of the media i've grown accustomed to don't report accurately, on balance, or in depth. It's a monoculture bred in journalism schools. There are not ethics. This is just one more pitiful example of someone who should have recused herself long, long, ago from a debate on this subject. And shame on the Commission. Now its integrity is thrown into question.

Gwen should step down, we all know that she will be in pallins corner, choosing sisterhood over nation. Poor Joe Biden doesnt have a chance with Sarahcuda and Gwen tag teaming him the whole debate!

What were they thinking at the CPD? Gwen Ifill is rooting for Obama (view the book promos at Amazon.com). She will make more money selling her book. Where is her integrity? She should excuse hersself and go away forever.

Controversy swirled over vice presidential debate moderator Gwen Ifill one day before the face-off between Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden, after new scrutiny was drawn to her upcoming book featuring Barack Obama. Gwen Ifill of PBS is the moderator for Thursday's vice presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri.

In stories published Wednesday on NationalReview.com and WorldNetDaily's Web site, conservative commentators noted that "Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama" -- first announced several months ago -- is slated to be released around the inauguration of the next president in January 2009.

"...as if we needed any further evidence of a jaw-dropping double standard, we have to contemplate the sheer impossibility that someone who wrote a positive biography of [John] McCain being chosen to moderate a debate," wrote NationalReview.com's Jim Geraghty on Wednesday.

The book, published by Doubleday, has not yet been released to critics or the public.

In the book, Ifill takes a look at the black political movement's beginnings during the Civil Rights movement that gave way "to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s," according to Amazon.com.

Ifill discussed the book in a interview with The Washington Post on September 4, well before the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the debate moderators

The McCain campaign said it had not seen Ifill's Post interview, or been aware of her book, until Tuesday. McCain told CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez that the situation concerned him but that he was sure Ifill would be professional.

The Washington-based journalist is traveling to St. Louis and has not publicly commented on the controversy.
"Right now Gwen is in St. Louis. Her focus is on the debate. ... I don't think it's anything she needs to worry about or address. It's in her bio, there have been articles about it," said PBS spokeswoman Anne Bell.

In the Post article by Howard Kurtz, host of CNN's "Reliable Sources," Ifill responded to criticism over moderating the debate. "I'm in great demand -- everyone wants to talk to me -- but I'm not speaking for the whole race," Ifill said. "My job is to be a reporter. I cannot be the great interpreter. It's not my job to be on someone else's air telling them what black people think."

Ifill told Kurtz that as Obama accepted his party's nomination for president, a white television reporter asked her: "Aren't you just blown away by all of this?" She said she was not.

Kurtz also points out that "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."

Ifill told Kurtz, "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."

Ifill also discussed the upcoming book in the Kurtz interview. She said her book would cover new black political leaders such as Obama, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

"We're very lazy when we think about race in this country. We try to put it in a box. It's Jesse [Jackson] versus Al [Sharpton], or Jesse and Al versus everyone else," she told Kurtz. "We love simplistic conflict. There's a whole group of people who have Ivy League degrees and immense accomplishments who actually benefited from the things their parents were fighting for."

Amazon.com's description of the book notes that Ifill drew on interviews from "power brokers" such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Rev. 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."

Ifill has been criticized in the past by political commentators for her performance as a moderator -- most notably in 2004's vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and ex-Sen. John Edwards. Edwards lashed out at Cheney's ties to Halliburton, to which Cheney responded: "I can respond, Gwen, but it's going to take more than 30 seconds."

Ifill shot back: "Well, that's all you've got."

And most recently, some PBS viewers complained about Ifill's facial expressions after Palin's acceptance speech during the Republican National Convention in September, according to The Associated Press.

"Those viewers apparently believed Ifill didn't seem sufficiently excited," the AP's David Bauder wrote Wednesday.
"We are all subject to that kind of scrutiny," Ifill told Bauder. "If you're frowning to think after a long night on your feet ... you're not even aware that your face is frowning to think. You're just thinking. I know where my head was," the Washington-based journalist also told the AP. "So that's what counts."

Ifill made news Tuesday after it was reported she broke her ankle in her Washington home while carrying debate prep material.

Ifill said that would not hinder her from traveling to the debate.

Ifill's career spans decades. Previously to working at PBS, Ifill was a reporter for NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun and Boston Herald American.

"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
-Yoda

Thankfully no one posting on this forum is "biased." :-)

Let me say FIRST that I am a fervent Obama supporter.

That said, I am very disappointed by the choice of Ifill as the VP debate moderator. She wrote a book in which Obama seems to be a prominent figure (judging from the title). That alone makes me worry that it will be hard for her to be unbiased -- at the very least subconsciously biased. If I were her, I would have recused myself.

Frankly, I think there will be a backlash by the Rebublican base. If Sarah Palin botches it, they'll be able to say it was because of a biased moderator. It was a little silly to accuse Katie Couric of being too tough and embracing "gotcha" journalism. In this case, there will be some real basis for complaint.

I am shocked at the comments on here...some of you guys are despicable....probably glad we have the internet so you can hide behind your racist comments...Gwen Ifill is qualified to do the job, so let her do it and stop judging her by your obviously low standards. No wonder the rest of the world laughs at us....Go ahead now and tell me that you dont care what the world thinks of us....IDIOTS....

I would like just ONE of you IDIOTS to give a specific example of how Ifill's selection or political views will affect the outcome of the debate? Aren't both parties given the same question? And isn't ANY one chosen to moderate only able to support one candidate? So find me a moderator that wouldn't be biased??

Oh and by the way, when she nails Democrates (equally)...guess what happens? She get's blamed for being in the tank for GOP...read this from 2005: http://www.blackcommentator.com/138/138_fr_hack_journalism.html

Make up your minds people she can't be unbiasely Republican AND unbiasely Democrate. Maybe just MAYBE she's a human being interested in the election, the effect of Obama, Politics as a whole and many other things.

Shellbell, use your brains, if you got any! How many would-be-moderators are literally banking their future on the Obama's victory, come January 20, 2009? Get it?

Gwen Ifill an "impartial moderator"? Yeah, and she is Japanese too, wouldn't you agree, Miss "brains"?
In pure ethical grounds, she must recuse herself!
This is "rigged" and stinks!!!
Maybe Shellbell could take her place... She doesn't sound "bias" to me...(!?!?!?).
FLavin

If you want to criticize Gwen's work as a journalist than so be it. But to inject hurtful, negative comments concerning her appearance is totally uncalled for and this is the type of hate that undermines unity of all people. Remember that God created us in his own image!!
Hopefully when Barack becomes President he will not be viewed as an Affirmative Poster child, it was suggested Gwen was. But as what he and Gwen really are, bold, intelligent people.

You guys are on crack. Ive never seen such ridiculous comments. And stop watching PBS and donating? Really? This is one of the channels that offers programming other than the likes of the simpsons that may stop children from growing up ignorant. And those tolerant whites here, dont defend this forum, some comments show racial bias is alive and well.
Gwen admittedly may not be the least affected moderator, but her record is strong and able to withstand the speculations against her because of her unpublished, Obama "ass-kissing" book. She did maintain neutrality. And Jennifer? Please. There McCain-approved commercials featuring Obama depicted in similar ways, yet the awful pictures of McCain were not approved by a Presidential candidate.

Darn right, Yoda!