VP debate moderator's impartiality questioned

[Suji to Seoul]

Source: Yahoo News

NEW YORK - PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, moderator of the upcoming vice presidential debate, dismissed conservative questions about her impartiality because she is writing a book that includes material on 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 to be published by Doubleday on Jan. 20, 2009, the day a new president is inaugurated.

"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."

The day before the Joe Biden-Sarah Palin debate, columnist Michelle Malkin wrote in the New York Post about Ifill's book, saying "she's so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081001/ap_on_en_ot/debate_ifill

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Michelle Malkin is a troglodyte, pure and simple. I wouldn't be surprised if the Gidget/Geezer campaign tries to pull Gidget from the debate unless a "better" moderator is found. . .someone like Softball Katie or Snowball Sean!

Can Geezer's surrogates get any more desperate?

[tblue]

1. Excuse my French, but Fuck Them!

[Born Free]

20. great pre-debate tactic...

Much in the way they scream about the so called "liberal media", get everybody watch the moderator and going wild over everything forcing the moderator to bend over backwards to allow their candidate an easier time....Let's see, lowered expectations and discrimination - looks like the recipe for a guaranteed win for Palin while the media beats up on Biden for every thing he says...

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Malkin? That's all I needed to know................

[DS1]

3. OF COURSE IT IS!

fucking pubs

[endless october]

4. yeah, sure

like they'd be bitching if Hannity was the moderator.

[metapunditedgy]

5. greta van susteren...

says McCain campaign did not know about Ifill's book. Even if this were true, doesn't it make the McCain campaign look incompetent? When they negotiated the debate formats, you think they might have checked out such stuff? (Of course I've read elsewhere that McCain says they did know, so either McCain campaign or Greta is confused.) Now they're complaining (vicariously) after the fact.

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http://gretawire.foxnews.com/2008/10/01/oh-oh-6/
I confirmed for us here on GretaWire: the McCain campaign did NOT know about Gwen Ifill’s book (I think I told them when I made my efforts - emails about midnight - to find out!) I am stunned….the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair - in law, this would create a mistrial.
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[muntrv]

6. To quote Dick Cheney: Malkin, GO FUCK YOURSELF!!

[L0oniX]

7. McFuck and his campaign stooges apparently don't use Google .

Instead they depend on sheep like Greta Van Susteren to email them the info. I am surprised they don't use the telegraph for communications!

[Strelnikov_]

8. Working the Refs n/t

[badgervan]

9. Well Now...

Tom Brokaw, who will also be hosting one of the prez debates, is a longtime friend and self-professed big admirer of McCain. He also wrote a hugely popular book about the "greatest generation", in which McCain's father, a famous admiral, was one of Brokaw's heroes. Yet I don't hear anyone calling for Brokaw to be replaced.
Malkin is a nothing... soon to be forced to write another hate-filled book catering to the Uber Right in order to pay the bills. Talk about a great example of self-hate in action.... Malkin is your gal.

[RufusTFirefly]

10. So if Caribou Barbie looks stupid it's Ifill's fault. We've been warned. n/t

[saltpoint]

11. In the first Obama/Mccain debate, Jim Lehrer, a Marine, was the

commentator. Would he not then favor McCain, another military guy?

Ifill will do a fine job. They're looking for any excuse at all to smoke-screen Palin's being an ignoramus.

[Robb]

12. Let's face it, what they mean is "she's black, therefore biased."

Let's not kid ourselves. This is the subtext. The game is to make here feel like if she doesn't torpedo Obama, she's being overly nice to him.

[rusty charly]

13. Has everyone forgotten

Gwen and Condi's cozy dinner dates?

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh080103.shtml

AMY GOODMAN: You also write about Gwen Ifill and Condoleezza Rice.

ERIC BOEHLERT: Right, they are good friends. Condoleezza Rice said at a function, talked about how they’d had dinner together, and Gwen Ifill was such a great cook, and this was right at the time when Condoleezza Rice was in—got in trouble for not being up to speed, not reading an entire N.I.E. report. This was the whole Joe Wilson, aluminum tubes from Africa, and her explanation at the time was, ‘well, I didn’t read the whole report,’ but within weeks she had told Gwen Ifill two completely different explanations. But Gwen Ifill didn’t ask her the obvious follow-up question: ‘Did you read the report or did you not?’ And again, the fact that they’re buddies and have a close social friendship, maybe it explains it. I don’t know what else explains the sort of timidity that we’ve seen.

http://www.democracynow.org/2006/6/7/how_the_press_rolled_over_for

[Heather MC]

14. It's Ok this is just part of the "Pre Spin" about why Palin will Suck tomorrow,

Nancy Pofotheffer said last week if Palin is asked a lot of Foreign Policy Questions it would not be fair

Then they said the bar is so low for Palin, if all she does is show up she wins

then they said Biden has to be nice to her cus she's a girl pitbull

Now it's the Moderators fault

the only common denominator is
Palin will suck tomorrow night

[ibegurpard]

15. Yeah, by the Malkin

umm...lol?

[samsingh]

16. malkins a gop stooge so she can fuck off

[RamboLiberal]

17. KO sure shot this was down tonight

Info was in Moonie Washington Times article in July before McCain camp agreed to Ifill.

And Media Matters shoots this down as well with info.

However, in addition to ignoring the AP report citing Ifill's book, published on July 21, Van Susteren did not note in either blog post that a September 4 Washington Post profile of Ifill also mentioned that she was working on The Breakthrough. In an October 1 post on his Politico blog, Michael Calderone wrote of the Post article: "Ifill discussed it with Howard Kurtz last month in the Washington Post, in the only profile she's done before the debate. (And I'd imagine someone in the campaign should have read it)."

Ifill's role as moderator of the October 2 vice presidential debate was announced in an August 21 joint statement from the Obama and McCain campaigns, which is posted on the McCain-Palin website:

The two campaigns agreed today on a framework for four General Election debates, to be sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Key elements of the agreement are:

<...>

2. Vice Presidential Debate

- Date: October 2nd
- Site: Washington University (St. Louis)
- Moderator: Gwen Ifill
- Staging/Answer Format: To be resolved after both parties' Vice Presidential nominees are selected.

Prior to the joint announcement of the debate schedule and format, the July 21 AP article -- which is also posted on FoxNews.com -- identified Ifill as "author of 'The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,' slated for publication early next year." Additionally, in a May 8 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer -- portions of which were also quoted in a May 13 article in The Republican of Springfield, Massachusetts -- Ifill discussed the book*:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200810010012

[truthisfreedom]

18. What a joke. The repubs have known about this from the beginning. The two camps, McCain and Obama

both agreed on Gwen long ago. This is beyond ridiculous. What a crock of shit. ANYTHING to pretend that the thing is tilted against Sarah. Sarah is a child. She's 12 years old. And that's why she's going to lose. She's intellectually INCURIOUS just like bush. SHE'S NO CHENEY, except for the misfiring.

[edwardian]

19. Malkin, the merkin?That picture of perfect partisanship?

Methinks the "lady" doth screed too much...sorry Mr. Shakespeare.