Columbia Journalism Review has long awarded darts and laurels to the media. While it predominantly is an apologist for the media, especially print, it often goes against the grain. It did so today on the Gwen Ifill kerfuffle:
Conflict of interest is often about appearances. There appears, to us, to be a conflict in Ifill moderating tomorrow night’s vice presidential debate.
When CJR called Newshour, the PBS show on which Ifill appears, this is what they got:
A Newshour spokeswoman returned my call to Ifill. The spokeswoman said that “as a journalist, Gwen has to focus on the task at hand: preparing for the debate†(adding that “way before this issue came up, [Ifill] decided not to do interviews†in advance of the debate). I asked the spokeswoman about the appearance of conflict and she replied that Ifill had “proven herself to be fair and balanced and no doubt will be†tomorrow night.
That’s the equivalent of the time-honored “take a hike, we stand by our story.”
UPDATE: The Ifill Ethics Commission exonerates Gwen Ifill after an exhaustive 20-minute investigation:
“I would like to thank Ms.Ifill for her complete cooperation into this unnecessary politically-motivated witch hunt,” said Commission Chairperson Gwen Ifill. “On behalf of the entire panel, I would like to offer my sincere apologies for dragging her in and wasting her valuable time on the basis of such obviously flimsy and bogus allegations.”
Displaying her famous grace, Ifill said she harbored no ill will toward the inquiry.
