Posted on 10/01/2008 10:44:39 AM PDT by SE Mom
Whether or not this proves to be the “Age of Obama,” no one who has a financial interest in the outcome of the election -- as does PBS’ Gwen Ifill -- should be permitted to moderate any debate in the campaign season.
Ifill, who is scheduled to moderate the important debate tomorrow night between Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden, has a conflict of interest that, by even the most rudimentary ethical standards of journalism, must preclude her from moderating or even reporting on the debate.
Ifill is the author of “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," a new book scheduled for release on Inauguration Day. Its Amazon.com promotional statement says, “In 'The Breakthrough,' veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.”
We are used to liberal bias in the media, and it’s questionable if PBS can even find among its journalists someone who approaches an unbiased point of view. Nevertheless, Ifill has a financial interest in the outcome of the election. If Obama loses, her book will be DOA. If Obama wins, she wins greater book sales and thus far greater income from royalties. This, by any standard, is a disqualifying conflict of interest.
Ifill must be removed from the moderator’s slot -- today -- and replaced by someone who at the very least does not have a financial interest in the outcome of tomorrow night’s debate.
I have not seen Gwen Ifill since she left NBC for PBS (back in the days when I could stomach watchin “Meet the Depressed” on Sunday mornings). She was clearly liberal back then in the tank for Algore in 2000. She should be removed but the liberal media has become so brazen with their support for Dims that they have lost all pretense of “objectivity”.
She won’t be removed but the word should get out about how she has no business profiting from this debate.
McCain just didn’t turn the other cheek, he was down right mealy mouthed!
(NOTE: It really is necessary to hold this ol'gal to the same standards as a white person, e.g. Ann Coulter, and you know doggone well the Leftwingtards would demand she be removed).
FREEP AWAY !!
I agree. Gwen will be on a mission vs. Sarah.
The debate is supposed to be about the two debaters anyway. Notice how debates have increasingly become about the moderators?
Do we know who will moderate the last two debates? Maybe we should start looking into their history in this campaign too.
Ifill will be more fair than Brokaw, Couric, Gibson, Williams, Matthews, Olberman, Campbell Brown. I wouldn’t mind if they got Jim Lehrer to do another one. A conservative moderator will not be permitted.
I disgree. I hope Ifill stays as moderator.
At least she will have to be on her best behavior because she was outed nationally as in the tank for Obama. Palin can use it to her advantage. Any bias shown will be magnified now by her very presence. Huge advantage to Palin.
So now all the committee that runs these debates has to do is point the the McCain statement when confronted with the bias of having a Mod who is in the tank for Obama.
Point of order - the Dems have ALWAYS felt that they could "break every rule of decency, precedent and journalistic ethics". Nothing new in any of this!!
Okay, but where are McCain’s surrogates?
The McCain camp should threaten not to show up unless either Ifill steps down, or Obama agrees to a second vp debate on Fox with Brit Hume as moderator.
“The Dems must be so confident of victory that they feel they can break every rule of decency, precedent and journalistic ethics on the path to the election.”
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Why shouldn’t they be?
In the last fifteen years, aside from a handful of columnists and commentators (Rush, Coulter, Malkin and few others), who has stood up to them in any sustained and meaningful way?
The Left are a bunch of corrupt, amoral cowards, so it really took an incredibly limp and timid Republican party, bereft of even a shred of manly courage, to embolden them to the point we find ourselves in today.
Yes, her behavior is indecent.
Has Ms. Ifill no shame? Has no one in the MSM the least bit of decency?
This should not engender a mere qualm or two: even the most brazen left-wing MSM outlets should be openly condemning this reprehensible behavior by Ms. Ifill.
And yet Obama would not even show up for debates on FOX, saying how bias they were. At least that is what I am remembering.
So, it makes all of US look nutty. When we are screaming about the unfairness and our own candiate calmly says that he is sure she will be fair it is almost like being told to “calm down”. On the other hand when their grassroots scream FOX is bias, ALL of their candidates refuse to show up on the network, which makes it appear that Yes, indeed Fox is really unfair to Democrats.
I am forced to either say that I agree with McCain and there is no apparent conflict of interest here (when there obviously is a conflict due to her potential to profit from an Obama win) or to conclude he is not talking straight talk.
THEIR side fights hard and fights directly and fights EVEN when they are wrong. OUR side gives up and gives in EVEN when they are right.
Ultimately you start to feel like you are rooting for a team that continually takes a fall and you wonder if there are truly two sides or if you are being duped with a “good cop bad cop routine”.
The only hope is that maybe the idea is to keep your powder dry and come out slugging late in the campaign.
“The Dems must be so confident of victory that they feel they can break every rule of decency, precedent and journalistic ethics on the path to the election.”
#####
Why shouldn’t they be?
In the last fifteen years, aside from a handful of columnists and commentators (Rush, Coulter, Malkin and few others), who has stood up to them in any sustained and meaningful way?
The Left are a bunch of corrupt, amoral cowards, so it really took an incredibly limp and timid Republican party, bereft of even a shred of manly courage, to embolden them to the point we find ourselves at today.
But they won't.
This should only continue if Sarah Palin outs Ifill at the very beginning of the debate right in front of everyone.
Palin should ask Ifill if she feels she can be even-handed even though she has a pro-Obama book scheduled for publication in early November, and whether that fact presents her with a conflict of interest.
Does Palin have the guts to do that? To start hitting back instead of being a punching bag for the likes of Couric and Gibson?
We'll see.
Washington University will not remove a black woman... end of story.
She MUST be removed.....MUST.....SHAME on her.
Its like the USSR-
you have to be member of the Communist Party in order tro participate in the establishment.
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