By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
(Additional thought added at bottom)
Today's tempest in a teapot concerns PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, the designated moderator for the vice presidential debate Thursday in St. Louis.
Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin are keying on Ifill because she has a book due out on Inauguration Day.
The book is titled The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
From what I've heard, the book is less a glorification of Obama than a scholarly look at a new black political class.
But that's not why I think the controversy over Ifill's role in the debate is overblown. I think that because only a fool would try to rig a nationally televised debate to favor one candidate or another.
Ifill is one of the smartest, most respected journalists on the scene. She would no more taint her professional reputation by slanting a debate than dance on a tabletop during The NewsHour.
Additional thought: Might these attacks on Ifill's credibility be a preemptive strike by folks who really are partisans? Ifill asks a question that stumps Sarah Palin and--guess what?--she's biased.
Delicious
Digg
Nah
Looks like CystBoy pretty much nailed your logic. Of course it makes sense that you'd be voting for McCain and attacking Obama. Just like it makes sense for George Will to be supporting Obama.
"respected journalist"???
Talk about an oxymoron. Ifill??? The left wing shill, Ifill, from PBS, Ifill????????
The fact that Shelly the Corrupt is defending her speaks volumes about who and what she is.
Again,
I don't have to reconcile anything with you or anyone else. And you never answer my questions either. So there.
Yeah, calling me a Repub because I am a life long voting Dem who chooses not to pray at the alter of Obama does so much good. Stay classy Obama fans. All that is missing is calling me a racist--again.
Got anything else?
quit displaying, cyst boy
Your libreral ignorance. Do you just read headlines? Or will you, on occaison, actually read a pundit's position.
Will has not taken a "position" on the McCain Palin ticket.....other than that he favors McCain/Palin by a significant margin over the pompous pontificator of puff. When a headline asks a rhetorical question over a pundits column it does not mean that he favors the other candidate.
In fact Will is upset that McCain is not conservative enough and challenged him to return to his conservative roots rather than continue his counterproductive march to the left. Yes he also was critical of McCain's most obvious negative attribute: impulsiveness.
Unlike most liberal pundits, conservative columnists have long practiced the habit of criticizing their own. I doubt you have ever read a Will column other than the one referenced by Tiller on this blog.
If you had you would not be agreeing to Mr Will as a moderator of anything that is striving for an appearance of fair and balanced.
Back to the ballgame
There you go again, Interface.
You just don't get it, do you? The Democrats became too much like the detested Republicans, so jenniferm decided to quit the Democrats in disgust and become a Republican.
So simple a caveman can understand it.
Oops
As a flaming liberal I'd LOVE to have George Will moderate, given the position he's taken on the McCain-Palin ticket.
Haha
right, Jen, right.
Okay, explain to us again how you can reconcile your support for John Edwards' policies and your supposedly newfound support for McCain and his policies.
Spare me.
If you have given up trying to engage me, why do you follow me around? I've always been honest here. Why do you refuse to answer any questions I pose you?
I'm not a Dem anymore, remember, we had this conversation.
"and you had us going along for awhile."
You mean, for the past year or more I've been posting on this blog? Or only since you showed up to be the moderator and schoolmarm.
Appearance is everything
Ms Ifill is indeed, quite well respected. Deservingly so I am sure.
Unavoidable however are the the facts that follow: she has a vested financial interest in the Obama/Biden ticket being victorious (her book is being released on Inauguration day....clearly not a coincidence.) You mention a pre-emptive strike in a pejorative way when in fact Ms Ifill has already castigated Ms Palin on the airwaves thereby establishing her as a partisan.
With those simple 2 unarguable facts there is an obviously apprpriate thing to do: Recuse herself from the debate.
Anything else gives the appearance of impropriety and bias and invites (appropriately) complaints of lack of objectivity and fairness.
I cannot do anything but chuckle, Barb at how partisans like you might implode if say...George Will were invited to moderate.
In fact, if you and your employer were anything but left headed partisans you would be urging the solution that I proferred
Some More on No Problem Gwen's Being a Moderator
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDFhMWUxZTZmMmE5MzkzYWVhMTU5NDYyNWRhNTQyM2M=
Especially telling is her coverage during the conventions on fair and balanced MSNBC(this is a joke liberals) and her recent article in Essence
http://www.essence.com/news_entertainment/news/articles/theobamasportraitofanamericanfamily
Yup, she's sure to be a nonpartisan moderator...My question is why we conservatives put up with this liberal charade? I don't have the answer....