Moderator Ifill's Conflict of Interest
The highly anticipated vice presidential debate is being moderated by a Barack Obama worshipper, Gwen Ifill.
Ifill does not do a good job at pretending to be impartial. When she was reporting for PBS at the Republican National Convention, she was visibly disappointed by the excitement exhibited by the delegates on the night that Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin delivered their addresses.
She not only supports Obama, she has written a book about him, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, with a release slated for Inauguration Day no less.
--Freedom Eden, October 1, 2008
One commenter at Freedom Eden said,
Some people disagree.... It might be worthwhile to look for an opinion other than Drudge's or Malkin's.
Grumps
Well I've heard that tripe before. My response?
Why? Is Drudge's opinion of no value? Michelle's? When did the validity of their opinions take a back seat to folk like Olbermann? Matthews? Or Ifill for that matter?
Sure. It's prudent to "hold off" on judging her moderation of tomorrow night's debate... as it hasn't happened yet. But it's fair AND responsible to question her blatant conflict of interest. Why can't we have a moderator with nothing to gain or lose regardless of who wins?
"It might be worthwhile to look for an opinion other than Drudge's or Malkin's." ??? I'm hearing this bleating from only one side of the political fence.
A Comparison:
Said the Muslim to the Christian:
"It might be worthwhile to look to the Qur'an for enlightenment other than the Bible."
Yes, that's over the top. But so is the suggestion that Drudge and Malkin have nothing of value to add to the debate.
Rubbing it in a little more...
The debate is tomorrow night. The moderator is Gwen Ifill. The moderator has a financial interest in Barack Obama winning in November. How can I say that? Because Ifill has a book due out around inauguration day. Here's the Amazon.com link for Ifill's book titled "The Breaktrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama". Take a look at the publication date. January 20, 2009. Now what happens to Ifill's book if Barack Obama is not sworn in on that day? Easy ... it doesn't sell. So could someone please tell me why she's moderating this debate when clearly she has a financial interest in making Sarah Palin look bad?
Neal Boortz, October 1, 2008
This weeks syndicated column by Michelle Malkin can be found at her place:
A debate “moderator” in the tank for Obama
In an imaginary world where liberal journalists are held to the same standards as everyone else, Ifill would be required to make a full disclosure at the start of the debate. She would be required to turn to the cameras and tell the national audience that she has a book coming out on January 20, 2009 – a date that just happens to coincide with the inauguration of the next president of the United States.
The title of Ifill’s book? "Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama." Nonpartisan my foot.
LOL! I have it on good authority that Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr., of The Fifth Dimension fame, have been asked to perform live at BHO's inauguration.
Here's the lyrics to what they've been asked to sing:
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the Age of Obama
The Age of Obama
Obama! Obama!
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Obama! Obama!
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the Age of Obama
The Age of Obama
Obama! Obama!
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
[Repeat Ad Nauseum]
...but six months after he's inaugurated this is what WE'LL be singing:
They used to tell me
I was building a dream.
And so I followed the mob
When there was earth to plow
Or guns to bear
I was always there
Right on the job.
They used to tell me
I was building a dream
With peace and glory ahead.
Why should I be standing in line
Just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad
I made it run
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad
Now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower up to the sun
Brick and rivet and lime.
Once I built a tower,
Now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits
Gee we looked swell
Full of that yankee doodle dee dum.
Half a million boots went sloggin' through hell
And I was the kid with the drum!
Say don't you remember?
They called me Al.
It was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember?
I'm your pal.
Say buddy, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits,
Ah, gee we looked swell
Full of that yankee doodle dee dum!
Half a million boots went sloggin' through hell
And I was the kid with the drum!
Oh, say don't you remember?
They called me Al.
It was Al all the time.
Say, don't you remember?
I'm your pal.
Buddy, can you spare a dime?
From Bob Unruh at WND:
Ifill declined to return a WND telephone message asking for a comment about her book project and whether its success would be expected should Obama lose. But she has faced criticism previously for not treating candidates of both major parties the same.
During a vice-presidential candidate debate she moderated in 2004 – when Democrat John Edwards attacked Republican Dick Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton – the vice president said, "I can respond, Gwen, but it's going to take more than 30 seconds."
"Well, that’s all you’ve got," she told Cheney.
Ifill told the Associated Press Democrats were delighted with her answer, because they "thought I was being snippy to Cheney." She explained that wasn’t her intent.
Right... I remember that debate, and I remember as well that Ifill was more lenient and forgiving of John Edwards.
My final jab to the Left eye:
Welcome to Pre-Soviet America, everyone. Now get in line, keep quiet, and do as you're told.
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I'm sure you also know that the October 7th debate will be moderated by Tom Brokaw who serves as the NBC liaison to the McCain campaign. Should that disqualify him from being a moderator?
Bob Schiefer had been good friends with George W. Bush, but was still able to ask intelligent even questions in the 2004 debates.
As Steve Bene said: "I suspect Republicans don't really care about Ifill or her book, but are raising a fuss so that a) they'll have an excuse if Palin fails to meet expectations tomorrow night; and b) they might "work the ref" and pressure Ifill into going easy on Palin.
Regardless of whether the "outrage" is sincere or not, this is likely to be the Republican cause of the day. Joe Scaborough was all over this story earlier on MSNBC, the far-right blogs are livid, Drudge is on the case, and one assumes other outlets will soon follow."
Don't be a sheep.
http://patriotroom.com/?p=2686#
mom2
Gwen Ifill "said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book." We can rightly blame that commission and the McCain for not doing their own due diligence, but that appears to be a pretty big omission on Ifill's part.
Mark Steyn summarizes the problem very well.
Gwen Ifill is writing a book about one of the candidates. What, just a run-of-the-mill biography, no big deal, merely an unfortunate scheduling coincidence? No, it's a book on the profound historical significance of one of the two candidates, and it's due to be released on Inauguration Day. Anybody's Inauguration Day in particular?
Miss Ifill has an explicit commercial stake in an Obama victory. Even the time-serving squishes on the Debates Commission should had been able to do ten minutes of due diligence on this. Otherwise, what's the point of a Debates Commission? [emphasis mine]
Indeed, most Washington reporters know most Washington politicians.
(One of the biggest reasons I suspect there's such outrage at Sarah Palin is that, despite her alleged service as governor of some mythical state call All-ask-ah, she's not known in Beltway circles and, well, we can't have that.)
But even supposing that the story is being promoted as an attempt to "generate plausible deniability for a poor Plain performance," we didn't pick an insubstantial story, did we?
Instead, we're highlighting one of the most egregious instances of a conflict of interest one could imagine in a debate moderator: an explicit financial benefit if one of the candidates wins.
If you're remotely honest, you can at least acknowledge that Ifill's book deal is at least somewhat noteworthy.
Obvioulsy it's a joke the the "moderator" of any of the debates has a financial interest in the victory of one of the candidates. It's even more of a joke that the dems are ok with this.
But it doesn't matter NBC has all but declared a BHO victory.
Or maybe Ms Ifill heard the objections and they more or less forced her to behave, as it were.
In any case, she moderated the debate pretty fairly in my view.
I was never worried myself. In a debate, both parties must answer the same questions. If she hardballs Palin, she must hardball Biden with the same questions. How can she one side that?
For one thing, a moderator can skew a debate by focusing on topics that help one side and ignoring topics that hurt that side. Arguably, Republicans are seen by moderates to be extreme on "gay marriage" and Democrats are seen as extreme on abortion; guess which of the two came up, and which didn't?
More than that, Ifill didn't ask the same question of both candidates.
Senator Biden, we want to talk about taxes, let's talk about taxes. You proposed raising taxes on people who earn over $250,000 a year. The question for you is, why is that not class warfare and the same question for you, Governor Palin, is you have proposed a tax employer health benefits which some studies say would actually throw five million more people onto the roles of the uninsured. I want to know why that isn't taking things out on the poor, starting with you, Senator Biden.
Ifill can invoke the words "same question," but she asked two different questions, one for Biden and one for Palin.
Arguably, the two questions skewed left. Ifill essentially asked Biden to explain how Obama's tax plan makes the rich pay their fair share, and she asked Palin to defend how McCain's plan doesn't hurt the poor.
But it isn't arguable that Ifill asked each VP candidate a different question.
The idea that the debate format itself ensures fairness and objectivity is absurd, Mark, and the questions that Ifill asked (and didn't ask) prove that.
---
She has a clear and direct financial stake in the outcome of this election; the appearance of impropriety is enough to tell us that someone else should have moderated. Beyond that, she wasn't completely forthright with the debate commission and didn't tell them about this upcoming book, and she played the race card to defend herself when completely reasonable objections were raised about her moderating.
Though I have seen much worse moderation from others, it ultimately doesn't matter how competently Ifill performed in that position. She had no business moderating in the first place.