2008 Primaries, Q & A, Speeches, Views on News • October 1st, 2008

The Ifill-Obama connection

by Chris Lato

This is a good example of why the right doesn’t trust the mainstream media.

The book is called “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.” Its author is Gwen Ifill – who is also the moderator for Thursday’s night’s vice-presidential debate.

Granted, the McCain camp went along with the selection of Ifill to moderate this high-stakes debate, the only one featuring the two running mates. They claim they didn’t know about Ifill’s book, to be released on Inauguration Day and is said to feature glowing passages about Obama.

As this debate will undoubtedly be more closely watched than the usual veep debate, this begs the question of how Ifill will work to balance herself during the debate – if at all. This will certainly be closely watched for any hints of bias, and Ifill will be raked over the coals by the right if Ifill so much as fails to sit up straight in her chair when asking Sarah Palin a question.

It will also be interesting to see how gender plays a role here. One concern, whether warranted or not, is whether Joe Biden will look like a bully if he goes after Palin too harshly. Ifill would presumably get a pass on the ‘toughness’ issue – but then it all goes back to whether Ifill can be seen as fair, knowing that she has a pro-Obama book just a few months away from publication.

The only way this truly works in Sarah Palin’s favor is if Ifill feels the pressure to show herself as fair, and goes after Joe Biden with extra vigor. A couple of folks I mentioned that scenario to around the office scoffed at that notion, and I agree it is highly unlikely.

Either way, this is, at minimum, a clear conflict of interest. At worst, some will view this as a clear-cut case of how a number of members of the mainstream press are in the tank for Obama.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 11:35 am and is filed under 2008 Primaries, Q & A, Speeches, Views on News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.