Thursday, October 2, 2008

Eiffel's Tower (of a Book)

More on the Gwen Ifill controversy.
Ifill questions why people assume that her book will be favorable toward Obama. "Do you think they made the same assumptions about Lou Cannon (who is white) when he wrote his book about Reagan?" said Ifill, who is black. Asked if there were racial motives at play, she said, "I don't know what it is. I find it curious."

I can tell her why I assume it's going to be favorable.
Ifill's resume includes jobs at The New York Times, the Washington Post and NBC News. She moderated the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards.

Because she works for PBS. Call me prejudiced.
She said it was the publisher, not herself, who set the Inauguration Day release date. It will be released then whether Obama wins or loses. Although Malkin
raised the topic of Ifill's impartiality the day before the debate, the PBS
journalist said that Time magazine noted she was writing a book in August, and
that it has been available for pre-sale on Amazon.com. The book also is
mentioned in a Sept. 4 interview she gave the Washington Post.

Plus, aren't her journalistic standards called into question by not telling the Debate Commission about the book?
The host of PBS'"Washington Week" and senior correspondent on "The NewsHour" said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book. The commission had no immediate comment when contacted by The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for John McCain's campaign did not immediately return phone and
e-mail messages.

I don't think the book is a big deal - we knew she was in love with Barack from her resume. The book doesn't add any great detail to that - although she now needs Barack to win or the book loses tons of value.

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