Gwen Ifill

• Born: September 29, 1955
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: November 14, 2016

Journalist

A television journalist and author, Ifill also moderated a panel of distinguished journalists on PBS’s Washington Week, which covers current events in government and politics.

Early Life

Gwendolyn L. Ifill was the fifth of six children born to African Methodist Episcopal minister O. Urcill Ifill, Sr., and Eleanor Ifill. Both parents have roots in Barbados, although Ifill’s father had moved to Panama before immigrating to the United States. He was a pastor in several cities in New England and the mid-Atlantic states. The family watched the television news every night. Born while her family lived in federally subsidized housing in New York City, Ifill completed high school in Buffalo, also while in subsidized housing. Her family also spent time living in church parsonages in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

In 1977, Ifill received a baccalaureate degree in communications from Simmons College in Boston. While an undergraduate student, she marched in civil rights demonstrations and served as intern at The Boston Herald-American. Ifill has said that she always knew that she wanted to be a journalist.

Life’s Work

After Ifill’s graduation, The Boston Herald-American hired her full time as food columnist. In 1981, she accepted a job with The Baltimore Evening Sun covering city politics. While in Baltimore, she hosted a local news show, Maryland Newswrap. In 1984, Ifill was hired by the Washington Post to cover suburban Maryland. Promoted to the national news desk in 1988, she covered the Republican National Convention. She resigned when told that she was not yet ready to cover Congress. In 1991, the New York Times hired Ifill as a Washington, DC, correspondent, and she rode the reporters’ bus that followed Bill Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate. After the 1992 election, the New York Times assigned her to cover Congress, and she later became White House correspondent.

In 1994, Ifill was hired as NBC’s chief congressional and political correspondent, and her reports were featured on The Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. She also appeared on various news programs, notably MSNBC programs and public television’s Washington Week in Review. In 1999, she became senior correspondent for PBS’s NewsHour and moderator and managing editor of Washington Week. Before taking the latter job, she insisted that the tone be civil and polite in contrast with the shouting matches that often dominated other interview programs. Ifill also enlivened the program by taking it on the road, including to college campuses.

During the presidential elections of 2004 and 2008, Ifill moderated the televised debates between the major parties’ vice presidential candidates. Her selection as moderator of the 2008 debate between Joseph Biden and Sarah Palin occasioned some comment, as she was perceived as already favorable to Biden and running mate Barack Obama and dismissive of Palin. Nevertheless, Republican presidential candidate John McCain and others praised her objectivity and professionalism in advance, and she drew little criticism for her performance.

Ifill’s fascination with the election of 2008 as a turning point for African American politicians prompted her to write a book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (2009). Additionally, her coverage of the 2008 election earned Washington Week a Peabody Award that year.

In 2013, Ifill and fellow senior correspondent Judy Woodruff were chosen to serve as the new coanchors of PBS's NewsHour, which had been anchored for decades by Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil. Ifill and Woodruff worked hard to compete with other evening news programs for viewers; they also each took on the duty of managing editor. Three years later, during campaigning for the 2016 presidential election, Ifill and Woodruff moderated one of the debates for the Democratic primary.

Beginning later in 2016, Ifill had been absent from her programs due to medical leave. On November 14, 2016, it was announced that Ifill had died at the age of sixty-one due to complications resulting from a battle with uterine cancer. She is survived by a brother and a sister.

Significance

Ifill was the first African American and first woman to host a prominent political talk show on national television. She was one of the most renowned African American woman journalist in the United States and saw herself as a role model for other African American women. Ifill was awarded several honorary degrees, and she received the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award in 2006. Ifill was a member of the board of directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Museum of Television and Radio, and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Bibliography

Boynton, Robert S. “Demographics and Destiny.” The New York Times, 18 Jan. 2009. Review of Ifill’s The Breakthrough, summarizing and commenting on its content and central arguments.

Ifill, Gwen L. The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Doubleday, 2009. Examines the role of race in the presidential election of 2008 and beyond, noting that a new generation of middle-class black politicians has risen with little experience in the Civil Rights movement.

Kurtz, Howard. “In a Historic Year, Ifill Has One Thing to Do: Her Job.” The Washington Post, 4 Sept. 2008. Profile recounts Ifill’s career, quoting her opinions on various subjects, notably the failure of news media to recognize the talents of African Americans.

Roberts, Sam. "Gwen Ifill, Political Reporter and Co-Anchor of PBS NewsHour, Dies at 61." The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/business/media/gwen-ifill-dies.html. Accessed 22 Mar. 2017.

Stelter, Brian. "NewsHour Appoints First Female Anchor Team." The New York Times, 6 Aug. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/business/media/gwen-ifill-and-judy-woodruff-to-co-anchor-newshour.html. Accessed 22 Mar. 2017.