J-Speaks: A Proud Journalist Gone Too Soon

There are very few journalist in the history of the world that can say they were successful on the print side as well as the broadcast side and not to mention a best-selling author. A lady born in New York, NY to an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister and a woman from Barbados was one person that can say that she was one of those journalists. She knew the happenings of Washington and across the globe like the back of her hand. She even had the proud honor of being the moderator of the 2004 and 2008 vice presidential debates. Above all else, she was a journalist that had the trust of those who watched and she always delivered. At the start of this week, we said goodbye to this proud journalist.

Gwendolyn L. “Gwen” Ifill, the longtime moderator and managing editor of Public Broadcasting Service’s (PBS) “Washington Week” and “NewsHour,” which she co-anchored and co-managed with Judy Woodruff passed away from endometrial cancer on Monday. She was just 61 years old.

Per a report from CNN, Ifill spent her final days at a Washington, DC hospice facility in the company of friends and family.

She is survived by her brothers Roberto, an economics professor, Earle a minister; her sister Maria Ifill Philip, who is retired from the U.S. State Department

She had taken a month leave of absence earlier in the year and did not disclose her medical condition. Ifill went on leave again last week and missed covering election night.

Ms. Woodruff in a phone interview on Monday with the New York Times described her co-pilot on their show as a “fiend about facts. Someone who “loved storytelling and loved helping people understand what was going on in the world around them.”

Woodruff also said that, “For young women of color looking for a role model, she was it.”

In what would become her last piece of print work, Ifill back on Oct. 7 in an online column for PBS entitled, “The End Is In Sight,” she volunteered some parting words of wisdom for the presidential candidates Donald Trump ®, now our president-elect and Hillary Clinton (D).

“Once a candidate4, they can no longer claim outsider status, and he or she begins to look more ambitious than chaste,” Ifill wrote. “Hillary Clinton was a popular secretary of state, but now she is just Hillary Clinton. There is something about actually wanting a thing that makes voters think less of you.”

It is that kind of insight and self-disclosure that made Ifill one of the best in the field of journalism. It is what also earned her the respect of our current president Barack Obama (D) and current Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI).

“Gwen was a friend of ours. She was an extraordinary journalist; she always kept faith with the fundamental responsibilities of her profession: asking questions, holding people in power accountable, and defending a strong and free press that makes our democracy work,” Obama said in a news conference on Monday.

Obama also stated that he “always appreciated [her] reporting even when [he] was at the receiving end of one of her tough interviews.”

Ryan described Ifill as “an incredibly talented and respected journalist.”

Ifill was born on Sept. 25, 1955 in Jamaica, Queens, NY to AME minister Urcile Ifill, Sr., and Elanor Ifill, formerly Elanor Husband.

Ifill with her father being periodically reassigned grew up in many places, which consisted of Queens, Staten Island, Manhattan, Buffalo, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, living in church parsonages and on some occasions, federally subsidized housing.

Ifill once described being the daughter of a preacher, “means you always have to be good.”

Ifill’s journey to the top of the mountain of journalism began at Simmons College, an all-women’s institution in Boston, MA where she majored in communications. She interned for the Boston Herald-American, now the Boston Herald. The editors of the paper hired Ifill after graduation in 1977, who were deeply embarrassed by an incident during her internship in which a co-worker had written a note to her that read, “Nigger go home.”

She would turn that dark moment into a career that would take her from the pages of the newspaper to the airwaves of television.

Ifill’s worked for the then Baltimore Evening Sun, now the Baltimore Sun from 1981-84, where she was an assigned to cover local politicians, who she said found to be committed to public service.

She then moved onto the Washington Post from 1984-91, where she covered her first presidential campaign. During this time, she was mainly assigned to cover losing candidates, who were not very happy when they met her.

Ifill would move onto the New York Times from 1991-94, where she was the White House correspondent and covered the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton. It was in this period where the late Tim Russert, moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press” recruited Ifill to cover Capitol Hill for the network. In her first assignment, she forgot to bring a cameraman along.

That misstep as the years went on only made her that much more determined to be great, which she proved right in front of our eyes 17 years ago.

It was then back in Oct. 1999 that Ifill became the moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week,” which was then called “Washington Week in Review.” She also was the senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour, where she along with Woodruff became co-anchors and co-managing editors of on Aug. 6, 2013.

In the years that followed, she would appear as a guest panelist on shows like the previously mentioned “Meet the Press,” now anchored by Chuck Todd; CBS’s “Face the Nation,” moderated by John Dickerson and ABC’s “This Week,” moderated by George Stephanopoulos.

While she moved up higher and higher in the ranks of journalism, Ifill always found time to give back to a profession that presented her with the opportunity to become great.

In Nov. 2006, she co-hosted the educational webcast Jamestown Live! as they commemorated the 400^th anniversary of Jamestown, VA.

Ifill also served on the board of the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Museum of Television and Radio, the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and was a long-time member of the National Association of Black Journalist (NABJ), who inducted her into their Hall of Fame back in 2012.

“I am saddened to hear of Gwen Ifill’s passing,” NABJ President Sarah Glover said on Monday in an e-mail to all NABJ members.

“Her professionalism and poise, coupled with an innate doggedness to report the story, reverberated throughout the industry. Gwen covered politics and the presidential race with class, wisdom and insight, separating her from the pack.”

Ifill showed that poise and focus to the nation at large as the moderator of the vice-presidential debate back on Oct. 5, 2004 between Republican candidate Dick Cheney and Democratic candidate and U.S. Senator John Edwards (NC). Former deputy national editor of the Washington Post Howard Kurtz said that Ifill as a moderator “acquitted herself well.”

Ifill would be back in the moderator seat again for the 2008 vice presidential debate held on Oct. 2, 2008 between then Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Biden (DE), our current No. 2 next to Obama and Republican candidate and then Governor Sarah Palin (AK) at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

Before the debate, Ifill’s objectivity was brought into question by conservative talk radio, blogs and cable news programs like FOX News because of her book “The Breakthrough,” which was scheduled for release on Inauguration Day of 2009.

Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies said “Obviously, the book will be much more valuable to her if Obama is elected.”

To her critics, Ifill responded by saying, “I’ve got a pretty long track record covering politics and news, so I’m not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation. The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate tomorrow night and make their own decisions about whether or not I’ve done my job.”

Following the debate, Ifill received great praise for her performance as moderator by the likes of the Boston Globe, who said that she received “high marks for equal treatment of the candidates.”

If that was not enough, she became a major part of pop-culture when the debates were parodied on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” with Queen Latifah portraying her.

Of all the accolades, she has received in her career, Ifill said that her proudest moment came in 2011 when she was surrounded by civil rights luminaries as Master of Ceremonies at the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on Independence Avenue in Washington, DC.

It is moments like this that allow us to understand the value of why she wrote her book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, which came out on Jan. 20, 2009, the Inauguration of the first African-American president of the United States of America Barack Obama.

It is because of the sacrifice, blood, sweat, tears and lives of those back then that gave Ifill the chance to write a book that brought into focus on some notable African-American politicians like our 44^th President, then Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA) and then New Jersey Mayor, now Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).

Random House, the publisher of the New York Times best-seller book described it as showing “why this is a pivotal moment in American history” through interviews with black power brokers and through the observations and an analysis of the issues from Ifill.

Gwendolyn L. Ifill was more than just a journalist. She was a person who can tell a story about politics in a way that can bring into perspective the importance the effect that each person in office from the presidency to local politics. That is what we lost when she passed this past Monday.

We also said goodbye to someone, who knew what she wanted to do in her life. Worked extremely hard at her craft and became an award-winner in her field of work. Earned the respect from both sides of the political world. Became a gold standard that many that have come after her are measured. More than anything else she earned the respect of those that she worked with, interviewed and competed against to get stories.

“Gwen was the platinum standard for political journalists and she was such an inspiration to African-American women in the business,” Washington Post staff writer and former NABJ President Vanessa Williams said.

“She was a tough, smart reporter with a warm, generous spirit who never hesitated to help, financially and with her time and talents, when asked whether by NABJ or by a student who approached her for a few words of advice and a selfie.”

Information and quotes are courtesy of www.nabj.org piece from Nov. 14, 2016, “NABJ Mourns the Loss of Veteran Journalist Gwen Ifill;”11/14/16 www.nytimes.com article “Gwen Ifill, Award-Winning Political Reporter and Author, Dies at 61,” by Sam Roberts; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Ifill.