Commission Chair: We Didn’t Know About Ifill’s Book, and We don’t Care

So take that John McShame…. quit your whining and lets get on with the debate

Ifill should still step aside.
Just like Pelosi, Reid they have shown rotten leadership.

Remember the democrats (Edwards & Obama & Hillary) refused to do a Fox debate for the <primaries. They boycotted it and it never occured.
Now McCain/Palin are suppose to just suck it up and do a debate with a partisan hack in the GENERAL and be okay with it.
Bizarro world indeed.

well i care. conflict of interest is conflict of interest. if obama is elected, ifill hopes to make hundreds of thousands of dollars off the sale of her book; if he loses, she will sell 4 copies. motives are seldom pure and this woman is no saint: ifill has motive to assist the candidate she supports; that is not fair.

Columbia Journalism Review disagrees. She stands to benefit financially if Obama wins; thus, she should be disqualified. I don’t understand why this is so hard for others to understand. She has a clear financial conflict of interest. She should be gone! It would be exactly the same if she (or any other moderator) were writing a book about McCain that were clearly tied to HIS winning the election. If there’s a stake in the outcome, that person should not be involved. Period.
And Ifill definitely should have informed the commission and not even taken the job.

Gwen named her book in July. Anyone can google it and find the details.
Stop making excuses for Sarah. Let them debate. If there is bias, everyone will see it.
Then we can all blog about that.

Sarah Palin has committed yet another political blunder after claiming she had held talks with a British ambassador – talks that never actually took place.
In an answer to questions about her foreign policy experience ahead of tonight’s make-or-break vice presidential TV debate, her aides listed numerous contacts with foreign officials – including Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald.
However the meeting never occurred. Officials at the embassy swiftly contacted the McCain-Palin campaign to inform them of the discrepancy.
A British Embassy spokesman said the error arose after Sir Nigel’s name was listed among those who had attended a US Governor’s meeting in July.
Mrs Palin was at the meeting in her role as Governor of Alaska. However Sir Nigel pulled out at the last minute, leaving his name on the guest list.
The embarrassing mishap comes as Mrs Palin faces the biggest challenge of her political life tonight in a head-to-head vice-presidential debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

Ifill is old school journalism at it’s best.She’s one of the few journalists left that can separate her profession from opinion.People are interjecting their opinion of her book without even knowing what it’s about. Talk about unprofessional. People have become so jaded and skeptical.A generation of excuses. That’s what happens when you let your kids win all the time. They look for excuses. I suppose if Biden wins the debate, that will be Palin’s excuse. The moderator. Well, if your good at what you do and know your stuff, it dosen’t matter who the moderator is. They both get the same questions and the same amount of time. With the invention of Fox news and the Olberman’s and O’Reilly’s out there, no wonder people have forgotten what a real journalist does. I for one miss those journalists.

Gwen should have disclosed this fact, but did not. Same as a lie. Disgraceful

1st off it isn’t a book about Obama, its a book about Blacks in Politics. 2nd it would still sell regardless if he is president or not, it shows the path towards their political careers.
Why don’t we just get Karl Rove to moderate it, that would be fair right?

The REPUBLICAN Whiners are here again!
Gwen’s book is NOT been kept a secret!
It has been on pre-order sales at Amazon and Barnes and Noble for months!
Ifill’s book was mentioned by name in a July 21 Associated Press article by Kinney Littlefield. The roster of debate moderators was revealed back August 5 after. After it has already been advertised in Magazines!
Ifill has moderated many debates over the years.
SHE DID NOT LIE or HIDE anything!
She is a professional!

I am curious – if BO does win, are you all you McCain haters going to be Obama haters when he gets in office and everyone discovers that – OH MY GOD, HE LIED! Not Barack, can’t be!
What gets me is that everyone is hounding Palin because of inexperience – yet refuse to look at where all the so-called experienced people and experts have managed to get us so far.
When are you idiots going to wake up, smell the coffee and quit tolerating this cr@p from the politicians – on both sides of the fence?
I am still undecided. It doesn’t matter which one gets elected, we are thoroughly screwed either way.

Who will win today?
Winning is in the “eyes(ears) of the beholder”. Palin will go on the attack irrespective of Gwen’s questions with random ear-catchy statements. McCain camp will spin its as a grat victory and renewal of Palin. With a expectation so oow anything she says will be construed as victory, susbstance or not. Will the voters buy it? Why not, did we not buy into Bush?

algwriter, just once could you post something without “mcshame/mcsame” and with facts, not just something you made up?
McCain and Palin both said they trust Gwen Ifill to handle this professionally. They have not taken issue with this; others have taken issue with it, including professional journalists who see this for what it is: a financial conflict of interest.
It’s fine if you are zealous in your support for your candidate; could you just please at least temper it with the facts and quit the name calling for even one post?

Meet the Press Interview:
TIM RUSSERT: The fact is you are different than George Bush.
SEN. McCAIN: No. No. The fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I’ve been totally in agreement and support of President Bush.
THANKS “MAVERICK”. COULDN’T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF!

The conflict of interest is apparent and odious. You can’t actively participate in the debate process/election process of a politician that you’re actively writing a book about and say that you are disinterested. It’s a sham. The only way this is appropriate is if Mrs. Ifill believes she can be neutral, the McCain campaign was advised as to the book and it’s subject matter, and the McCain campaign consented to her as the moderator. To my knowledge none of that occurred. This may not seem like a big deal, but it strikes at the core of journalistic integrity. Lawyers get a bad rap from most people, but you’d face disciplinary sanctions for pulling something like this in the legal arena.

Obama would not let her step down. She had already given Biden the questions! They would have only had one day to prep with a new moderator!

Bob Schieffer actually had to be pulled off a pro republican story at one time. Bob Schieffer’s brother was a business partner of George W. Bush. Has anyone had an issue with him moderating a presidential debate? Any question why McCain was so quick to approve him as moderator? Fox was rejected along with ABC. Get some Midol and move on. Palin will sink or swim without Ifill. Couric proved that.
Tom Brokaw used outdated info on sunday’s meet the press and has yet to inform the audience of his bias. And they will both be moderating with their candidate onstage just like charlie gibson. so spare me the whining about Gwen Ifill. I would just hope it doesn’t change how Ifill will handle the alaskan wondermop.
If mccain’s mulligan men didn’t know what a lot of others did, it proves they can’t multitask or properly manage a campaign. Only sarah palin’s witch doctor would know what else they would destroy if they got to the white house.