Call the Republicans on their BULLSHIT about Gwen Ifill

[eshfemme]

There is now a new story that the right wing is pushing about how Gwen Ifill, the moderator for the one and only Vice Presidential debate, is biased for Obama. Their reason for this is because she's apparently publishing a book in January 2009 that analyzes the new black political movement, which includes Barack Obama's rise to power. They are using this as an excuse to try to get her removed.

But let me tell you the real reason. It might be controversial but I'm gonna call it like I see it. It's because she's BLACK.

Think about it. The right wing (and the media) have been pushing the idea that it's black people who are automatically in the tank for Obama (conveniently forgetting that in the first leg of the primaries and caucuses, Obama's majority of votes were from whites and the blacks were mostly Hillary supporters only for that to be flipped after Hillary's successful re-triangulation on specific subsets of white voters in the last leg of the primaries). Their obsession with pushing the idea that Obama can't win over white working class voters or white women or white men and the assumption that blacks will automatically vote for him gives a subliminal background to this new meme about Gwen Ifill.

They can't outright suggest that Gwen Ifill is automatically biased for Obama because she's black as even that is way too offensive for them to air (they can get away with implying that in general in abstract terms about black voting patterns though). They also can't call her sexist for favoring Biden over Palin since she's a woman and the ridicule they've already been getting over Palin and the failed attempt at using that card with other women precludes them using that defense. So, they use Gwen Ifill's unpublished book.

This book, by the way, really sounds more like a black literature entry a la Richard Wright's "Black Boy" or Maya Angelou's "Why the Caged Bird Sings" although those two books that I mention are like fictionalized autobiographical metaphors for black culture/diaspora. Gwen Ifill might not have finished writing it either!

So, let's just call it like it is. THIS IS BULLSHIT!

They are impugning a woman who has a proven record of being fairly objective just because she happens to be black and might be publishing a book that is partly about Obama. I DARE PEOPLE TO ASK THESE RW FUCKERS IF THEY ARE SAYING THIS JUST BECAUSE SHE'S BLACK!

Sorry if I sound insane or paranoid but it really does seem to be the motivation behind their smearing of Gwen Ifill and it pisses me off.

EDIT: For spelling mistake(s).

[ingac70]

1. They want somebody to throw softballs to Palin...

Gwen throws softballs to no one.

[eshfemme]

3. The only problem is that even Katie Couric couldn't manage to throw softballs to her

and I think you and I know that Katie Couric tried like hell to throw those goddamn softballs. It's just that Palin couldn't even take THOSE softballs.

C'mon, think about it objectively. She was asked what newspapers or magazines informed her worldview when any other candidate would be asked what books/experience. Palin was asked for her simple opinion on stuff ANY AVERAGE AMERICAN has an opinion like the bailout and she babbled something nonsensical about healthcare. C'mon! Any Joe Schmoe coulda said something, "I hate it because it's retarded." And that would have been answering the goddamn fucking softball question.

If she can't take questions from Charlie Gibson, Sean Hannity and Katie Couric, the fucking trifecta of softball questioners for a Republican candidate, she won't be able to take ANY questions from anyone else that they have to moderate the debates.

[Blue_Roses]

2. If anything, Gwen Ifill will go above and beyond to show she's

NOT partial, just because they think she will be:crazy: Yes, I know it sounds like a crazy statement, but I have seen Ifill moderate several debates and she's tough. There will be no laughing from her, so Sarah Palin needs to can the "cutesy" jokes....well, maybe not:evilgrin:

I for one, am very nervous about tomorrow night.

[eshfemme]

6. What's sad is that Joe will be able to take the tougher questions he'd inevitably get

but if (and probably when) Palin flubs her easier questions, Gwen Ifill will still be accused of playing "gotcha journalism." It's fucking retarded that this is the new term that's coming out of this year's election campaign.

Gotcha journalism is when you get 45 fucking minutes of being asked about flag pins and acquaintances. Remember that fucking bullshit?

You won't get that with Gwen Ifill but now, the McCain campaign's trying to expand the definition of "gotcha journalism" as asking legitimate questions that don't get satisfactory answers because the ones being questions are either too moronic or dishonorable to do so.

[stuntcat]

7. yeah Ifill's smart enough to deal

anyway she's moderated so many debates- clearly someone's just grasping.

[Trajan]

4. Frankly: I was not impressed by her past performances in the chair ...

I forget exactly which debates she helped moderate, but I was underwhelmed .... She was easy on the GOP and hard on the Democrat .... That is my experience ....

There is another thread with a different notion: They dont want Ifill because she is ... a woman .... and Palin cant use that vapid sex appeal with women ....

Given all that: Ifill should stay ....

[tech3149]

16. I agree, Ifill is deceptively pro corporate

I quit watching Newshour because she was always selling the corporate line. I trust her judgment and viewpoint as much as I trust Chris Matthews.

[blondeatlast]

5. The book isn't even finished yet, as I understand it, and definitely won't be

published until next year.

I've already seen some deep "concern" over this on DU.

We might mention to them that one of Ifill's best friends is Condoleeza Rice--they've been friends for several years, in fact. I suspect she is profiled in the book as well...

[eshfemme]

10. Yeah, they do NOT know what it's about. They just hear that Obama is mentioned

and their fucking brains shut down. They don't think that it's possible for Gwen Ifill, to be biased FOR Palin because it's possible she's conservative. And yet, they automatically assume that just because she's black, she'll automatically be in the tank for Obama.

That's prejudice, plain and simple.

[Ganja Ninja]

8. Palin can always show up and refuse to go on if she thinks she's ...

being treated unfairly. I'd love it if she did. It would probably go over like a lead balloon.

[EstimatedProphet]

9. What it really means, and what we should state clearly:

If they really believe that, then McCain supporters back him just because he is white.

[spanone]

11. it's because ifill is infinitely smarter than palin and will see the bullshit for what it is

[1corona4u]

12. Someone said she was good friends with the Bush's?

If so, then WTF is their problem, other than what you've suggested...

[eshfemme]

13. That's why I say that they automatically jump to this conclusion because Ifill is black

There's nothing to suggest that Gwen Ifill will not be professional. The fact that there's evidence to suggest that she might actually be sympathetic to Republicans is also easily ignored. The fact that she's a black woman is being studiously ignored but it's heavily implied that she's in the tank for Obama without much evidence to suggest that other than her picture.

IT'S BULLSHIT. So call them on it.

Why can't someone publish a book examining a black political movement? Obama needs to be mentioned because win or lose, he is obviously an important figure that would need to be discussed in such a book. But they automatically jump to the idea that the book would be pro-Obama.

[Strawman]

14. Just working the refs

And sadly, it will probably accomplish what they want it to. They expect Ifill to feel like she has to prove her professionalism and objectivity by showing that she is not biased to the Obama ticket and being tougher in Biden. And if she is truly fair and calls Palin on her bullshit or asks her to clarify her nonsense, they have a built in excuse for why Palin sounded like a moron: Ifill was "biased."

Thankfully, I think people are tuning out the spin this time. They may not be too sophistcated on the issues but they can tell a competent ticket from an incompetent one and all the spin in the world can't change that. At least not this time. Voters know too much is at stake to bullshit around with this election.

I really think they are just trying to feed their base with enough bullshit to defend themselves at the watercooler and not feel totally deflated so that they will turn out and save Republican candidates down the ticket.

[workinclasszero]

15. Yeah this is the latest Rethug attack/talking point

to try to deflect all the damage Caribou Barbie is going to inflict on the McCain campaign Thursday.

Luckily it ain't gonna work. Palin is a laughingstock all over the country!