OUTRAGEOUS

Posted at 7:14 a.m. ET

I'm so glad that Drudge has made this his major story this morning.  If this isn't a conflict of interest, I don't know what is.  It turns out that Gwen Ifill, the PBS "journalist," and moderator of tomorrow's vice-presidential debate, has a book coming out on inauguration day titled "The Breakthrough:  Politics and Race in the Age of Obama."  Clearly, that book is vastly more valuable if Obama wins.  In addition, Ifill's behavior on the air in covering Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the GOP convention was the subject of complaints to the PBS ombudsman.

I've looked at Ifill's work for years.  An objective reporter she is not.  I recall that, after radical leftist Cynthia McKinney lost the Democratic nomination for her congressional seat one year, Ifill went on the air, two nights in a row, to talk about "groups," read that Jews, who financed her opponent.  She never once mentioned that McKinney had been heavily financed by Muslim groups.  She's that kind of "reporter."

Greta Van Susteren discusses the conflict-of-interest issue at her website, here:

Here are questions for you: is it a conflict of interest since she is writing about Senator Obama and wants her book to sell (i.e. make money)? Should she be moderating the debate this Thursday?

My answer: it all depends on whether she disclosed it to the McCain - Palin campaign and they said ok. Or if the book is not friendly to Senator Obama, then the same disclosure to him and ok from him. That is the way it is done in the legal business — called full disclosure. (I suppose, regardless of friendly or not to either candidate, full disclosure to both was necessary. ) Otherwise? it is a conflict of interest and the offended ticket should pull out of the debate…or she should. By the way, it could be a book about an important issue …but that does not take away the issue of conflict.

Well, the book certainly won't be unfriendly to Obama.  So the question is, "What did the McCain team know and when did they know it?"  If they knew about this conflict and still approved Ifill, they're too incompetent to be alive.  If they're learning about it now, they should be in an uproar.  But I doubt if they will, because Ifill is African-American and, you know, they don't want to make an ugly scene.

Sometimes you make an ugly scene.  This is an outrage.  Ifill should withdraw herself, but I can't imagine her doing so.  It would make it look as if she did the right thing only once exposed.  After all, she knew she was writing this book. 

The story must be played.  If Ifill moderates, people will look at any slight toward Sarah Palin very differently if they know of Ifill's conflict. 

The level of in-the-tank-for-Obama journalism going on has been stunning.  This one is in a class by itself.

You can hear my audio commentary on press bias by going here. 

October 1, 2008.