comparemela.com

Gwen ifill was a preachers daughter who at an early age knew her calling was to become a journalist. After college she worked as a print reporter for the baltimore evening sun and the Washington Post and the new york times. In the 1990s she became a Tv Correspondent for nbc news and later the pbs newshour. She covered seven president ial campaigns. She moderated two Vice President ial debates and a Democratic Candidates debate. Last june gwen hosted a pbs town hall with president obama. He reflected on her passing and extraordinary career earlier this week. President obama she was an extraordinary journalist. I always appreciated gwens reporting even when i was at the receiving end of one of her tough and thorough interviews. Michele gwen was a trailblazer who broke racial and gender barriers. In 1999 she was named moderator and managing editor of Washington Week making history as the first africanamerican woman to host a National Politics program on tv. Later, she made history again as half of the first all female anchor team on a nightly network newscast. She was a best selling author. Gwens talents earned her numerous awards, including a peabody, the John Chancellor award by the Columbia Graduate School of journalism, and many, many other honors. Gwen made her mark on journalism with her unwavering commitment to her pursuit of the truth and fairness. She loved asking the tough questions and figuring out how exactly to ask that question. She valued thoughtful, civic discourse. Well have a little civic discourse this evening to talk about all of the things that weve remembered, all the things that made her so wonderful, and all the reasons why we will miss her so very much. Rick, i want to begin with you. Of all of us, you have known her the longest. You worked together at the Baltimore Sun and i want you to tell us a little bit the baltimore evening sun. Let me get that right. Gwen was loyal to the end to the baltimore evening sun and in those days there were three scrappy newspapers in baltimore. The evening sun, the morning sun. Wed glare across the newsroom at the morning sun people and the news american and gwen and i were the two city hall reporters. City hall was the big story then in baltimore. We would just fight to the end and she would say, never, and in fact i called the obituary reporter at the Washington Post at 11 00 monday night and said, for gwen, change it to evening sun. She was always loyal. Just like she was loyal to Washington Week and everywhere else she worked. She moved from the evening sun to the Washington Post in the mid 1980s and i was on the National Staff at the time. She was on the metro staff. You remember those days. Those two staffs didnt interact very regularly. Somebody had the bright idea to bring all the political reporters together for a Brown Bag Lunch one day. I honestly didnt know gwen well. I knew her byline but id never really met her. There must have been 15 or 18 of us around a table down in the bowels of the old the Washington Post building. People were just sharing thoughts and ideas. Gwen started to speak. Its what everybody has since seen of gwen, because they see her on tv, but it was that it was the clarity with which she spoke. It was the authority with which she spoke. And it was also the personality that just, you know, not because there was no disagreement but the personality just popped out. Gwen was someone who had authority and assurance, but we should note that that is, some of that was in her d. N. A. Some of that was innate. But, martha, also because she did a lot of preparation. She took her job very, very seriously. Thats important for young people who are watching this and perhaps want to use her life and career as a beacon. Its not all baked in. A lot of it was because she really worked hard, called people, would go the extra mile in every case. Gwen never walked into any of her jobs. She earned it. She would do so much preparation. I would marvel at the desk on friday nights and think, i thought i was prepared. She knows everything about everything were all talking about. I might have known what i was talking about but gwen knew fing. She never sat down at that desk. She never sat down at the anchor desk without knowing what she was talking about. To say were all sitting here and surrounded by these pictures of gwens smile and i just we just all have to talk about that. I mean, that is when i was walking in to weta tonight, i think we all had the same feeling. Were walking in the door and there was something joyful about walking in the door on a friday night, because youd see that magnificent smile. In fact, i cant when i sat down, i couldnt look at it because i didnt want to get too emotional. Now i want to embrace it. I want us to all just look at that smile and embrace it because it is what everybody thinks about. And thats really what set gwen apart, too. She not only worked hard, she was the most genuine person in the world. Many of us have been on the campaign trail with gwen. You loved to have her on the campaign trail. Loved to be on, have her cover the same candidate and be on that bus because life was so much better when she was there. Exactly. Decades of being road warriors together. But the First Campaign where i met gwen ifill was the 1988 Jesse Jackson campaign. Rick was on that one, too. And even then, you know, a 30yearold gwen had the same selfashaurns, the same presence that the same selfassurance, the same presence you recognize today. She was an old soul in a 30yearold body. She could always find something to laugh about in any situation, not to laugh at, but to laugh about. And sometimes it was sardonic. Often it was. Sometimes it was at your expense. And that was all right. People may not appreciate sort of how, you know, how weird some of our lives are out on the campaign trail. Theres an absurdty along with the seriousness of the story were covering. And gwen appreciated both sides of that. So she could laugh in these incredible situations where youre, you know, eating chicken five times a day on the campaign or stressed out over, you know, a particular moment on a program or Something Like that. She always found something funny as well as the seriousness. I think that helped her as she made transitions, also. She was often thrown into the deep end of the pool. She went to television. She didnt go through local television but straight to network news and straight to a prestige beat. A friend of ours said this week gwen was good at being happy. She certainly was. She came to nbc in 1994, but she had to be dragged into it. She was talked into it by tim russert, who was then the Washington Bureau chief for nbc news, the moderator of meet the press and he kept bugging her all the time. He would have her on as a guest and of course she shined. He loved the alternative point of view that she had. He finally said to her, what are you afraid of . And later, she would say that everybody should have a mentor like tim russert. She said, you need someone who will talk you into something that youre scared to do but that is the right thing. And, of course, she neednt have been scared. She flourished at nbc news. Because she was a great reporter to start with and thats really what its all about. Now, ive said before that she made the quick adjustment to television. She says thats not true. But she did reveal some of her secrets. She said that she shamelessly flirted with the crews. And as we all know k, these people behind the cameras, our careers are in their hands. They can make us look great or not. Although i think it would be a challenge for any photographer to make gwen look anything but great. But everybody loved working with gwen. She also tells a story, and i assume its apock riffle. She said one of her first assignments was to go cover something and she came with her notebook and came back and started to write it. They said where are the pictures . She said oh, yeah. Forgot to bring a camera. She caught on pretty fast. She was also someone who brought her genuine self to television. There are some who work in television or even broadcasting in general who flip a switch when they get behind the microphone and turn on that personality. What you see here every friday night was the person that you saw off camera. Im sure we all have a story like this. Youre on an airplane, in an airport, at a bus station, in line at the movies, and someone will always say, whats gwen ifill really like . Yes. And the answer was, she is just like what you see on television. Thats gwen. Gwen is the same everywhere. I think thats one of the things that i really appreciated about her. She was so comforting and comfortable. Comfortable on the air. Comfortable in what she was doing. Strong and confident. And she wanted the people who came here on friday nights or on the newshour to feel exactly the same way. Be yourself. Be comfortable. That is not an easy thing to do, i think, in journalism when youre at the level that gwen had achieved. Right . To portray who you are, to know your stuff, not be a show boat. I really appreciated that part of her. As you say, she was so genuine. Once after a president ial debate i was walking through a casino and decided to stop at the crap table and see how it was done. The pit boss was being incredibly nice to me and actually giving me little nudges on how to do it, and as i looked up, like why are you being so nice to me he looked at me and he said, gwen ifill, Washington Week. I said, gwen, you have a following among pit bosses in las vegas. Who will help you cheat apparently. We all know gwen liked that people loved her. She appreciated that. Every time any of us would go out to dinner with her shed say oh, no theyre listening to our conversation. You better be careful. She loved it, though. And you know she loved it. She made time for it. She didnt give anyone the heisman like i dont have time for you. You know, she actually welcomed that and appreciated it and knew it was special. So maybe we can pull back the curtain and talk a little bit about how she put the show together every week. There was martha and i ran afoul of one of her rules in the green room. We did. You knew when you walked in the green room even if there was a big story still breaking, someone was at the podium in the Briefing Room at the white house, you were not allowed to talk about it because because there is no talking about the show in the green room. She was very superstitious about that. I think part of it, too, was i always think of the green room here as, it was fun to be in the green room here. It was a gd place to catch up. Yes, we gossiped sometimes in there. Gwen would talk about her life off camera. It was, you could see her warmth and one of the things, i remember the first time i did the show. I remember what i wore. I remember how nervous i was. I remember getting an invitation to go on the show and thinking like im just a kid. You know . What am i doing at gwen ifills table . I remember coming here and i think she could probably tell that i was really nervous. And she was so calming and so cool. And i did the show and it went well. Obviously they had me back on. And i remember leaving and a friend of mine called me and said, what is gwen ifill really like . People always wanted to know when you knew gwen what was she really like . I remember just saying shes awesome. She was so great. She really did, you know, she had very i didnt have the same level of friendship with gwen as you all had. You all knew her much longer but she really i think made such an effort to reach out to younger journalists, make sure they got a seat at her table. She cared about people covering beats and reporting and she cared a lot about younger women. I mean, it wasnt in her actions not just her words but she made it almost unacceptable to have these kind of conversations and not have a female voice at the table. Generous, generous with her time. Yes. Great word. She was generous with her knowledge. She was generous with her joy. Gwen was my mentor. I mean, i looked at gwen for everything. When she started doing Washington Week as the host, that year i started at the network. And id been on television for a long time before in local news and was at npr, too. But Peter Jennings was my anchor. That man could be absolutely terrifying. And when he asked you a question, and, you know, he wanted you to be better and he was a great journalist, amazing journalist, but he could be terrifying. So when you when he asked you a question, you never quite knew what peter would ask, youd look in the lens and see peter and i always used to think when i started at abc, and gwen knew this, i would see gwen. I would look in that lens and whatever news i was giving, i thought i was giving it to gwen because that calmed me down. Because i knew, number one, she was listening. She wanted me to be the best i could possibly be. One of the hallmarks of gwen was that she rooted for everybody. You know, there are some people in life, in every calling, and certainly in what we do that think to themselves its not enough that i succeed. You also have to fail. And gwen celebrated everybodys accomplishments. She was she was that kind of generosity of spirit. She was very happy when one of her family members on the show succeeded. Even when she was competing with them. Oh, yes. Shes been my best friend for 30 years. We were often in a competitive posture. We were, allegedly because we were at competing networks or competing, you know, in the same beat. And she could compete with the best of them. But then, you know, when you file your piece, she was your greatest booster. I want to go back to the point that you made, which is, you know, gwen was clearly a barrier breaker. She broke a lot of barriers. It was not easy. She, you know, fought. She got there. She got where she got because of the enormous diligence, preparation, determination. When she got to Washington Week it was a bastion of white men. It had always been a show of older, white men. And gwen spent her entire time repopulating the table at Washington Week. Younger reporters, more women, people of color, and it was not done in a kind of flamboyant way. It was just quietly, if you look at the progression of Washington Week during her time as moderator, you see a huge change that represents the change in the reporting corps in washington but isnt necessarily always shown on the programs. Shes done that everywhere shes worked. She is the embod emmitt of the model lifting while you climb. We talked so much about gwens professional success but her personal life was also a rich tapestry of friends. She talked about when she was honored as a history maker. We had a chance to talk about the importance of the friendship. Lets take a listen. How did the relationship that you have with your siblings, that sense of family, how did that shape you as a journalist and as a person youve become . Gwen well, because my father was a ame minister we moved every couple years. Wed be transferred. In the end your best friends growing up were your family, the people you knew all the time. And that was extended that expanded to our extended family, as well. So that made you realize the value of family first and foremost. But it also allowed you to pick very carefully who your friends are and who theyre not. So im not confused about friendships but im also very conscious about the number of people who are my friends because of my job and those who are my friends no matter what. I got you. Gwen and that informs my thinking and my morality and it informs how i gauge, not judge but gauge people i cover. Im sorry, but that got to me a little bit. Friendship was very important to gwen. She nourished her friendships. We talked about how she wasnt competitive with her friends. And she had this quality that i really appreciate of admitting what she did not know. On the personal side gwen was such a collector of people. And every new years day she would give this party. And this is where all of her friends would gather to eat their blackeyed peas for good luck. And the Collard Greens so youd have money. Money, too. Yes. And every year this party would get bigger and bigger and bigger. And everybody would be in gwens house jammed in there where you could barely move. We had to come in shifts. Yes. It went on all day. Into the night actually. Right. But at this wonderful new years day gathering which she always says was her excuse not to go out on new years eve, you could see every facet of gwens life. It was such a wonderful, diverse, happy crowd. And i cannot even imagine new years day. I think there is also something about that day, if you think about the world in which gwen moved, this could have been a party in which you had politicians and cabinet officials and all sorts of powerful people, big shots. That wasnt the party. It was her friends. It was just, you know, a lot of reporters. Her hair dresser, the folks from church. Her family. All in the house and outside. The extended family. But it wasnt a place to show how powerful, how powerful would come and greet her. I loved her ability to listen. Its really hard when youre on television to listen to whats going on around that table, but i always got the sense and im sure we all did, whenever youre talking, she was listening. She was learning. She was absorbing. As i said, she always came to that table prepared. But i think she always took something away for next time. She i love the conversations about diversity and what she did to change that table. Thats a gift to all the viewers. That is a gift that she gave everyone. Another gift, i think, that she brought is the calmness on Washington Week because, lord knows, you can turn the dial on your television or your radio these days and hear a lot of people yell at you about what you ought to think. And i in the comments that ive seen this week about gwen, thats what they say. Many people say they will miss as much as anything is the is the dignity and the calmness and the respect. She had Great Respect for politics and politicians and people who cover politics. She had a reporters skepticism, but ultimately a respect. And i think people were going to miss that a great deal. Respect and trust. We should mention the road shows. Because, you know, when she went out on the road it was a chance for her to really commune with her audience. And you saw in a very personal way how much people really loved her work, respected her work, and felt that she was theirs. This is the year in which the media really have taken it on the chin, right, in this election cycle. You could never say about Washington Week or gwen that she was not trying to take her show to where the voters, the electorate lived, where they cared about their communities, what was worrying them. And she was such, as martha was saying, such a good listener and also, maybe, you know, from moving around as a younger person she was so flexible and adaptive. Wherever she went she could talk to anyone, any walk of life, and have fun doing it. Im not sure ive ever personally met a journalist who so deeply connected with her audience. And you talked about meeting people that knew gwen or viewers that just felt like she was part of their family. She used to say people would send her jewelry they made and art that they did. Dan, if you remember we did the road show in cleveland right before the Republican National convention this year and there were a lot of technical glitches and a Live Audience and gwen was just rolling with it. She clearly was not feeling great. And how many of the people in the audience and the women in the audience were trying to get fans for her and tissues. You could just feel the viewers, were like oh, we have to take care of gwen. That connection she had with people that watched the show always seemed so pure and kind and i feel like thats why so many people that watched the show also just feel like theyve lost a friend, because gwen just projected friendship and fellowship, particularly at the table. I was in austin the day after she died at a conference, and any number of people came up to me who were viewers. They had never met gwen. But they knew that i was a person on the show. First they came up and offered condolences. But they were also talking about their own sense of loss. I mean, she, you know, she was on a tv screen but she came through that tv screen to people and created this bond that you talked about that you could see on the road shows but you can see it everywhere. And all of us have stories about someone stopping us on the street or at a hotel or at a starbucks and saying, i love Washington Week. I love gwen. Please say hello to gwen. They had a personal connection with her. Unlike anything ive ever seen in terms of somebody whos in the media. Many of the viewers were all the more surprised by her passing because they did not know that she was sick. Most of you do. And you knew that she was making her way here on fridays, anchoring newshour, doing road shows. Doing a town hall with president obama while she was also struggling. While she was also in pain in some cases. And it says so much about her work ethic. It says so much about her commitment to the viewers. You know, she wanted to be here because she knew this election was important. She wanted to be here for all of you. And there is a lesson in that, also. One thing that always struck me is whenever we would go out and talk about the latest gossip or problems at work or in life or on the campaign, shed always end it saying, you know, life is good. She really appreciated what she had. She never lost sight of it. She always would say, life is good. The president and c. E. O. Of pbs summed up gwens storied career best. She said, gwen was one of americas leading lights in journalism and a fundamental reason public media is considered a trusted window on the world by audiences across the nation. Gwens commitment to journalism and especially her devotion to mentoring young reporters will continue for many years to come. The gwen ifill fund for journalism excellence has been established and you can find more information on the Washington Week website. We do hope you go there to find more information. We have only scratched the surface of stories about our friend gwen ifill. We could go on all night. We could probably go on into the weekend. But well share more on the Washington Week extra and you can find that and more remembrances about gwens remarkable career on the Washington Week website and at pbs. Org Washington Week. We now raise a glass to toast our friend, our mentor, our colleague, our shero, amazing life, amazing career, amazing woman. Gwen ifill. Hear, hear. Cheers. Hello and welcome to kqed newsroom. Im thuy vu. Coming up on our program, well look at a bay area startup with an app that gets excess food from businesses into the hands of those who need it. Also remembering pioneering television anchor and reporter gwen ifill, who passed away this week. But first as president elect donald trump continues forming his cabinet, there is Much Division over his choices and the direction of the country. Here in the bay area, there have been reports of racially motivated incidents in public and at schools. Protests have erupted, and some are preparing to join in a womens march in washington, d. C. One day after the inauguration. Tonight well talk about how to move forward with three people from different backgrounds, generations, and political

© 2025 Vimarsana

comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.