So it turns out Gwen Ifill never told the Commission on Presidential Debates about her book Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, which is to be released on Inauguration Day. When she's asked if her book creates a conflict of interest, Ifill suggests that such concerns might be motivated by racism.
But, as Andy McCarthy demonstrates, Ifill and her colleagues at PBS have been quite concerned about conflicts of interest involving public figures.
In fact, during the 2004 vice presidential debate, Ifill insinuated that Dick Cheney may have opposed trade sanctions against Iran because he was the CEO of Halliburton:
IFILL: Mr. Vice President, in June of 2000 when you were still CEO of Halliburton, you said that U.S. businesses should be allowed to do business with Iran because, quote, "Unilateral sanctions almost never work."
After four years as vice president now, and with Iran having been declared by your administration as part of the "Axis of Evil," do you still believe that we should lift sanctions on Iran?
Keep in mind that during this debate, John Edwards was hammering Dick Cheney on Halliburton, mentioning the company by name eight times.
To be fair, Ifill did bring up Edwards's work as a trial lawyer. But she framed the issue as a "personal attack" on John Edwards rather than a conflict of interest.
She asked Cheney:
President Bush has derided in John Kerry for putting a trial lawyer on the ticket. You yourself have said that lawsuits are partly to blame for higher medical costs. Are you willing to say that John Edwards, sitting here, has been part of the problem?
And then asked:
Senator Edwards, new question to you, same topic. Do you feel personally attacked when Vice President Cheney talks about liability reform and tort reform and the president talks about having a trial lawyer on the ticket?
This isn't to say that Ifill went easy on Edwards. She certainly asked him some tough questions, especially on foreign policy. Still, Ifill was and is a liberal, and her choice of questions reveals a subtle liberal bias. She asked Cheney and Edwards about AIDS and poverty, but not about abortion. Moving the "values" debate "beyond abortion" has been the Democrats' long-standing strategy to win over religious voters.
Of course, the main concern with Ifill's moderating tonight's debate is not merely that she's a liberal, but that she stands to make a tidy profit if Obama wins the election.
