08 Oct 2008

Gwen Ifill and Corporate Conformity

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

"Gwen Ifill is around to assure her white colleagues that
there are Black people who agree with them."

Public Broadcasting Black news personality Gwen Ifill caught
a bunch of flak from the Right when she was tapped to moderate the Sarah
Palin-Joe Biden vice-presidential debate. The Republicans excel at
psychological warfare; they knew that by questioning Ifill's objectivity - by
suggesting she harbors a pro-Democratic bias - they could cause her to give
their not-too-bright would-be VP, Palin, a free ride.

It worked. Whatever they paid Ifill was too much. If a
moderator can't even request that a candidate respond to questions, what good
is she? But then, I've long questioned Gwen Ifill's usefulness to the service
of truth in general, and Black people's interests in particular. The
Republicans threw Ifill off her game by charging that she has a monetary
interest in a Democratic victory in November, when her book, titled Breakthough:
Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, hits the stores. By that standard, journalists who write books about politicians would be disqualified from doing news stories about, or moderating interviews with, politicians. The whole notion would be silly, except for the fact that it turned Ifill into a useless lump on the screen.

Ifill's book should get good reviews, since her line on race is also shared by much of white corporate media. Ifill focuses on Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, and Massachusetts Governor Deval
Patrick. These are the "breakthrough" politicians whose success proves that
Blacks are well on the way to achieving racial equality, according to Ifill.
That view is also widely held at the places like the New York Times and
among most corporate broadcasters outside of FOX News, so Ifill fits right in.
Corporate media reporters seem to share the same list of the "good" Black
"leaders" who speak their language and don't upset white folks, unlike the
Reverends Al and Jesse and those poor souls who are still supposedly "trapped" in the Sixties. Gwen Ifill is
around to assure her white colleagues that there are Black people who agree
with them. For this, she is trusted, and rewarded.

"Washington Week is a
celebration of shared world views."

White favor is that special something that Ifill shares with
the six Black politicians featured in her book. All are decidedly to the Right
of the Black political spectrum - which should logically disqualify them from
being considered as "Black leaders." But they are Ifill's soul mates, floating,
like her, on a carpet of white media approval which, in the twisted logic of
the post-Civil Rights era, is the equivalent of Black success. In truth, these
politicians' primary usefulness is to provide an amen corner for rich white
people's critiques of Black people.

Every Friday evening, Gwen Ifill hosts a little get-together
of corporate media buddies, called Washington Week. It is a celebration of
shared world views: Time magazine concurs with the New York Times,
which agrees with the Washington Post, which is pleased to share the
same opinion as Newsweek, and so forth. At the center of the table is
Ms. Ifill, who agrees with them all. She is the hostess of perfect corporate
conformity - which is her personal and professional "breakthrough." Gwen Ifill
has a lesson for young Black people: Don't fight The Power.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted
at [email protected].

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