Gwen Ifill Controversy Continues and Now You Tube Removing Videos Critical of Ifill But Not Palin
Growing controversy by the minutes surrounds the appointment of Gwen Ifill of National Public Radio as the moderator for tomorrows Vice-Presidential Debate. It starts with Ms. Ifill not informing the Presidential Debate Commission that she had a conflict of interest. She is currently writing a book on the success of African-American politicians which is supposed to be released on the day of the Presidential inauguration. Whether Obama wins or loses the election could determine if Ms. Ifill will make millions of dollars vs. thousands of dollars.
Ecstatic Expression and Jubilant Tone for Obama
Sour Face and Tone for Palin
During the Republican Convention speech of Sarah Palin many have noted that Ms. Ifill was visibly displeased with the nomination by her clearly disappointed countenance and tone.
Later in televised analysis sessions, Ms. Ifill indicated that Governor Palin would be incapable of dealing with her family problems and functioning as Vice-President.
Liberal moderators such David Shuster from MSNBC and Juan Williams from NPR have suggested that Ms. Ifill should recuse herself from being moderator.
In her defense, Ms. Ifill was quoted by the Associated Press as saying “I’ve got a pretty long track record covering politics and news, so I’m not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation,” Ifill said. “The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate tomorrow night and make their own decisions about whether or not I’ve done my job.”
In related news, today many videos were uploaded to You Tube showing the news reports of Ms. Ifill and being critical of her. This evening hundreds of these videos are being removed by You Tube which has suddenly announced it will be shut down for maintainance later on tonight. You Tube is a common source for bloggers and news media to obtain copies of news makers which can be fairly used under the “fair use” doctrine. On any day you can find hundreds of cable news segments on You Tube. Curiously no segments of news clips which have been critical of Sarah Palin appear to have been removed. We tried to contact You Tube but were unsuccessful. It is noteworthy that the CEO of Google , Eric Schmidt, which owns You Tube is on Barack Obama’s campaign comittee and is generally credited with his internet success.