It’s another busy day in the life of Gwen Ifill.
Back-to-back meetings about topics that may be covered on one of her television news programs. Reading. Reading. Reading. She reads some five news aggregation sites on the Internet and “dips” into as many newspapers each day. She’s making and receiving phone calls about news developments around the nation and world. She’s tweeting and blogging and giving interviews on the telephone to the local all-news radio station.
It’s all part of the routine for Ifill, a reporter-anchor Monday through Wednesday for “The News Hour,” the daily in-depth news reporting program on PBS, and managing editor and moderator of “Washington Week,” the widely-respected and watched weekend news and analysis program, also on PBS.
With a resume that boasts experience as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, The New York Times and NBC News, the New York City-born Simmons College graduate has emerged in recent years as one of the most respected journalists in the nation. She’s done it with class and a trademark style that is a far cry from the direction in which more and more news and entertainment programs have gone to draw viewers.
In what one colleague characterized as a throwback to journalism that preceded much of what is touted today as journalism, Ifill effectively holds court with colleagues who don’t go for the drama or shock treatment of their viewers. No yelling, shouting or combative dialogue on these shows. Just a civil discussion of the issues and the people involved.
“I’ve landed at the perfect place where there is no reward for yelling,” says Ifill, who got her start in journalism as a rookie reporter at the Boston American Herald as the city was immersed in racial strife over efforts to desegregate its public schools. “It wasn’t the way I was raised,” she says, proudly, reflecting on the values instilled in her as a child by her parents, immigrants from Barbados and Panama, and reinforced by her teachers and peers at Simmons.
For a television news icon who “never dreamed I’d do anything but newspapers” and who feels the views of shoppers at a Piggly Wiggly grocery in say, Ohio, might be as enlightening, if not more, than a button-lipped White House staffer, colleagues say Ifill has mastered the art of what is often characterized as “above ’em, but of ’em.” She manages to discuss and challenge the powerful while still being able to interact with everyday people as if she’s the neighbor next door facing the daily grind of adult responsibilities.
