Gwen Ifill

In her hour-long interview, Gwen Ifill (1955-2016) discusses her early love of writing and reading and how that carried her into a career in journalism. She talks about knowing at the age of nine years old that she wanted to be a journalist, and later majoring in communications at Simmons College [University] to help make her dream a reality. She describes working in print journalism for many years, covering politics for The Baltimore Evening Sun, presidential elections for The Washington Post, and Clinton's election and the White House for The New York Times. She recalls her first appearance on television and shares how mentor Tim Russert convinced her to get into television full-time. Ifill details stories she covered at NBC News, and outlines her transition from NBC to PBS. She speaks of becoming the first female, African American moderator of Washington Week and talks of her work on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (aka PBS NewsHour). She discusses her experiences moderating Edwards/Cheney and Palin/Biden vice-presidential debates and expresses her thoughts on the Saturday Night Live sketch with Queen Latifah that parodies the Palin/Biden debate. Ifill offers tips on how to be a good moderator and gives her views on the future of television news. Karen Herman conducted the interview on October 20, 2011 in Washington, D.C.