Gwen Ifill, PBS Correspondent, Attacked By Conservative Website For Emceeing LGBT Clinic Gala

Gwen Ifill, PBS Correspondent, Attacked By Conservative Website For
Emceeing LGBT Clinic Gala

WASHINGTON -- Gwen Ifill, the author and "PBS News Hour"
correspondent, is under fire from a conservative media outlet over her
decision to serve as emcee at Thursday's annual fundraiser for
Whitman-Walker Health, a nonprofit community health clinic in
Washington. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will
receive an award at the event.

Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center,
which runs the website Newsbusters, wrote on Thursday that Ifill was
crossing an "Obama line" by emceeing the event, where Sebelius is
being honored for her work in implementing the Affordable Care Act.

Graham writes that this isn't the first time Ifill has crossed "the
Obama line," pointing to her 2008 book "The Breakthrough: Politics and
Race in the Age Of Obama." The book examined the role of race in
modern American politics and at the time, supporters of Republican
Sen. John McCain argued that the book proved that Ifill, who is black,
was too biased in then-Sen. Barack Obama's favor to moderate the sole
vice presidential debate between then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and
then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). Ifill moderated the debate.

Founded in 1978, Whitman-Walker Health, formerly the Whitman Walker
Clinic, specializes in "HIV/AIDS care and lesbian, gay bisexual and
transgender care," according to its website.

"This is the first time we've seen an emcee at a WWH event
criticized," Chip Lewis, spokesman for the clinic, told HuffPost.
"We're a nonprofit community healthcare center serving more than
15,000 patients a year, and we don't turn away people who can't pay
for care," he said.

In his post, Graham called the clinic an "LGBT health and advocacy
group." Lewis challenged that characterization. "We're not an advocacy
group and we don't have a political agenda," he said. "Our agenda is
quality healthcare for our community."

Lewis also noted that Ifill, who first emceed an event for the clinic
in 2004, will neither introduce Sebelius on stage nor present her with
the group's Partner for Life Award. "Gwen has nothing to do with
presenting the award at all," he said.

The dinner and silent auction at the Carnegie Institution for Science
expects to raise about $250,000 for the clinic's services from more
than 400 guests, according to Lewis.

Newsbusters is a project of the conservative Media Research Center,
founded in 1987 to "document, expose and neutralize liberal media
bias," according to its website. Newsbusters was recently praised by
The New York Times for breaking the story of the altered NBC tape of
the Trayvon Martin 911 call.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/gwen-ifill-pbs_n_1438877.html?ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=042012&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

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