You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Award-Winning Journalist & Anchor Gwen Ifill Has Died at 61

HeadlineNov 15, 2016

And the award-winning journalist and news anchor Gwen Ifill has died of cancer at the age of 61. In 1999, Ifill became the first African-American woman to host a major national political talk show when she took the helm of “Washington Week in Review.” In 2013, she became co-host of the ”PBS NewsHour,” taking an anchor chair next to Judy Woodruff. Ifill continued covering the presidential election throughout the year, even as she underwent cancer treatment. Last spring, she moderated a Democratic primary debate between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders. At a press conference Monday, President Barack Obama reacted to Ifill’s passing.

President Barack Obama: “Michelle and I want to offer our deepest condolences to Gwen Ifill’s family and all of you, her colleagues, on her passing. Gwen was a friend of ours. She was an extraordinary journalist. She always kept faith with the fundamental responsibilities of her profession, asking tough questions, holding people in power accountable and defending a strong and free press that makes our democracy work. I always appreciated Gwen’s reporting, even when I was at the receiving end of one of her tough and thorough interviews. Whether she reported from a convention floor or from the field, whether she sat at the debate moderator’s table or at the anchor’s desk, she not only informed today’s citizens, but she also inspired tomorrow’s journalists.”

Topics:
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top