Respected veteran journalist and co-anchor of PBS NewsHour Gwen Ifill has died.
The award-winning political reporter’s death was confirmed on Monday (Nov 14), by PBS. The New York Times reports the Ifill’s cause of death was cancer. WETA President and CEO Sharon Percy Rockefeller shared a memo of grief with employees at the company. “I am very sad to tell you that our dear friend and beloved colleague Gwen Ifill passed away today in hospice care in Washington,” she wrote. “I spent an hour with her this morning and she was resting comfortably, surrounded by loving family and friends.”
With a career spanning decades, Ifill began in 1981 at The Baltimore Evening Sun. Her outstanding views on the political sphere earned her merits and positions at The New York Times and The Washington Post, covering the moves of The White House, presidential campaigns and national political conventions. She also moderated the vice-presidential debates in 2004 and 2008, as well as debates between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries.
Her position at PBS NewsHour with co-host Judy Woodruff made history as the first women to co-host a nightly news program. Sara Just, “PBS NewsHour” executive producer, hailed Ifill as the standard for quality journalism.
“Gwen was a standard bearer for courage, fairness and integrity in an industry going through seismic change,” Just said. She was a mentor to so many across the industry and her professionalism was respected across the political spectrum.”
President Barack Obama and many others across the media expressed their appreciation for Ifill and her legacy.
