The Optimism of Gwen Ifill

BOSTON, MA – Gwen Ifill, a journalist that inspired many, died Monday. Politicians on both sides of the aisle expressed their sorrow, in part because of Ifill's dedication to fair reporting and her optimism in the face of everything.

In an interview with Mother Jones in 2009, Ifill said there's no problem with exercising "a little bit of extra politeness" in a news world that tends to scream.

"I think it's great to have a vibrant and lively public debate out there about points of view, as long as you're willing to listen to the other side, too," Ifill said to MJ. "I don't see myself as a pundit and I take great pains not to be one because I always want to consider that the other guy might have a point, too. Otherwise, I couldn't do my job."

"I wanted to be a journalist when I was 9," Ifill said in her 2012 speech at the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "There was no one out there who looked like me or sounded like me. No one in my family had been a journalist. But I was a curious girl. I wanted to ask questions. I wanted to demand answers. I was taught by my mother that there was nothing I could not do and by my father that I should be proud to be everything I am."

In an interview with O Magazine, Ifill explained why she wanted to become a political reporter.

"I knew early on that I wanted to be a reporter, but I didn't know I was a political journalist until my first job in Boston, in the '70s, covering the public school committee at a time when busing was a huge issue," Ifill told the magazine in 2009. "Children's lives were being directly affected by political decisions, and that's when I realized that everything is politics."

A statement from PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger called Ifill "one of America's leading lights in journalism."

"She often said that her job was to bring light rather than heat to issues of importance to our society," wrote Kerger. "Gwen did this with grace and a steadfast commitment to excellence."

Ifill once delivered the commencement speech at Phillip's Academy Charter School in New Jersey at the request of a former student there.

"Never devalue what you know," she told the students. "Your view is actually clearer than mine in so many ways. It is more fixed on the future than mine, in so many ways."

Image via WETA