Gwen Ifill Quotes
Even marginal progress could be affected by investigations in Little Rock and in Washington.
Ifill, Gwen. NBC Nightly News. NBC, 1997.
The Secret Service was then the only Federal police force. Some members of Congress were protecting constituents who were involved with these crimes and some were themselves owners who were committing the crimes.
The investigations were by the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. At the time we were in the midst of the Red Scare and McCarthyism was rampant.
The director was being castigated for a series of blunders which had just culminated with the failure to disclose documents in their possession to the defense team in the Timothy McVeigh case.
The Texas authorities bungled the investigation, and the President under pressure, appointed the Warren Commission to conduct the investigation. That commission did poorly as well as they were lied to by both the CIA and the FBI. The autopsy report disappeared. The forensic photos of the dead president were not shown to anyone but Judge Warren; even the chief investigator—Arlen Specter—was not allowed to see them. Conspiracy theories have abounded ever since.
Gwendolyn L. Ifill was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program with Washington Week in Review. She was the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of the PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. Ifill was a political analyst and moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates. She authored the best-selling book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
