Tony Peyser: Giving Gwen Ifill An Earful over 'closeted' remark

So last Saturday afternoon, it's 108 degrees in Van Nuys, California. My son, Jeremy, and I are sitting on the bed in his room with the AC and PBS on. It's a rebroadcast of "Washington Week" from the day before. Host Gwen Ifill says something that stops me in my tracks. I said a word out loud often heard from that great modern philosopher Jim, from "The Office": Wow.

As soon as this happened, I knew what was next. This embarrassing moment would be removed from the transcript on the show. And that's exactly what happened. However, as they say in cheesy local commercials, there's much, much more.

The transcript was posted the following Thursday, a few days later that their usual posting schedule. This is the email I sent to Katie Lynch, associate Producer of "Washington Week."

Katie,

I think a part of the transcript seemed inaccurate from what I watched. Here's the section in question:

MS. IFILL: A couple other developments that are worth remarking even though they happened at the beginning and it now seems like a long time ago. Al Gore came out of the closet here and endorsed -- we don't know where he's been exactly.

MR. HARWOOD: Careful.

MS. IFILL: Come on. He came out and he endorsed Barack Obama.

After Ms. Ifill's snide remark about Gore's coming out of the closet, I could swear I heard rumblings in the crowd of dismay and disapproval. This is not reflected in the transcript. I believe Ms. Ifill also blushed, embarrassed by the response to what she'd said and laughed nervously. She then uttered something like: "Oh, come on! You know what I mean."

I'm assuming a decision was made in editing the transcript to play down this case of foot in mouth disease. While "Washington Week" is supposed to be objective, this reflects Ms. Ifill's often rumored politically conservative leanings. Dare I say it's the proverbial feminizing of the Left by the Right, i.e., Ann Coulter calling John Edwards a "fag?"

Gays and lesbians just got the right to marry recently. Is this really the best timing for jokes about closets from the host of an honored PBS series? It's one thing to have made such a statement, another to excise it from the public record. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tony Peyser

Katie Lynch wrote back:

Hi Tony,

We do not broadcast the show in front of an audience so there could not have been any rumblings in the crowd.

My wife, Kathy, said, "Isn't it time, as they say in sports, to go to the videotape? Don't you think they announced where the show was being held?"

This was my next email to Katie:

THIS WAS A SHOW TAPED IN ATLANTA WHERE THERE WAS AN AUDIENCE --- HUNDREDS WERE IN ATTENDANCE. THIS IS FROM THE TRANSCRIPT:

ANNOUNCER: Celebrating 40 years of journalistic excellence, this is a special edition of "Washington Week" with Gwen Ifill from Atlanta, produced in association with National Journal. Corporate funding for "Washington Week" is provided by -

ANNOUNCER: Once again, from the Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University in Atlanta, moderator Gwen Ifill.

I REALIZE IT'S DIFFICULT FOR TV SHOWS, AS WELL AS PEOPLE, TO HEAR CRITICISM AND RESPOND TO IT. BUT SINCE I'M SO OFTEN TOLD THAT PBS WOULDN'T HAPPEN WITHOUT VIEWERS LIKE ME, A HIGHER STANDARD APPLIES THAN FOR NETWORK NEWS WHICH HAS NO SUCH VIEWER SUPPORT MECHANISMS.

I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND YOUR RELUCTANCE TO ADDRESS WHAT I'VE SAID BECAUSE MS. IFILL IS YOUR BOSS. HOWEVER, BOSSES DO MAKE MISTAKES AND CLEARLY YOU GUYS HAVE THE BROOM OUT AND JUST WANT TO SWEEP THIS UNDER THE NEAREST RUG.

PBS VIEWERS DESERVE BETTER.

TONY

Here's the kicker.

When I checked the "Washington Week" transcript a few minutes later, they had edited out Ifill's closet comment entirely.

MS. IFILL: A couple other developments that are worth remarking even though they happened at the beginning and it now seems like a long time ago. Al Gore endorsed.

This is exactly what is so wrong with the mainstream media, politics and accountability. This is what you expect this White House to do but not PBS. If you do something wrong, deny and then erase the evidence. In the case of "Washington Week," they did a little editing and then a lot of erasing. Journalistic excellence? In this case, not so much.

In the brave new 21st Century world of bloggers and the "internets," people like Gwen Ifill can run from their mistakes but can no longer hide them.

(Editor's Note: the video currently here has the conversation just as Peyser suggests. So the transcript is not accurate.)

Tony Peyser provides daily poems and weekly cartoons for BuzzFlash and also writes the BuzzFlash column, "Blue State Jukebox." He was a daily cartoonist for the L.A. Times from 1994 to 1997. You can e-mail Tony at tonypeyser@yahoo.com.

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