Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff made history in 2013 when they became co-hosts at PBS’s Newshour, the first time a network broadcast featured a female co-anchor team. On Monday’s episode of Newshour, Woodruff commemorated her co-worker and friend alongside Hari Srinivasan.
The segment briefly touches on Ifill’s early life and progression to PBS in 1999 before diving into the work she did on Newshour, including the thoughtful questions she asked of her guests. They mention her work as a vice-presidential debate moderator in 2004 and again in 2008, and her reporting for our most recent election season, during which she sat down with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
The tribute ends with Ifill’s own words on PBS Newshour, where she describes her position vis-à-vis her audience as a reporter in politics:
We occupy a role that we know they appreciate. They tell us this. And its not too much to tell them back how much we love them back. The world is split into a million different little ways of consuming information. A lot of people say I only get my information from the Daily Show or a lot of young people say I only read what I see on m phone browser. But we have a dedicated committed audience who want to know more. Who want us to dig a little deeper on their behalf. And so if they weren’t there, if they weren’t supporting the work we do we couldn’t exist. And I think it’s kinda vital to democracy that we do exist.
You can watch last night’s full episode, which featured more tributes to Ifill, here.