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Conflict? PBS Journalist to Emcee Event Praising HHS Sec. for Obamacare

Apr. 19, 2012 8:37am Jonathon M. Seidl

Might this be a conflict of interest?

PBS anchor Gwen Ifill is set to emcee an event honoring Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for her “advancements in health care” and contributions to implementing Obamacare. The event is a benefit for the non-profit Whitman-Walker Health.

“Please join Gwen Ifill, managing editor of ‘Washington Week’ and senior correspondent for the ‘PBS News Hour’” and the Whitman-Walker family as we honor United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius for advancements in health care,” the invite says. “Be the Care and help Whitman-Walker Health continue to provide empowering health care services to our community.”

The bio of Sebelius listed on the invite leaves no question what type of event it will be:

Kathleen Sebelius was sworn in as the 21^stSecretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on April 28, 2009. Since taking office, Secretary Sebelius has led ambitious efforts to improve America’s health and enhance the delivery of human services to some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, including young children, those with disabilities, and the elderly.

As part of the historic Affordable Care Act, she is implementing reforms that have ended many of the insurance industry’s worst abuses and will help 34 million uninsured Americans get health coverage. She is also working with doctors, nurses, hospital leaders, employers, and patients to slow the growth in health care costs through better care and better health. [Emphasis added]

Metro Weekly also makes it clear that the non-profit organization is a big fan of Obamacare, and confirms Ifill’s role:

Whitman-Walker Health, the nonprofit community health organization that specializes in HIV/AIDS treatment, will hold its 19th annual spring fundraiser, themed ”Be the Care,” during which the center will honor Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius with its Partner for Life Award for her work in helping implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The cocktail reception and awards ceremony, which will be emceed by PBS’s Gwen Ifill, is set for Thursday, April 19.

Whitman-Walker representatives praised Sebelius’s work in implementing the ACA to ensure better access to health care for millions of Americans, including those with pre-existing conditions, and to provide support to community health centers like Whitman-Walker. [Emphasis added]

This isn’t the first time Ifill has been involved in an event with a possible conflict of interest. “In 2008, it was questionable that PBS NewsHour and Washington Week anchor Gwen Ifill could moderate the vice-presidential debate as she was writing a book called “The Breakthrough” about the rise of Barack Obama and other black liberal politicians,” Newsbusters points out.

What do you think?

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Comments (37)

drphil69
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 11:43am
What conflict? PBS is Public Bull **** – run by the govt at taxpayer expense to propagate government lies to the public. With Obummer in office, PBS, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, are all just mouthpieces for an out of control govt that will bankrupt the most prosperous, most powerful nation on the planet within the next few years.

So… where’s the conflict?

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- db321
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:50pm
  Go ahead use your Public druel to promote something that will be deemed Un-Constitutional! How American is that!
  
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tankyjo
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 11:39am
No conflict here, conflict of interest was soooo decades ago. It’s open collusion.

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RodT82721
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 11:34am
This shouldn’t be a surprise, PBS / NPR, tax payer funded, praising Socialized Medicine! It’s been the plan of Progressives since Wilson.

Progressives rejoice that now a lot more ‘free’ stuff that private Insurance Companies wouldn’t provide. Pre-existing conditions are not insured, they are a health car plan. 26 year old children for a free ride? Only when someone else pays.

In the private sector a business has to make a profit to stay in business. In the world of progressives, that would be the public sector, everything is paid by the tax payers, it’s pennies from heaven, to give to all those that can’t or wont pay their own bills.

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Bluesurf
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 11:16am
end all pbs tax dollars now!!!!!!!!!!!

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freetexas2
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 11:01am
Just another normal day at PBS. Nothing to see here. Move along.

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I.Gaspar
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:40am
I didn’t know who gwen Awful was but her picture speaks a thousand words.

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leftcoastslut
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:13am
after watching PBS from birth until kindergarten, these little ones are already little progressive soilders

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flsnipe
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:02am
PBS= Please Be A Socialist

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AnAmericanToo
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:01am
Gwen Hill is an employee of the Public Broadcasting System. It is my understanding that the American taxpayers are forced through taxes to support PBS.as such she is paid by taxpayers. She should not be advocating on position or another. But what thinking people even watch PBS for “news”?

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lukerw
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:47am
Dear Allen West: Here are the names of a bunch of Communists!

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poster
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:39am
I would hardly use the word “journalist” when referring to Gwen Eye-full. She’s a Progressive-Liberal-Democrat-Socialist house-slave for the Obamas.

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- HorseCrazy
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:27am
  that was what I was going to say “journalist” when speaking of PBS is like saying those journalists at msnbc. It is garbage. They are lying purveyors of propoganda.
  
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barber2
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:27am
You’re surprised ? PBS and NPR and BBC are all preachers of the International Left’s religion of Big Brother Politics. And NPR ( their “news ” sounds like the Obama Campaign Committee ) and PBS get to use our tax money to spout their propaganda – like the Marxists who have silently infiltrated our public educational institutions for years . Another great waste of tax dollars…

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helena
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:22am
I stopped being a member to pbs when they got political. There is too much political activity on the other channels. I don’t need to watch it on PBS, also, and then contribute to it as well.

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BlackCrow
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:17am
Why would it be a conflict of interest for an employee of one government agency to MC an event for an employee of another government agency? PBS is not an independent news agency it is the official government propaganda agency. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has long outlived it’s usefulness and should be defunded yesterday.

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Hickory
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:15am
We used to contribute to PBS. We stopped that about 3 years ago.

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GoodCook
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:15am
Why yes, yes it is the Propoganda Broadcasting System.. … Using your tax dollars against you!

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starman70
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:12am
PBS: Politbureau Broadcasting System. Odummer’s choice for broadcasting leftist propaganda. Even further left than the mainstream media.

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The Goo
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:10am
No media bias there… As stated above… PBS can do whatever they want IF they stop accepting tax dollars.

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johnjamison
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:04am
PBS can do whatever it wants as soon as it stops taking tax dollars. Fact is PBS stands for PURE BOLDFACE SOCIALISM and everyone knows it. Just another example of what happens when you let cancer stay in the body.

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TEARS FOR AMERICA
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:53am
I for one am sick of PBS getting my tax dollars for propaganda purposes. Sebelius under her governorship of Kansas propped up late-term abortion and is responsible for more innocents dying than any other in our nation’s history. And if Obamacare gets a pass, with the stranglehold of forced abortion coverage at the center, rationing and death will be commonplace.

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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:51am
Conflict of interest absolutely; yet remember that PBS is the Progressive Bulshavik System for their propaganda, what else would you expect?

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IndyGuy
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:48am
P.S…..PBS=PubliclyBackingSocialism

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IndyGuy
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:46am
Defund PBS now!!!!

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sndrman
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:45am
you’re surprised why? come on really? when did you not think pbs is another arm of the dnc,socilaism,liberalism,communism…

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Locked
Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:45am
No more of a conflict of interest than a Catholic priest preaching against mandated contraceptive insurance from the pulpit. So long as the MC isn’t endorsing a candidate by name, there’s a lot of leniency. Of course, PBS might not see it the same way and may choose to take action itself; but there will be no issue legally.

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- 13th Imam
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:04am
  Sure, Sure
  Just another partially publicly funded, socialist leaning, so-called journalist, stumping for socialized , UnConstitutional, Barrycare, is the same as a Catholic Priest speaking about cutting live baby’s out of irresponsible (mostly) skanks.
  
  And this from a Christian Conservative??
  
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- Locked
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:32am
  @13th
  
  Seems my last response didn’t post. Oddness, didn’t think I used any forbidden words.
  
  1. Contraceptive mandate doesn’t cover abortions. Try not to conflate the two. People might think you’re either lying or don’t know the difference.
  2. Between 89 and 98% of Catholic women use or have used birth control before. You just called most of them skanks. Well done.
  3. My political views and religious views have very little to do with my comment this time. Both PBS and Catholic charities take money from the federal government and are tax exempt. They both need to follow rules set by the government to do so. As a conservative, ideally both should be defunded (and Obamacare should be repealed as it is, you correctly said, Unconstitutional), and if they want to shill for a candidate, they should lose their tax exempt status. I think we’ll agree on that!
  
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- barber2
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:36am
  LOCKED: a priest is supposed to teach church doctrine . That is a religious issue . It only becomes political if the government is instituting something against the church’s moral code. Or would you have wanted priests to not speak out against the the Nazis ? Mao’s “cultural revolution ? ” Churches have to take a stand on issues which they believe are immoral . Churches can not be bound by ” political correctness !” And that is precisely why there are martyrs who are killed by repressive governments .
  
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- flowerplough
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:40am
  Conflict is in that publicly-funded PBS is using our taxes to help Obama and the Dems, yo? Or no? Your taxes going to any priest against your will?
  
  Defund de leftists, know what I’m sayin’?
  
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- Locked
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:49am
  @Barber2
  
  “That is a religious issue . It only becomes political if the government is instituting something against the church’s moral code.”
  
  I agree that churches should speak about their moral issues with the world. I also agree that if they cannot follow the rules set up the government, they would be better off losing their tax exempt status. Same with non-profits. It’s duplicitous to say “Oh, well, you can say what you want, but you can’t” just because we agree with one side and not the other. Rules and laws are to be applied equally.
  
  “Churches have to take a stand on issues which they believe are immoral.”
  
  I completely agree. As do all citizens. And as long as they follow the rules that they agreed to, then life is peachy. Hence why I compared the two: neither is breaking the law, because they’re not endorsing candidates. Legally there is no conflict of interest.
  
  Again, ideally (in my eyes) we stop funding both groups, revoke their tax exempt status, and let them have the full freedom of religion.
  
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- Locked
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:08am
  @Flower
  
  “Your taxes going to any priest against your will?”
  
  I think I found what was forbidden: the link to the Catholic Charities website. Anyway, look it up. 67% of their funding comes from the federal government. That doesn’t even count other services like adoption centers, halfway houses, or medical clinics… all of which receive taxpayer funding.
  
  So yes, my money is going to priests and nuns in a manner that I do not regulate and have no say over. Most of what they do I’ll likely agree with, but isn’t this the same argument we have against government agencies that do the same? Uncle Sam takes our money and decides what to do with it… leaving us without the freedom to choose.
  
  As a fiscal conservative, I am against such a system. Are you conservative or not?
  
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- barber2
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:24am
  Locked : I do not think that the government should have the power to rescind a church’s tax exempt status . Too much of a potential for restricting freedom of speech. This is a very touchy issue BUT freedom of speech is so very important to maintain the rights of the individual over that of the government. Taxation shouldn’t be used to control speech. Maybe we need to completely re-examine taxation !
  
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- Locked
  Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:42am
  @Barber2
  
  ” I do not think that the government should have the power to rescind a church’s tax exempt status .”
  
  As government is the one that allows tax exempt status, it only makes sense that they have the power to rescind it. But it’s a two-way street. If a church or religious-affiliated organization feels they MUST endorse a candidate, they can do so knowing the consequences. Same thing with a non-profit organization like PBS. Up until that point, both can skirt coming out and saying who to vote for.
  
  Again, ideally we would just keep the government out of all of these things, both in terms of giving exemptions, and in funding them. Short of the true conservative side, I’ll argue with how the reality is: both benefit from the government and neither legally has a conflict of interest in promoting or decrying the government’s programs.
  
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