From the AP story:

Ifill questions why people assume that her book will be favorable toward Obama.
“Do you think they made the same assumptions about Lou Cannon (who is white) when he wrote his book about Reagan?” said Ifill, who is black. Asked if there were racial motives at play, she said, “I don’t know what it is. I find it curious.”

Do I think this story is being overplayed? Yeah, probably. I think the debate organizers deserve more criticism than Ifill, who I generally think is more fair than most. But, I can really do without the race card.

And for the record, Bob Zelnick had a book about Gore (I reviewed it for NR at the time). ABC News basically forced him out of his job because the mere act of writing it was a conflict of interest. I have never heard of a mainstream news organization doing anything like that to a liberal journalist who wrote critical books about any president. But when there are no consequences for Ifill whatsoever, we’re suppose to ponder whether the critics’ real motivation is racism. Please.