Not to take the discussion too far afield, but I lost most of the respect I once had for Gwen Ifill during the Democratic primaries in 2008 when she voluntarily inserted the comment, grinning, "Dennis Kucinich was there too -- talking about UFOs."   (Sad to say, Kucinich was ASKED by a debate moderator to comment on a tabloid-esque story about his having told his friend Shirley MacLaine that he had once seen a UFO -- i.e., an airborne object that he could not identify - and felt a sense of awe. That story was not germane to Kuchinich's political views, policies, experience, etc., and it was disrespectful to him and to the voters for the moderator to bring it up during the debate.)
I also see Ifill often seeming to bend over backwards to AVOID appearing "liberal" - to the point where she allows right-wing perspectives and talking points to go unchallenged. I've just found in recent years that she seems lacking in demonstable critical analysis or perception and kind of takes a sort of you-say-X-while-he-says-Y-and-that's-just-fine stance in discussions. If anything, I think she's harder on Democrats and "liberals" than on Republicans and "conservatives" in interviews in her questions and commentaries.

To a large extent I think she and Juan Williams come across very similarly - being identified by the "Right" as evidence of "liberal bias in the media" while not being observably liberal or progressive at all in what they present to the public.