October 7, 2024

Yamiche Alcindor Is Named Host of ‘Washington Week’ on PBS

“I know how much ‘Washington Week’ meant to Gwen, and how much she put her stamp on the legacy of the show,” Ms. Alcindor, who is Haitian-American, said in an interview. “I also feel this incredible responsibility to think deeply about taking this on and making it a show that people want to watch, that people will feel is living up to its great legacy.”

Ms. Alcindor will continue to cover President Biden for “NewsHour,” while also staying on as a contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. Previously, she was a reporter for The New York Times and USA Today.

She said that she had been a “Washington Week” viewer since college, and that she wanted to widen the scope of a show sometimes steeped in D.C. arcana. She also plans to maintain the civil tone — “a sense of respect and respectability,” as she put it — that has been the show’s signature since its 1967 debut.

“There can be this sense, when you are working and living in Washington, that everything is about what’s going on in D.C.,” Ms. Alcindor said. “So much of what has guided my journalism is, how are vulnerable populations being impacted by these policies? That will be my guiding light.”

As a White House reporter, Ms. Alcindor gained some fame as a frequent target of former President Donald J. Trump’s ire at news conferences. On one occasion in 2018, Mr. Trump labeled her question as “racist” after she asked if his policies had emboldened white nationalists. “As a Black woman, it wasn’t the first time that someone had targeted me or said something about me that I knew not to be true,” Ms. Alcindor recalled.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/business/media/yamiche-alcindor-washington-week-pbs.html

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