For Immediate Release
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Press Contact: Nick Massella, Director, Audience Engagement & Communications, PBS NewsHour, nmassella@newshour.org
WSIU, PBS NewsHour to Broadcast Exclusive Interview & Town Hall with President Obama on Wednesday, June 1
Carbondale, Ill. – PBS NewsHour co-anchor and managing editor Gwen Ifill will sit down for an exclusive interview with President Barack Obama in Elkhart, Indiana as part of the two-part primetime special, Questions for President Obama: A PBS NewsHour Special, airing Wednesday, June 1 beginning at 7pm CT on WSIU-TV 8/WUSI-TV 16, the public television stations of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and PBS stations across the country.
Following the interview, PBS NewsHour will host a town hall during which Elkhart residents will ask questions of the President about a variety of topics. An excerpt from the interview and town hall will air earlier that evening in the PBS NewsHour’s regular time slot of 6pm on WSIU Public Television.
Ifill is also the moderator and managing editor of the PBS series Washington Week, which airs on WSIU Public Television on Fridays at 7pm. In February 2016, with co-anchor Judy Woodruff, Ifill co-moderated the PBS NewsHour Democratic Primary Debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. During the 2004 and 2008 Presidential elections, Ifill moderated Vice Presidential debates. Ifill has covered eight Presidential campaigns, and during the 2008 campaign season, she won the George Foster Peabody Award after bringing Washington Week to live audiences around the country as part of a 10-city tour.
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About WSIU
WSIU Public Broadcasting is licensed to the Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University and is an integral part of the College of Mass Communication & Media Arts on the Carbondale campus. The WSIU stations reach more than three million people across five states and beyond through three digital public television channels, three public radio stations, a radio information service, a website, and an education and community outreach unit.
WSIU's mission is to improve the quality of life of the people they serve. The WSIU stations partner with other community organizations to promote positive change and to support the academic and public service missions of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Learn more and get the latest station news online at wsiu.org and on WSIU's Facebook and Twitter pages.
WSIU's programs and services are partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
About PBS NewsHour
PBS NewsHour is seen by over four million weekly viewers and is also available online, via public radio in select markets, and via podcast. PBS NewsHour is a production of NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, D.C., in association with WNET in New York. Major funding for PBS NewsHour is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and public television viewers. Major corporate funding is provided by BNSF, Lincoln Financial Group, Fathom, and Genentech with additional support from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Lemelson Foundation, National Science Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Ford Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Friends of the NewsHour and others. More information on PBS NewsHour is available at www.pbs.org/newshour. On social media, visit NewsHour on Facebook or follow @NewsHour on Twitter.
About WETA, Washington, D.C.
WETA is one of the largest producing stations of new content for public television in the United States and serves Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia with educational initiatives and with high-quality programming on four digital television channels. WETA productions and co-productions include PBS NewsHour, Washington Week with Gwen Ifill, America After Charleston, The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize, The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns.
