Postscript: Gwen Ifill

Long before Monday, when Gwen Ifill, the renowned PBS journalist, died, at sixty-one, of cancer, this year had begun to look like a bouquet of hardships. It is a particular cruelty that Ifill, who was a standard-bearer for journalism, a mentor of young reporters, and a profoundly decent colleague, should depart now, when the country has never been more in need of those qualities.