Yahoo News Milwaukee Radio Station Says It Made Edits To Joe Biden Interview At Request Of Campaign
A Milwaukee radio station said that it agreed to a campaign request to make two edits to an interview with President Joe Biden last week.
Civic Media, a talk radio network, said in a statement that after host Earl Ingram conducted the interview on July 3, “the Biden campaign called and asked for two edits to the recording before it aired.”
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The interview aired on July 4, but Civic Media management said that it was alerted to the edits on Monday.
“Civic Media management immediately undertook an investigation and determined that the production team at the time viewed the edits as non-substantive and broadcast and published the interview with two short segments removed,” the company said in a statement.
“With a high-profile interview comes a listener expectation that journalistic interview standards will be applied, even for non-news programming. We did not meet those expectations,” the station said.
The portions removed were a moment when Biden said, “…and in addition to that, I have more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined, and in major positions, cabinet positions.” The other portion removed was a reference to Donald Trump’s call for the Central Park Five to be executed. Biden said in the clipped segment, “…and in addition to that, I have more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined, and in major positions, cabinet positions.”
Civic Media provided the edited segments and the full unedited interview here.
The station also said that it continues to stand by Ingram.
A Biden campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The disclosure of the edits follows reports that the Biden campaign team had suggested questions to interviews in advance of hosts talking to the president, a practice under new scrutiny following the president’s debate performance. Ingram told ABC News that he was given five questions and ended up asking four of them. Another radio host, Andrea Lawful-Sanders of WURD in Philadelphia, also interviewed Biden after the debate, and told CNN she was given questions but did not feel pressure to ask them. Lawful-Sanders later parted ways with the station. The Biden campaign has said that the hosts were under no obligation to ask the question as a condition of the interview.
Biden is scheduled to appear at a press conference this evening before members of the White House press corps, with a number of reporters having questioned the White House on the president’s cognitive state and other medical issues following the debate. That has made for some combative press briefings in recent weeks.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the interview edits.
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