Milwaukee Radio Station Admits To Editing Interview With Joe Biden At Request Of White House
Joe Biden participated in two radio interviews following his debate with Donald Trump, a debate that raised significant questions within the Democrat Party about the president's ability to win re-election.
The first interview was with WURD, an all-black radio station in Pennsylvania. The host of the interview, Andrea Lawful-Sanders, admitted she asked the president questions sent to her from the White House.
The radio station fired Sanders later that week, acknowledging that agreeing to pre-determined questions jeopardized the credibility of the outlet.
The second interview was with CivicMedia, a progressive talk-radio network in Wisconsin. The host of that interview, Earl Ingram, also confirmed that the White House supplied him with questions that he asked Biden.
"Yes, I was given some questions for Biden," Ingram told ABC News earlier the month.
In addition, the Wisconsin station published a press release on Thursday in which it admitted that it made two edits in an interview with Biden at the request of his campaign.
"On Monday, July 8th, it was reported to Civic Media management that immediately after the phone interview was recorded, the Biden campaign called and asked for two edits to the recording before it aired," the station said in a statement released on Thursday.
"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."
"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. Civic Media disagrees with the team’s judgments in the moment, both with respect to the handling of the interview questions and the decision to edit the interview audio," the statement continues.
Civic Media said it would make the full, unedited interview available online.
The two edits, according to the station, were:
- At time 5:20, the removal of "...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."
- At time 14:15, in reference to Donald Trump’s call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, the removal of "I don’t know if they even call for their hanging or not, but he–but they said [...] convicted of murder."
The station plans to stand by Earl Ingram, who says he remains proud of the interview.
"To think that I was going to get an opportunity to ask any question to the president of the United States, I think, is a bit more than anybody should expect," he added. "Certainly the fact that they gave me this opportunity ... meant a lot to me."
Good for him.
Agreeing to a set of questions to ask the president, questions supplied by the president's team, is unacceptable. Editing the interview on behalf of the subject's wishes is a violation of all journalistic practices.
If the team of the interviewee requests conditions, it is the ethical obligation of the outlet to decline – even if that means canceling the interview. Civic Media, even upon admitting fault, must now be looked at skeptically.
We can't even fault the White House, at this point. If radio stations are weak enough to agree to such commands, why not continue to make such commands?
Plus, Biden needs it.
We all saw how he performs when challenged on the debate stage and during a sit-down with ABC host George Stephanopoulos.
His "goodest" isn't very good.