A Milwaukee radio station has admitted to modifying a recorded interview with President Joe Biden at the behest of his campaign team.
Civic Media, a progressive talk-radio network, acknowledged that they fell short of their own “journalistic interview standards” by making two requested edits to the conversation.
The interview, conducted by Earl Ingram following the June 27 presidential debate, underwent alterations in two key areas.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that both edits pertained to Biden’s responses about Black Americans, specifically regarding the number of Black individuals in his administration and his comments about the Central Park Five case.
The first edit removed Biden’s claim that he has “more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined, and in major positions, cabinet positions.”
The second edit cut out a reference to “hanging” when discussing Donald Trump’s call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five.
Civic Media has promised to release the unedited version on their website, acknowledging that they failed to meet listener expectations.
In a statement, they explained that the Biden campaign requested the edits immediately after the phone interview was recorded. The production team at the time viewed the changes as non-substantive and proceeded with broadcasting the edited version.
The radio network expressed disagreement with the team’s judgment, both in handling the interview questions and deciding to edit the audio. They vowed to stand by Ingram, a long-time Biden supporter, and described the incident as a “learning experience.”
According to the Journal Sentinel, Ingram told ABC News last weekend, “Yes, I was given some questions for Biden.”
A Biden spokesman told the Journal Sentinel, “Hosts have always been free to ask the questions and air the segments they think will best inform their listeners.”
This incident comes amid growing scrutiny of media outlets perceived as friendly to Biden, with accusations of covering up his gaffes and missteps.
This controversy extends beyond Civic Media, as Ingram was one of two radio personalities who recently admitted to allowing the Biden campaign to script their interviews with the president. The other radio host involved was Andrea Lawful-Sanders from Philadelphia’s WURD.
WURD stated that they had “mutually agreed to part ways” with Lawful-Sanders, emphasizing that agreeing to predetermined questions jeopardizes trust and goes against their official policy.
The Biden and Lawful-Sanders interview first made headlines after the president mistakenly referred to himself as a Black woman.
“By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first Black woman… to serve with a Black president,” he said to WURD. “Proud to be involved of the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.”
“There’s so much that we can do because, look… we’re the United States of America,” Biden stated.
This blunder appears to stem from his effort to highlight Harris as the first Black female vice president. Meanwhile, his mention of “serving with a Black president” likely alludes to his tenure as vice president under Barack Obama. Biden’s Supreme Court reference pertains to Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by him as the first Black female justice in 2022.