Radio Station Admits Editing Biden Interview At Campaign’s Request, Including Boast About ‘Blacks In My Administration’

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a devastating report on Thursday detailing a local radio station’s acknowledgment that it agreed to edit an interview with President Joe Biden conducted after his disastrous debate with Donald Trump.

Civic Media host Earl Ingram had previously said that he was “given some questions for Biden” ahead of their interview, which was meant to help reassure the public that Biden is up for another term amid questions about his mental fitness.

“I didn’t get a chance to ask him all the things I wanted to ask,” Ingram added while speaking with ABC News over the weekend.

Civic Media released a statement saying that it also edited the interview, which was taped on July 3rd and aired on the 4th.

“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. 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 station said.

Journal Sentinel published the two edits, which 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.”

Civic Media added in its statement that making the edits fell short of its own standards. “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 concluded.

Read the full report here.

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