After the controversy surrounding WURD hosts admitting they were fed questions by the team for President Biden, Civic Media in Milwaukee has admitted a recent interview with the commander-in-chief and Earl Ingram was edited.
The Milwaukee radio host interviewed President Biden on Wednesday, July 3rd before airing it on his morning show the following day.
However, on Monday morning, the company was notified that after the interview, someone affiliated with the Biden campaign asked for edits to the interview, which Ingrahm and his producers enacted.
“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 in a statement.
The station says that the portions that were edited out of the published interview included Biden’s statement that he has “more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined,” and another that referenced former President Donald Trump called for the hanging of the Central Park Five in the last 1980s.
“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 from the company continued.
“Civic Media unequivocally stands by Earl Ingram and his team. Earl is an invaluable voice for Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and remains a crucial member of the Civic Media organization. The decision to make the requested edits to the interview was made in good faith. While we disagree with the decision, we stand by our team. This has been a learning experience and we will do better moving forward.”
The admission that the interview was edited comes on the heels of Earl Ingram admitting to ABC News that he — like WURD host Andrea Lawful-Sanders — accepted questions from the Biden White House in exchange for the interview.
After the controversies were uncovered, the Biden campaign and White House has claimed it will no longer suggest questions to potential interviewers.
