The Wisconsin radio show that interviewed President Joe Biden in the aftermath of his poor debate performance made two edits to the interview released earlier this month at the direction of his campaign before airing it.
Sage Weil, the CEO and owner of Civic Media, the radio network that hosts “The Earl Ingram Show,” issued a statement Thursday explaining the timeline of events after Biden recorded the interview with host Earl Ingram on July 3. Their conversation was broadcast the next morning.
“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,” Weil said.
Weil said management investigated the matter and found “the production team at the time viewed the edits as non-substantive and broadcast and published the interview with two short segments removed.”
The organization shared the two edited parts, which amounted to 16 seconds, and also made the full unedited interview available for people to listen to.
One of the edits was removing Biden’s statement that he has “more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined, and in major positions, cabinet positions.”
Weil said the company made the disclosure in light of “the gravity of the current political moment, the stakes in this election, and the importance of public scrutiny of public officials in the highest office.”
Ingram previously said Biden’s campaign sent him a list of questions ahead of the interview.
“They gave me the exact questions to ask,” Ingram told The Associated Press . “There was no back and forth.”
While Weil conceded the decisions regarding the questions and the edits fell short of the organization’s journalistic standards, Ingram would continue working at Civil Media.
“The decision to make the requested edits to the interview was made in good faith,” Weil said. “While we disagree with the decision, we stand by our team. This has been a learning experience, and we will do better moving forward.”
Following increased scrutiny on Biden’s reelection bid after he appeared to fumble answers during a June 27 debate hosted by CNN, his team arranged for the president to do two interviews with two local radio news hosts, Ingram and WURD Radio host Andrea Lawful-Sanders.
Lawful-Sanders parted ways with WURD Radio after she admitted to using questions submitted by Biden’s campaign.
“WURD Radio is not a mouthpiece for the Biden or any other Administration,” Sara M. Lomax, president and CEO of WURD Radio, said in a statement at the time.
Civic Media, launched in 2022, is based in Madison, Wisconsin, and operates 20 radio stations across the state.
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