A Wisconsin radio network acknowledged on Thursday that it agreed to edit out portions of an interview with President Joe Biden before it aired last week at the request of the president's re-election campaign.
Civic Media said in a statement Thursday that "The Earl Ingram Show" conducted a phone interview with the president on July 3 —one of two that aired the following day. The network said that it learned on July 8, that the program had edited out two portions of the interview at the Biden campaign's request.
In the statement, the network said that "the production team at the time viewed the edits as non-substantive and broadcast and published the interview with two short segments removed."
One of the portions edited out of the interview centered on Biden's claims about diversity in his administration — specifically that his administration has employed more Black people than any of his predecessors combined.
329 medal events. 32 sports. Endless drama. Catch all the action at the Paris Olympics. Sign up for our free Olympics Headlines newsletter.
Roughly five minutes into the interview, Biden noted that he had selected a Black woman to serve as vice president and said that he had appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to be seated on the Supreme Court.
"I have more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all of the presidents combined, and in major positions, cabinet positions," Biden said in a portion of the interview that was not aired.
Another edit was of a portion of the interview that referred to former President Donald Trump’s past comments urging for the death penalty for the Central Park Five.
U.S. & World
When reached for comment Civic Media referred NBC News back to its statement on the matter, which said it stood by its team but that it had fallen short of journalistic interview standards.
“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 network said. “We have taken this opportunity as a new media organization to clarify our internal policies to ensure that everyone in the organization understands the standards we expect for live and pre-recorded interviews, particularly for commentators and other non-news personnel.”
Civic Media CEO Sage Weil also said during an interview on the network’s “The Todd Allbaugh Show” Thursday that “The important thing is that we learn from our mistakes and use these opportunities in order to establish and continue to build trust with our audience, that we’re going to do the right thing.”
NBC News reported last week that Ingram was among a pair of radio hosts who said that Biden’s campaign aides gave them questions to ask the president, diverging from standard journalistic practice.
When asked if the Biden campaign requested the edits, a campaign spokesperson said, “Hosts have always been free to ask the questions and air the segments they think will best inform their listeners."
The same spokesperson has not responded to a second request for a response specific to the edit question.
Andrea Lawful-Sanders, who hosts WURD’s “The Source” in Philadelphia, said she had also received questions to ask Biden.
NBC News reported on White House personnel data filed with Congress last year which indicated that 49% of White House staff identified as racially or ethnically diverse, according to the Biden administration's analysis.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
