Tipsheet

Here's What a Wisconsin Radio Station Edited Out of Their Interview With Biden

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  July 12, 2024 1:45 PM

We’ve known it for years, but since Joe Biden imploded during his June 27 debate with Donald Trump, the guardrails keeping him safe from the media were also destroyed. Of course, the establishment press could have reported on the president’s health for years—they just opted not to due to political bias. This year, it’s now because they feared being seen as helping Trump or losing access—all inexcusable reasons not to cover the president’s marked mental decline. 

Even radio interviews, which are Triple-A ball regarding the difficulty of this job, are heavily monitored and edited at the behest of the president’s team. A Wisconsin radio station admitted to editing a transcript of their July 3 hit with Biden, which came at the request of his re-election campaign (via Politico): 

A Wisconsin-based talk radio station edited its interview with President Joe Biden at the request of his campaign before it aired last week, broadcaster Civic Media said in a statement Thursday.

Immediately after the interview, conducted on July 3, the Biden campaign called and asked for two edits to the recording, and WAUK’s production team cut two segments after determining them to be “non-substantive,” according to Civic Media. 

Civic Media management became aware of the edits Monday and shared the audio of the full, unedited interview in its Thursday statement, citing “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.” 

“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,” the broadcaster wrote. “Civic Media disagrees with the team’s judgments in the moment.” 

WAUK removed a portion from the interview in which Biden said “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.” Host Earl Ingram had asked Biden about what’s at stake for Black voters in the election. 

The station also cut a second sentence from Biden, when he was referring to former President Donald Trump’s 1989 call for the death penalty for the since-exonerated Central Park Five. “I don’t know if they even call for their hanging or not, but he — but they said that he was convicted of murder. There isn’t. He won’t even acknowledge that,” Biden said. 

The Central Park Five? Is the president and his campaign trying to weaponize that while the economy is on the verge of collapse, inflation is high, and illegal immigration is running amok? I can guarantee that no one cares about the Central Park Five. 

It’s part of the overall pattern with the president’s media hits now that his mental decline and a possible cover-up by top aides have been exposed. It’s also not the only time—Biden’s interview on WURD Philadelphia got exposed recently, where host Andrea Lawful-Sanders said questions had been sent to her before the media spot. Sanders was later fired for this oversight. The Biden campaign said they would cease these pre-packaged interviews in the future.