Philadelphia Tribune Staff Report
The local morning radio host, who disclosed she received approved questions from President Joe Biden’s campaign team before their interview, has left her position at WURD Radio.
Sara M. Lomax, president and CEO of WURD Radio released a statement Sunday announcing that Andrea Lawful-Sanders and the station have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately.
It’s frowned upon by journalists when subjects of stories offer to provide or review questions before an interview. According to Lomax’s statement Lawful-Sanders orchestrated the interview with Biden’s team without the station’s knowledge.
“On July 3, the first post-debate interview with President Joe Biden was arranged and negotiated independently by WURD Radio host Andrea Lawful-Sanders without knowledge, consultation or collaboration with WURD management,” the statement reads. “The interview featured pre-determined questions provided by the White House, which violates our practice of remaining an independent media outlet accountable to our listeners.”
The news at WURD comes on the same day Biden appeared at Mount Airy Church of God in Christ in an appearance to a mostly Black congregation in the Northwest section of the city – a stronghold for Black voters in Philadelphia.
Biden’s two interviews Thursday with Lawful-Sanders and Milwaukee Black talk radio host Earl Ingram, were seen as a critical attempt to bounce back from negative reviews of his first debate with presumptive Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump.
But that effort backfired as Biden stumbled with certain questions and news of the shared questions grew, drawing questions of ethics and accountability. In her statement, Lomax said the station will move forward in holding elected officials accountable.
“This is something we take very seriously,” Lomax said in her statement. “Agreeing to a predetermined set of questions jeopardizes that trust and is not a practice that WURD Radio engages in or endorses as a matter of practice or official policy.”
The Associated Press reported Ingram said Saturday that the president’s assistants reached out to him for his interview and sent a list of four questions in advance, about which there was no negotiation.
“They gave me the exact questions to ask,” Ingram told The Associated Press. “There was no back and forth.”
Following the fallout over the questions, the Biden campaign team announced plans to withdraw from offering suggested questions to hosts, according to a person familiar with the candidate’s interview booking process, but not permitted to speak publicly about its operations, the Associated Press reported Sunday.
This story originally appeared in the Philadelphia Tribune
