Jamaican journalist Andrea Lawful-Sanders has resigned from WURD Radio in Philadelphia after admitting to using questions provided by U.S. President Joe Biden’s aides during an interview with the president last week.
Lawful-Sanders announced her resignation on Instagram, stating that WURD Radio had accepted it. According to a Guardian article, her resignation followed her appearance on a CNN program where she disclosed that she had used four questions supplied by Biden’s team for the interview.
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“The questions were sent to me for approval — I approved of them,” Lawful-Sanders said. “I got several questions — eight of them. And the four that were chosen were the ones that I approved.”
Twenty-four hours later, Lawful-Sanders posted on Instagram: “On July 2, 2024, I received a call from the White House communications team inviting me to speak with President Biden. As an independent contractor for WURD, it has been a standard practice to book my interviews and develop questions for my guests without knowledge, consultation, or collaboration from station management.”
She continued, “Upon accepting the invitation, I began working with the team regarding suggested topics to be discussed. Throughout my communications with the White House communications team, there was never any guarantee that the interview would be aired on WURD as they contacted me directly and, to my knowledge, not the station.”
The interview with Biden aired on July 4.
The Guardian reported that WURD Radio released a statement on Sunday, claiming that Lawful-Sanders had arranged the interview “without knowledge, consultation, or collaboration with management” and violated the station’s editorial independence by accepting questions from Biden’s team.
The statement further noted that Biden aides’ decision to supply questions perpetuated a historical practice of marginalizing and “de-legitimizing Black voices” in U.S. media.
“WURD Radio is not a mouthpiece for the Biden or any other administration,” the statement obtained by The Guardian said.
