Last year, PBS anchor and then-White House correspondent YAMICHE ALCINDOR was slated to conduct an on-camera interview exclusively with the president sometime around July 4, a date the White House was targeting for its celebration of 100 million Covid-19 vaccinations.

But the scheduled sit-down caught some at the news organization off guard. Three PBS insiders and people with knowledge of the incident said fellow PBS anchor JUDY WOODRUFF and some other staff at PBS’ nightly NewsHour program were miffed and frustrated when they learned that Alcindor had secured an interview for the network’s Friday program, Washington Week.

Woodruff, the news organization’s longtime anchor and host of its flagship program, had a longstanding request for an interview with Biden from the time he became president, but which was not granted during his first year at the White House. She had been in the dark that Alcindor, a rising star and newly-appointed moderator at the organization, was asking too and that the White House had been working with her on it.