American president Joe Biden will likely break tradition on Sunday night when he doesn’t sit for a traditional presidential interview during the Super Bowl LVII broadcast.
According to one report this week, Fox News blamed Biden for the Super Bowl snafu.
“A source at Fox News told me Thursday evening that the right-wing channel has not heard back on whether Biden will grant it the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview,” CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy wrote in the Reliable Sources newsletter. “And that at this point the outlet is proceeding as if it is not going to take place.”
On Friday night, Biden’s White House struck back, saying that Fox News’ blame was “inaccurate.”
“As we said earlier, we had arranged an interview with FOX Sports Host Mike Hill & Vivica A. Fox with the President ahead of the Super Bowl and Fox Corp. had the interview canceled,” the White House statement said. “Fox has since put out a statement indicating the interview was rescheduled, which is inaccurate.”
Biden appeared for interviews during the previous two Super Bowls. Former president Donald Trump, for his part, also skipped an interview during the Super Bowl with NBC News.
The NFL world was quick to react to the news:
If President Joe Biden wanted to talk to racists and bigots, he’d do his Super Bowl interview on Fox News (their target audience). He wants to talk to and about issues affecting Black people, so he chose Fox Soul
— 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐞 (@exavierpope) February 11, 2023
I am not a fan of a president choosing their interviewers, but Fox "News" is not a legitimate journalistic organization and it's high time people openly recognized that. See: https://t.co/6YZt55xouh https://t.co/aJXLI8qfSs https://t.co/kk2LtDSUjJ
— Dan Froomkin (PressWatchers.org) (@froomkin) February 10, 2023
Such goofy nonsense.
The White House is clearly too scared of letting Biden be interviewed by Fox in the customary Super Bowl interview.
I assume @BretBaier or @ShannonBream would have conducted it. Both are eminently fair and talented interviewers. https://t.co/89TqhyasQc
— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) February 10, 2023
I don't understand why the White House is playing this game. Of course Fox Corp is not going to let them bypass Fox News for an interview with Fox Soul, a small streaming operation with a tiny audience. Why not just say that they're declining the Fox News interview & outline why? https://t.co/RI2AZCPLdQ
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) February 10, 2023
So, now I know there's a thing called "Fox Soul." Off to Wikipedia … https://t.co/Mq6JbdZIXT
— Mike Soraghan threads:mike_soraghan (@MikeSoraghan) February 10, 2023
Only time will tell how the move will affect Biden with average voters.
