Joe Biden Super Bowl Interview Back to Fox Soul: Update
Biden will now participate in the president’s annual pre-Super Bowl interview, Fox Corp. said Friday.
Updated: After all, Biden will be participating in his Fox Corporation interview on Super Bowl Sunday. After some confusion, the president is now produced by the company’s black audience-focused channel, Fox Soul.
“After the White House reached out to Fox Soul on Thursday night, there was some initial confusion,” Fox Corp. said in a statement shared with the media. “Fox Soul is looking forward to interviewing the President on Super Bowl Sunday.”
The news follows conflicting reports on Friday that Biden would not participate in an interview with Fox Corporation regarding the upcoming sporting event. Representatives from Fox News said they were offered an interview but Biden declined, while White House officials said Biden was supposed to speak with Fox Soul but was asked to cancel the interview. It’s unclear if a misunderstanding between Fox Soul and Fox News caused the problem.
The original story is as follows:
It was officially announced Friday that President Joe Biden will not participate in a pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox News, a practice that has been customary for presidents since Barack Obama initiated it in 2009. Fox News officials said they were offered an interview but Biden declined — a version of events that White House officials dispute.
According to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Fox Corp requested the cancellation of the Super Bowl interview with Biden. In a tweet shortly after the interview would not take place, Jean-Pierre claimed that Biden was “really looking forward” to his interview with Fox Soul, referring to Fox Corporation’s free streaming service and broadcast network aimed at black audiences.
“The President was looking forward to an interview with Fox Soul to discuss the Super Bowl, the State of the Union and critical issues affecting the daily lives of Black Americans,” Jean-Pierre tweeted. read. “We have been informed that Fox Corp has requested that the interview be deleted.”
Jean-Pierre’s claim appears to contradict a statement given by a Fox News executive Speciesclaiming that “We’ve offered interviews with our top reporters without publication – they’re moving away from a huge audience and it’s a serious missed opportunity.”
Representatives for Fox did not immediately respond to IndieWire’s request for comment.
News that Biden was unlikely to participate in the Fox interview came during Tuesday’s State of the Union coverage, when Fox’s Bret Baier told viewers of his “Special Report” show that Biden had yet to oblige. pretends to be doing an interview with the channel. CNN on Thursday Reliable sources The newsletter reported that Fox News had not heard back about Biden’s participation in the interview, with a source saying “we don’t have an official gender, but we’re working as if it never happened.” If the interview had happened, it would probably have been conducted by Baier.
The Super Bowl presidential interview first began in 2004 with President George W. Bush, before Obama made it an annual event for presidents to be interviewed by the network hosting the big game. These interviews are usually conducted and recorded on the Friday before the Super Bowl, right before the event.
President Donald Trump has also participated in interviews with CBS and Fox News during his time in office, though he skipped a sit-down with NBC News in 2018 — likely because of the controversy surrounding NFL players protesting police brutality at the time. Since taking office in 2021, Biden has yet to participate in an interview with the right-wing Fox News.
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