It looks like the cold war between the White House and Fox News is over. For now. President Obama shocked the liberal world by agreeing to be sacrificed, er, interviewed by arch-conservative and arch-enemy Bill O’Reilly just before the Super Bowl on Feb 6.
Seems like a very curious decision. O’Reilly has needles for teeth and loves sticking them into Obama’s posterior with every waking breath. But Obama, a famous sports junkie, has made getting grilled in advance of the biggest television event in America somewhat of an annual tradition. Last year, Obama was interviewed by Katie Couric of CBS, which had the rights to the Super Bowl. In 2009, Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today” show got to sit down with the commander in chief just before the game.
This year, Fox News has the rights to the Super Bowl. But Bill O’Reilly? The president was last interviewed by O’Reilly in 2008 when he was running for president and the topics ranged from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. For most of the last two years, Fox News has been in the dog house with the White House for its highly slanted, race-based and extremely inflammatory reporting on the president.
It begs the question: Why would Obama agree to such an interview in front of a worldwide audience of approximately 100 million? While most Obama supporters undoubtedly fear that the pseudo-journalist, race-baiting O’Reilly will try to peel Obama’s backside in front of a vast audience, perhaps Obama is trying to show the Republican-controlled Congress that he is willing to work with them. It didn’t work last year or the year before that, but I digress. –terry shropshire
