Fox News Stands By Easter Egg Story, Despite White House Complaints
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The White House has reportedly been asking Fox News to take down a story regarding religious Easter Eggs being banned at the annual Easter Egg Roll over the weekend.
The Daily Caller retracted its story claiming that the Biden administration banned “religious Easter eggs” from an art contest held at the event, despite that being a decades-long practice that was in place during Trump’s time in office as well. The Daily Caller story spread through right-wing media and sparked fury, even though it was quickly and widely debunked by various fact-checkers and anyone familiar with the history of the event.
Fox News ran a similar story, but one that did not specifically blame Biden for the ban. Fox’s story was headlined, “Religious-themed designs banned from White House Easter egg art contest,” and was updated to make clear, “The rules appear to mirror ones that govern a longstanding contest held by the American Egg Board in which one military child’s decorated egg is presented to the First Lady. Selected designs will be painted by artists on real eggs and displayed at the White House.”
Semafor’s Max Tani reported on Thursday, “White House communications officials have reached out to editorial leaders at Fox News including digital chief Porter Berry and others requesting that they take down a story that said that the Biden White House had prohibited religious-themed designs from White House Easter egg art contest, a person familiar with the back-and-forth said.”
Fox stood by its story, which added fuel to the anti-Biden firestorm, and released a statement saying, “We stand by our reporting as it accurately quotes the ‘2024 Call for Youth Art’ flyer which states Easter egg design submissions ‘must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes.’”
President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic who attends weekly mass, came under a bevy of attacks over the weekend from right-wing media over the long-standing rules regarding the Easter egg design contest and for issuing a proclamation for International Transgender Day of Visibility, which has been on March 31st for some 15 years now.
