The Scoop
Fox News is rejecting White House demands that it retract stories that turned the annual Easter Egg roll into a culture war controversy.
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.
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Over the weekend, several right-leaning news media outlets published stories about how a flyer for the annual Easter Egg roll dictated that decorated eggs “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.” The stories neglected the detail that the egg decoration rules had been in place since the 1970s under presidents of both parties.
After complaints from the White House, some outlets altered their pieces. In a rare move, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lauded The Daily Caller after the right-leaning digital news outlet retracted its story about the egg situation, saying that it “became aware of additional context that undercut the central assertion of this article and its newsworthiness.”
But Fox did not heed the White House’s repeated attempts to solicit a correction, even after officials flagged the Daily Caller’s retraction. In a statement to CNN on Tuesday, a Fox News spokesperson said that the network stood by its story, noting that it had updated the piece to include a comment from the American Egg Board President explaining the longstanding rules.
“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,’” the spokesperson said.
