Pre-Game Interview Could Help Obama and O'Reilly

Despite the often bitter rivalry between the White House and Fox News, Bill O’Reilly’s pre-Super Bowl interview today with President Obama could be a win for both. It will be Obama’s first sit-down with O’Reilly—Fox News’ highest-rated host—as president. But the two have met before, and if that interview was any indication, O’Reilly will likely give the president a fair shake. Even so, the president’s willingness to sit down with the network he once said was “entirely devoted to attacking my administration” will likely score points for Obama, Politico reports.

Of course, the president would have had a hard time declining, since he granted a pre-game interview to Katie Couric last year. And what will O’Reilly get out of all this? For one, he predicts more people will watch the sit-down than any other interview “in the history of mankind”—and considering last year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched TV broadcast of all time, he could be right. He’ll also score a coveted interview with the prez at a time when the White House press corps, looking for opportunities to ask about Egypt, is complaining about a lack of access.