Sage Steele, a former ESPN host, opened up about her 2021 interview with President Joe Biden. She described it as completely scripted, revealing she was instructed not to stray from the prepared text.
“It was sooo structured and I was told, ‘you will say every word that we write out, you will not deviate from the script’ … to the word, like every single question was scripted,” Steele shared with Fox News Digital.
The interview took place in March 2021, right before MLB's Opening Day. Steele was clearly told to stick to the script, without room for any follow-up questions.
“I was on script and was told not to deviate. It was very much ‘this is what you will ask, this is how you will say it. No follow-ups. No follow-ups.”
According to Steele, the orders came from the top levels of management. She pointed out that the directive wasn't just from her editors but from the executive floor.
“I knew this was a lot bigger than just the wonderful editors that I worked with. This went up to the fourth floor, as we said, where all the bosses, the top executives, the decision-makers are. The president of our company, the CEO, where they all worked,” she explained.
Steele also commented on Biden's mental state, which she finds both sad and concerning. She questioned why those who care for Biden would let him remain in the spotlight.
“The big picture to me is that I think it’s heartbreaking. I think it’s really heartbreaking that the people who love Joe Biden, and say they truly care about him, have allowed it to get to this point."
She criticized the media's silence on Biden's lack of transparency, contrasting it with their response to Trump's actions.
“You know, for all the hand-wringing and crying we heard from leftist media about former President Trump’s assault on journalism, they’ve been awfully quiet about Biden’s blatant lack of openness and transparency.”
Steele's comparison of the scripted interview to the control seen in authoritarian regimes was stark.
“You will not deviate from the script” sounds like something Kim Jong Un would tell his military propagandists prior to a visit from a foreign head of state, not something an American White House would say to a journalist.