ABC, Fox News, and Senator Marco Rubio

By Alex Weprin 

When is a “first interview” not a first interview? Apparently when it involves Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL.).

Yesterday, ABC News announced that it had secured the “first national interview” with the Senator since he was elected in November, 2010. The interview ran last night on ABC’s 11:30 PM program “Nightline.” The big news from that interview: Rubio saying that he would not run for President in 2012:

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There was just one problem: by the time 11:30 rolled around, Rubio had wrapped up a live interview on Fox News Channel’s 9 PM program “Hannity.” In that interview, not only did he rule out running for President, but Vice President as well:


ABC had plenty of exclusive access to Rubio, and even followed him as he went about business in Washington and Florida. Technically ABC News did have the first interview with the Senator, it just did not get to air first.

As happens far too often in TV news, interview subjects do not always play by the rules that networks want them to, and by the time the interview ran on ABC, Rubio had made his news elsewhere.

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