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(New) Media Event: President Obama on Bill Simmons' ESPN Podcast

It's almost certainly the first-ever podcast with a sitting U.S. president.
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Official White House photo by Pete Souza

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Barack Obama has appeared on many media outlets previously untouched by sitting presidents, from The Daily Show to The View. He's even sung a few bars from Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" in a viral YouTube clip and hung out on Google+.

On Thursday, Obama broke new media ground again, talking sports on Bill Simmons' "B.S. Report" in what is almost certainly the first-ever podcast with a sitting U.S. President.

"Take that, Marc Maron!" Simmons joked on ESPN's Grantland.

There's some history here. Back in April 2008, Obama, then a U.S. senator and Democratic candidate for president, was scheduled to appear on Simmons' podcast. ESPN, nervous about political editorializing in an election year, pulled the plug.

In the oral history Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN, Simmons explains his frustration:

When they wouldn’t let me have Obama on my podcast, they had this whole edict in place that none of their talent was allowed to editorialize about the election… I felt like the guy was gonna be president and I wanted to tell my kids fifty years from now that I interviewed this guy before he was gonna be president. And I really had a hard time dealing with that.

This time around, an interview with the sitting President was simply too good to pass up — even in an election year.

There is one little bit of election editorial, though — but from the President, not Bill Simmons. Mostly, the two men talk sports, especially Obama's (and Simmons') favorite, basketball:

BS: Over the last five years, how many times have you envisioned welcoming the world champion Chicago Bulls to the White House?

Obama: Every year. And it hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen.

BS: It will happen? You’re like Joe Namath — you’re guaranteeing it.

Obama: Well, I’ve got another five years here and — [laughter] —

BS: You’re guaranteeing that, too. [Laughter.]

Obama: — somewhere along the line my Bulls are going to come through here. Absolutely.

Also revealed: the iPad-loving Obama uses his tablet to stream games on NBA League Pass (which he pays for himself) and usually skips cable news. Except for SportsCenter.