There has been a lot of talk this week about the “softball” interview that NBC News did with the president prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday. Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly has made a point of comparing his interview of Obama with NBC’s Samantha Guthrie, with the narrative that it’s clear NBC is in the tank for Obama.

And while that certainly might have some validity, it’s not the whole story. Because portions of the interview which aired on Monday had a totally different tone than the “softball” interview shown before the Super Bowl displayed.

It’s perfectly valid to criticize NBC for leaving the meat of the interview out of their Super Bowl pregame broadcast, and in fact the choice is quite suspicious. But Guthrie probably deserves some credit, because the interview had a lot more range than asking Obama what his favorite color is.