President Joe Biden's White House got into a tiff with Fox News and other conservative media outlets this past week over what it claimed was inaccurate coverage of the annual Easter Egg Roll event on Monday, in particular about restrictions on what sort of Easter egg designs children could submit for a national competition.

However, despite White House demands that a certain story be retracted, Fox News has refused to back down and instead insisted its initial reporting was accurate, though the outlet did update the article to include some additional context, according to The Hill.

At issue was a report about how "religious symbols" and "overtly religious themes" were banned from the egg design contest -- which is true and has been the case for decades. The Biden White House, however, didn't like the unstated implication that the ban was a new policy implemented by the current administration.

Religious symbols and themes banned from contest centered on religious holiday

On Good Friday, Fox News reported on the upcoming Easter Egg Roll event at the White House and an associated Easter egg design contest for the children of National Guard service members, with a focus on the restriction against "religious-themed designs" for the inherently religious Christian holiday.

The outlet pointed to a flyer it had obtained of the call for submissions for the contest and highlighted the fact that the flyer stated submissions "must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements."

To be sure, that is not the only restriction imposed on the Easter egg design submissions, as they were also prohibited from featuring material that might be construed as "inappropriate, indecent, obscene hateful, tortious, defamatory, slanderous or libelous;" promoted "bigotry, racism, hatred or harm" or discrimination against protected statuses; or promoted "illegal drugs or firearms," among other things.

What wasn't initially included in the article, but was added later in an update, was a statement from Emily Metz, the president and CEO of the American Egg Board, a longtime sponsor of the event, who explained among other things that the restrictions on egg design submissions were due to "very strict guidelines under the USDA" that had been imposed decades ago.

White House demanded retraction; Fox News refused to comply

Semafor reported this week that White House officials reached out to top editorial executives at Fox News, as well as other conservative media sites, and demanded that the outlets retract their stories about the restrictions on Easter egg design submissions.

While some outlets complied with that demand -- The Daily Caller earned rare praise from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for retracting its story after it "became aware of additional context" -- Fox News refused to do so, though it did update the story with the added context from the event sponsor.

According to The Hill, a spokesperson for Fox News explained in a statement, "We stand by our reporting as it accurately quotes the '2024 Call for Youth Art' flyer which states Easter egg design submissions 'must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes.'"

"The story also includes on the record comments from American Egg Board President & CEO Emily Metz who explains that these longstanding guidelines are due to USDA rules," the spokesperson added.

Both sides of the dispute were truthful ... to an extent

The initial articles from Fox News and other conservative outlets were accurate, at least so far as it was true that Easter egg design submissions were prohibited from including any "religious" symbols or themes, despite the undeniably religious nature of the holiday at the center of the contest.

What the Biden White House objected to was the implication, whether intended or not, that it was responsible for that ban -- which is correct inasmuch that it didn't create the revealed policy that sparked controversy and criticism, though it was strictly abiding by and enforcing that policy.

With Fox News having now added the full context of the USDA being responsible for imposing the anti-religion policy decades ago, and not President Biden's administration, the White House no longer has any reason to complain.