State of the Union

Networks Ignore Obama’s Decision to Back Down from Plan to Tax 529 College Savings Accounts
By Curtis Houck | January 27, 2015 | 9:19 PM EST

In a reversal of a key proposal from his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama moved on Tuesday to drop the plan to tax 529 college-savings accounts after outcry from members of both parties and a direct appeal on Air Force One from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

When it came to the networks covering this backtracking by the President on this deeply unpopular idea that even ultra liberals like Pelosi and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) opposed, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC made no mention of it during their Tuesday evening newscasts.

Salon Writer: Obama’s SOTU Address Pushed Back Against ‘Reagan-Style Conservatism’
By Tom Johnson | January 22, 2015 | 9:46 PM EST

Elias Isquith contends that “after eight years of George W. Bush,” America “was in such rotten shape that Obama had little time to do more than stave off the next crisis,” but that by this past Tuesday night, favorable economic developments gave Obama “an opportunity to boast of changing the ‘trajectory’ of the country like few presidents before him and none since Ronald Reagan.”

NBC’s Chris Jansing Gushes Over ‘an Energized, Combative President’; Scolds Boehner for Inviting Netanyahu
By Curtis Houck | January 22, 2015 | 7:28 AM EST

NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing did her best to provide some White House spin during Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, hailing President Obama as “an energized, combative President” whose policies made for a “carefully choreographed, populist message with the details generally panned by Republicans.”

Also within her report, Jansing found time to chide House Speaker John Boehner for “an unprecedented breach in protocol” in inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without White House consultation.

Brian Williams to Chuck Todd’s ‘Reality Check’ on Obama’s Liberal Plans: ‘A Lot of People Hope You’re Wrong’
By Curtis Houck | January 21, 2015 | 5:33 PM EST

On Tuesday night, NBC News anchor Brian Williams charged that “a lot people hope” a reality check by Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd was wrong in asserting that most of President Obama's initiatives proposed during his State of the Union address won’t become law.

“Some people hope you’re right, a lot of people hope you’re wrong,” interjected Williams following Todd’s brief outlook on whether topics covered by Obama such as paid sick leave and trade authorizations will pass the Republican-controlled Congress.

Star Tribune Fails to Reveal Local Woman Featured at SOTU Was Democrat Operative
By P.J. Gladnick | January 21, 2015 | 5:21 PM EST

What a sweet story. A local struggling mom writes a letter to the President and she gets not only a lunch meeting with him but later gets featured in his State Of The Union speech. A very touching story about a regular woman...who "coincidentally" was a Democrat operative. However, the Minneapolis Star Tribune very "mysteriouusly" left this very important fact out of the story about her written by Allison Sherry.

CNN Touts Obama's State of the Union With Highlight Reel-Style Mash-Up
By Matthew Balan | January 21, 2015 | 12:51 PM EST

Wednesday's CNN Newsroom aired an ESPN-style highlight reel of "some of the moments that got us talking" from President Obama's State of the Union address. The mash-up featured dramatic music and bold graphics, and zeroed in on the Democrat's "burn" of congressional Republicans during his speech. Bizarrely, the program also repeatedly played clips of the President winking and Vice President Biden blowing kisses during the joint session of Congress.

Shepard Smith: W.H. Omitted ‘News’ From Fox News Label During SOTU Lunch
By Jeffrey Meyer | January 21, 2015 | 12:27 PM EST

Prior to Tuesday’s State of the Union, President Obama sat down for an annual lunch with various journalists, including the network news anchors and hosts of several Sunday morning talk shows. During his Shepard Smith Reporting program on Tuesday afternoon, the Fox News anchor revealed that during the lunch with President Obama, unlike the anchors of ABC, NBC and CBS, his place card “doesn’t say anything about news, it just says ‘Fox.’ And I looked at Bret Baier’s, and it said, ‘Bret Baier, Fox. And all the rest of them said news.” 

Huffington Post Publishes Laughable 'Scoop' About Ted Cruz SOTU Response
By P.J. Gladnick | January 21, 2015 | 12:26 PM EST

The Huffington Post thinks it has some big scoop about Senator Ted Cruz's response to Barack Obama's State Of The Union address last night. However, after all the hype, the scoop falls laughably flat when you actually see his response.
 

ABC, NBC Boost Obama’s ‘Aggressive’ SOTU Speech
By Jeffrey Meyer | January 21, 2015 | 11:33 AM EST

On Tuesday night, President Obama gave his sixth State of the Union address, and on Wednesday morning, ABC and CBS did their best to boost his speech and tout his liberal agenda to their audiences. During their respective broadcasts, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today made sure to play up Obama’s “renewed swagger” by giving an “aggressive speech” to Congress and America. ABC’s Jonathan Karl, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent, went so far as to declare Obama “seemed so confident you would have thought he had just won another election.” 

NBC’s Richard Engel Slams Obama on Foreign Policy: ‘Outlining a World That He Wishes We Were’ In
By Curtis Houck | January 21, 2015 | 7:07 AM EST

While NBC News was up to its usual business in praising and defending President Obama both before and after his State of the Union speech, chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel emerged as a rare voice that instead took to the liberal network’s airwaves to condemn the President’s rhetoric on foreign policy as both unrealistic and, in many cases, simply not true. 

After being asked by anchor Brian Williams for his thoughts, Engel began dissecting the President’s perceived world outlook: “Well, it sounded like the President was outlining a world that he wishes we were all living in but which is very different than the world that you just described with terror raids taking place across Europe, ISIS very much on the move.”

NBC’s Brian Williams Blames Rep. Joe Wilson’s ‘You Lie’ Comment for Decline in SOTU Decorum
By Curtis Houck | January 21, 2015 | 2:12 AM EST

During NBC’s coverage of President Obama’s seventh State of the Union speech, anchor Brian Williams remarked how there’s been “change in tone and tenor and ambiance” inside the House chamber from over the past few years and chose to link it to Republican Congressman Joe Wilson (S.C.) telling the President “you lie” during a 2009 speech before a joint session of Congress.

After saying how “some now believe the State of the Union is an opportunity for call and response,” Williams suggested an origin for the change in mood at this annual event: “It may have started this – this era may have started with the 'you lie' comment that was yelled at this President.”

CBS’s Bob Schieffer Swoons: Obama’s Speech Was ‘Uplifting’ with ‘Soaring Rhetoric’
By Curtis Houck | January 21, 2015 | 1:04 AM EST

At the conclusion of President Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union speech, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer offered plenty of praise for the President’s address by proclaiming it as “the best speech he’s made in awhile” with “soaring rhetoric” and being “uplifting at the end.”

In the moments right after the speech, Schieffer declared that the President’s seventh State of the Union was “the best speech he’s made in a while” and diagnosed him as being “more relaxed and at ease than I can recall in a long time.”