CBS HAILS Trump’s ‘Incredible’ SOTU as ‘Morning in America’ with ‘Compelling Stories’

 
  Article by Curtis Houck in "mrcNewsBusters":

What was going on CBS Tuesday night during the State of the Union? Do we need to file a slew of missing persons’ reports? Or was there a real-life Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Those answers seemed plausible considering CBS’s overwhelmingly positive reaction to President Trump’s speech. 

In their post-speech reactions, CBS journalists praised the “master showman” President’s “incredible remarks” that, while “restrained,” showcased “a strong record on the economy” and “emotionally compelling stories” about “great Americans.” Even more surprisingly, the praise was juxtaposed with condemnation for Democrats.


CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell led off by noting that Trump “promised relentless optimism” and delivered “a speech unlike any other I have witnessed from [him] where the reality TV President took on the State of the Union, a master showman at his best.” 

Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan agreed, telling O’Donnell that Trump was “[v]ery much the showman.”

O’Donnell added that “[t]here were many moments....where Republicans leapt to their feet” while “Democrats sat stone faced” and Pelosi was left “pursing her lips, almost looking ill at some of the remarks made as the President touted his accomplishments and those of his administration, including a strong record on the economy.”

After a break, O’Donnell went even further, calling the President’s words “[i]ncredible remarks.” 

And near the end of their coverage, O’Donnell credited him for offering “specific proposals...that might be appealing to independent voters” alongside “emotionally compelling stories” about “great Americans.”

At various points in their discussion, 60 Minutes correspondent John Dickerson stated that, while it wasn’t bipartisan in the same way Ronald Reagan’s 1984 address was, “this was his Morning in America speech.” and that Trump was “quite restrained.”

Dickerson delivered also one all-encompassing statement after another, contrasting the President’s positive economic message with the gripes from Trump’s opposition (click “expand”):

But what's at the center is an incumbent president with a very good economy who gave a very restrained speech and used every tool of the job in there. If Democrats want to make an argument to the country, if all the country hears is bickering and unhappiness, it helps an incumbent President with a strong economy and, by the way, doesn't help anybody looking for solutions that Democrats might have. This is a challenge for Democrats to be able to respond to the arguments the President made with their own strengths. Tearing up papers is not one of their strengths. 
(....)
And that's the baiting he was setting up this the entire speech was to bait the Democrats into this kind of reaction...But instead of rebutting him on those things that they say privately, this is what Americans really care about, they basically fell into his — into the trap he was clearly laying by, as you said Norah, talking about issues that Americans care about — education, health care, bringing the troops home. Those are right down the middle. Democrats may disagree with how he’s doing it, but the topics he was focused on? Down the middle.

At another point, congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes seemed to indirectly call out Democrats for having behaved (at minimum) the same way that Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) infamously did in 2009 (click “expand”):

So, she's making it very clear that she did it, that she meant to do it, that he was trying to send a message and really things got off to a bad start. Of course, State of the Unions are always political. You’re always going to say having cheering from one side or the other. It would be naive to say that they weren’t political. But in this case it felt a lot more like a campaign rally than a speech to the nation. You had Republicans right off the top chanting, “four more years.” Democrats got angry very early when the President seemed to suggest he had rescued the economy from the depths of the Obama years. They started shouting out their disagreement to that and several other notions that the President put forward. At one point he said that some people were trying to dismantle health care. They shouted, “You are.” 
At another point, he claimed that he was going to force prescription drug companies to lower costs. Democrats openly started laughing. This, as Republicans seemed to try to cheer loud enough to make up for the lack of cheering on the Democratic side. So, really, it turned into something of a circus...You know, really a striking turn of events when you think just a decade ago, one member of Congress shouting, “you lie,” at a speech by President Obama in that same chamber generated days of controversy and here you had it happen multiple times in one speech, culminating, of course, with the speaker ripping up that speech. 

And even White House correspondent Ben Tracy joined in, declaring that “instead of dwelling on impeachment,” Trump “was not at all chastened” but “emboldened” to focus on topics like the economy. 

So all in all, it was quite the night for Trump on CBS and a far cry from last week.

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2020/02/05/cbs-hails-trumps-incredible-sotu-morning-america-compelling-stories