SOTU schadenfreude: Watch CNN rationalize away its poll showing 76% of viewers positive response

American Thinker ^ | 02/06/2019 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

I don't think the suits at CNN anticipated either the quality of State of the Union speech that President Trump delivered or the positive public reaction to it when they went to the expense and trouble of an instant poll.  The segment they broadcast on it is a classic of rationalization, attempting to minimize the outcome that went so contrary to their own prejudices.  A stunning 59% were very positive, with another 17% somewhat positive, for a grand total of 76% – a landslide in anyone's book.

Watch the entire segment, which will cost you only one minute and 42 seconds.  A transcript is included below.

[SeekAndFind]

BLITZER: Quickly, I want to go to David. He has an instant poll. The country is reacting, the less those who watch. What have you got here?

CHALIAN: At least those who watched. This is our first look at a brand-new instant poll, but it is among speech watchers. So I just want to stress here for a state of the union address, the president's president's partisans, his supporters tend to turn out to watch the speech. This is true of a president of either party. Tonight we saw a heavily skewed Republican audience turn out to watch the president's speech. But look at this. A very positive reaction from those who watched the speech tonight. 59% very positive. 17% somewhat positive. 23% negative. I want you to see that very positive number, how that compares to Donald Trump's performances in the last couple of years when he has given a speech to a joint session of Congress like this. You'll see that he was again at 59%. He was down at 48% very positive a year ago. Back when he first started the job and he addressed the Congress, he was at 57%. So he is back up. This is a -- this is a speech-watching audience that was more receptive this year than last year what they saw. Here's the rub. Even this very favorable audience to Donald Trump does not believe his call for bipartisanship is going to meet with success. Take a look. Will Donald Trump increase bipartisan cooperation? A majority of speech watchers, again, a heavily Republican audience, 53% say no. 39% say yes. So all that talk of bipartisanship seems to be being met by with the people who watch the speech by a healthy dose of skepticism, Wolf.

[SeekAndFind]

The first rationalization is the claim that the SOTU audience is mostly supporters of the president.  Historically, somewhat true, though no numbers were given.  This time around, there is a least the possibility that more than usual numbers of the president's opposition watched, hoping for some rebuke from the speaker seated behind him, or from the school lunch ladies female Democrats seated as a bloc, all dressed in white.

The second rationalization, on the question of viewers anticipating an increase in bipartisan cooperation seemed to assume that Republicans would respond positively to this question if they liked Trump's speech.  I thought the speech was great, but given what we know about Democrats' level of TDS, I don't expect that it will increase bipartisan cooperation, because nothing possibly could.  They are hopelessly bent on destroying Trump, and any harm to the nation is just acceptable collateral damage.

I don't think the suits at CNN anticipated either the quality of State of the Union speech that President Trump delivered or the positive public reaction to it when they went to the expense and trouble of an instant poll.  The segment they broadcast on it is a classic of rationalization, attempting to minimize the outcome that went so contrary to their own prejudices.  A stunning 59% were very positive, with another 17% somewhat positive, for a grand total of 76% – a landslide in anyone's book.

[gibsonguy]

Can we stop reacting to CNN like they are an actual news organization? Seriously, they are nothing but a Rat propaganda weapon and should be treated as such.

[bigbob]

Last night it was a CBS poll that showed 76% approval. What are the odds of two different polls coming up with exactly the same number?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3725674/posts

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

Just WOW. Not shockingly, CNN managed to put the onus of lack of confidence in Trump’s call for bipartisanship on the Republicans, when it has always been the Democratic leadership in Congress who have refused to do any such thing.

[Rennes Templar]

Last night following the SOTU, I went to CBS.com to check on that poll. The web banner was “Trump gets low marks for SOTU”.

Went back a few minutes late rand it was gone. Did a search this morning, not there.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I would have expected more of a meltdown.
Like the Young Turks on election night.

[cdcdawg]

Where does CNN find these “guys”? I guess his uncle knew somebody at CNN etc ... Actually, David Chalian is a perfect example of what they want: obese, queer, leftwing, other thing.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I went to CBS.com to check on that poll. The web banner was “Trump gets low marks for SOTU”.

Written days in advance no doubt. Some intern did as they were told and posted it ten seconds after the speech ended.

[cdcdawg]

“Like the Young Turks on election night.”

That’s STILL the best! I watch it every few weeks, and it’s still almost as good as the first time.

[Liz]

Great advice.....I like it.

[ManHunter]

And this morning, Chuck and Nancy are asking one another, “Well that didn’t work out the way we planned, so WTF do we do now?”

[Mariner]

Before everyone here goes off the deep end, remember this fact:

Just as you never watched a SOTU speech by Obama, the people who have no affinity for Trump didn’t watch his speech last night.

The 76% is unsurprising. AND is not reflective of the general population.

[BenLurkin]

"poll, but it is among speech watchers"

No kidding, CNN, when isn't it?

[Dilbert San Diego]

There was a Democrat congressman on with Laura Ingraham last night, who said that 70+% approval is meaningless, because it was just of those who watched, and implied that many Democrats don’t watch the State of the Union, so they wouldn’t have been polled.

He also said that more jobs were created in the last two years of the Obama administration, than created in the first two years of the Trump administration. So they still go with the talking point that this economic expansion is due to Obama.

[Mariner]

“a landslide in anyone’s book”

LOL

Their “rationalization” is essentially correct.

[butlerweave]

Who’s the bag of wind waving his arms around

[Rennes Templar]

Yup. More BS journalism.

[T. P. Pole]

You must be a Trump hater! /s

[bigbob]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/state-of-the-union-2019-most-viewers-approved-of-trumps-sotu-address-cbs-news-poll/