A chorus of journalists view the State of the Union address as little more than a predictably partisan pep rally, but that isn’t keeping media newsrooms across the country from devoting huge amounts of time and energy to covering the annual presidential event.
The Washington Post, the New York Times, Politico and the L.A. Times, for example, have published multiple stories this month covering everything from what President Obama is expected to say and how his speech could be received, the likely Republican rebuttals and detailed critiques of the performances by players on all sides of the issue.
But such reporting and analyses create something of a jarring effect as many of them appear alongside articles casting the speech as something of an artifact, quaint and unserious.
There are even SOTU Bingo sheets and other catchphrase scorecards provided by the the Post, CNN and others in the news media that are hardly hallmarks of a meaningful and profoundly serious national rite.
For example, in an article titled “Bingo! For the State of the Union and the State of the Union rebuttal,” the Post’s sheet for readers came complete with all the predictable suggestions and clichés likely to be heard Tuesday night.
“What is the state of the union? Who can say?” the Post’s Alexandra Petri wrote Tuesday. “Every year, it happens, and every year, the complaints and the second-screen snark are the same. ‘Not presidential enough!’ we say.”
Additional Post articles, including “Who will fall asleep during the State of the Union address tonight?” “Why the State of the Union response is always so bad,” “With lowered expectations, is State of the Union just a glorified Cabinet meeting?”, provide a sharp contrast to the newspaper’s otherwise concrete and dedicated coverage, including biographical sketches of invited guests, prepared rebuttals to the chief executive, a video look at SOTUs through the years and an explainer on the constitutional point and purpose of the speech.
Politico’s coverage run-up to the SOTU has been similarly schizophrenic, ranging from videos detailing Vice President Joe Biden’s SOTU “finger guns,” to posts describing “What to watch for at tonight’s State of the Union,” “Why the State of the Union Address Isn’t Completely Useless” and “Just another Obama speech.”
The New York Times featured multiple reports on what to expect before, during and after the president speaks. Among the articles were “Better but Still Troubled: Our Take on the State of the Union,” “In State of the Union Speech, Obama to Urge a Skeptical Congress to Back Initiatives” and “By the Numbers: How State of the Union Addresses Stack Up.”
Still, because the president has gone to great lengths to broadcast what he plans to address Tuesday evening, even the New York Times’ editorial board concedes that there “is even less suspense about this year’s State of the Union than usual.”
Especially after all that reporting.
