CBS Poll Shows Trump Triumphant, but CNN Hedges

A CBS News poll showed an overwhelmingly positive reaction to President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address, but CNN’s instant poll took pains to split its surveyed camps with positive vibes into two separate groups.

The CNN poll found 48 percent of respondents had very a positive view of Trump’s first official State of the Union, made in the House chamber on Tuesday night.

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Another 22 percent had a “somewhat positive” view of the address.

Only 28 percent of CNN’s respondents had a negative view.

CNN and other media allies rushed to claim Trump’s speech was viewed dimly. CNN said the “very positive” number was down from former President Barack Obama’s first address to Congress in 2010.

CNN poured the negative spin on thick.

“It’s the lowest net positive rating for a State of the Union address since at least 1998, when CNN first asked the question,” wrote CNN reporter Ryan Struyk. “There is no equivalent poll for addresses before 1998.”

But CBS News found something different about Trump’s reception.

In the CBS News instant poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points, a whopping 75 percent of respondents approved of the speech. Only 25 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable view.

The poll also found 65 percent of respondents felt “proud” after the speech. Only 21 percent felt “angry.”

CNN’s splitting of its poll’s positive camps drew raspberries from conservative media critics. Critics also noted CNN analysts tried to explain away their positive results by suggesting mostly Republicans watched the speech.

“These CNN journalists were very adamant about people not reading too much into the positive results for President Trump since the results were drawn from an allegedly Republican heavy viewership,” wrote Nicholas Fonacaro of the Media Research Center’s Newbusters.

“But that begs the question: If you’re polling a skewed pool of people, then why take the poll at all? It’s because they like to tout the results when it’s a Democratic president giving the speech.”

PoliZette White House writer Jim Stinson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.