by Brent Baker
President George W. Bush earned largely rave reviews from network reporters and anchors after his Thursday night address before a joint session of Congress about the U.S. reaction to the terrorist attacks. (Two exceptions were ABC's Sam Donaldson, who called the speech “fierce” and worried about follow-through, and ABC's Claire Shipman who asserted that “this is not going to be reassuring to the international community which was looking for something probably a little bit softer.”)
ABC's George Stephanopoulos, however, offered praise: “The President asked the country to be calm and resolute, and tonight he led by example. He was resolved, he was reassuring, he was sober, he was strong.”
CBS anchor Dan Rather called it “a powerful speech, powerfully delivered to a nation now at war.”
NBC's Tom Brokaw thought Bush delivered an “eloquent” speech with “very strong words that have added up to very strong warnings in a very strong appearance by this President.” Brokaw implied, however, that the lack of any “talk tonight about 'smoke'em out of their caves' or 'wanted dead or alive'” are signs of “growth” in office.
“It was an excellent speech,” hailed Tim Russert before historian Stephen Ambrose described Bush's language as Churchillian with “lines that are going to resonate with the American people for a very long time.”
On the cable side, Jeff Greenfield applauded on CNN: “This speech definitely met the moment.” CNN colleague Judy Woodruff believed “you felt what was in the heart of this man.”
Fortune's Jeff Birnbaum decided on FNC that “it was an extraordinary
speech.” Also on FNC, Morton Kondracke of Roll Call commended it as “a brave and determined speech.”
Brian Williams exalted on MSNBC about how the language “soared at times” as “there was some beautiful language throughout,” while Newsweek's Howard Fineman echoed CNN's Greenfield: “He met the moment.”
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
