State of the Union 2013: The Media Weighs In On Obama's State of the Union Speech

Tonight was President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech, which, inconveniently for the news networks, cut into their live coverage of Chris Dorner's standoff with police in the wooded hills of California. Luckily, there was Marco Rubio's water-bottle grab to focus on later, so the networks are probably happy with the night. Here's an overview of how the big three cable news channels covered the President's speech and their reactions at the end of the night.

First, there was the pre-State of the Union coverage, which was cut short and muddled by all three networks because of the sensational and deadly standoff between L.A. former police officer and accused murderer on-the-run Chris Dorner. MSNBC and FOX News both ran split screens in the run-up immediately before the State of the Union, alternating between delivering commentary on the President's upcoming speech and the burning cabin in the hills where Chris Dorner was supposedly holed up.

Perhaps the most interesting moment in this split-attention of CNN's Anderson Cooper, who at one point mixed an update on the standoff with a description of CNN's live feed of President Obama getting in a limo on his way to Capitol Hill - in the same sentence. However, the Dorner story wasn't resolved, but remained dormant that none of the networks ran a split-screen, update crawl, or cut into the President's remarks.

After the State of the Union speech, there were the predictable skews in coverage between MSNBC and FOX News. Rachel Maddow praised the speech, focusing on the "They deserve a vote" portion of Obama's speech, which pointed out gun violence victims in attendance and asked Republicans for an up or down vote on gun control measures. FOX News host Bret Baier, immediately after the speech, spoke in a somewhat sedated tone about strategy rather than policy. They questioned how likely the President is to succeed in these initiatives, rather than attacking the merits of the initiatives, themselves, and focused on the politics of the speech.

At CNN, the first priority after the speech was for Cooper to update viewers on the Dorner standoff, where Chris Dorner is suspected dead inside the cabin (a report which has now been contradicted by the LAPD). CNN's host facilitated an upbeat discussion session after the update, especially between former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former Democratic Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm. Trading a few collegial barbs between each other, Gingrich questioned Obama's promise that his initiatives will be revenue neutral, while Granholm responded with one of Obama's quotes from the night, "It's not about big government, it's about smart government."

Senator Marco Rubio's official response to the State of the Union brought surprisingly lukewarm responses from FOX News, most of whom remarked on how it was the first response given in both English and Spanish and a good strategy to rebrand the GOP and get youth and Hispanic support. Charles Krauthammer enthusiastically saw it as a substantive speech in the vein of Reagan, saying Rubio took the argument "on a philosophical level," and set forth a conservative argument "that will define the next presidential race." Later Sean Hannity suggested Rubio's speech may be the biggest story of the night, over the Dorner shootout and the President's address.

CNN and especially MSNBC couldn't help but mention Rubio's bizarre reach for a drink of water mid-speech. It was also all over the Twitter-sphere, with people immediately asking for GIFs made of the weird moment and Vine videos spreading literally minutes after it happened. Vice President Biden is probably happy that his quirks weren't the focus of the internet tonight, as they usually are.

Perhaps the most consistent response to both speeches tonight was Chris Matthews' of MSNBC. His first comments on Obama's speech were about how unconvincing the President seemed about immigration reform. Matthews especially took a shot at the lack of detailed bipartisan measures, like stopping illegal immigration at the hiring level: "There's nothing in his proposal to stop it," said Matthews. "I want the thing fixed, not just talked about." Maddow then defended Obama's proposal, which resulted in both of them quarrelling over immigration and Obama's proposal for a while.

Matthews wasn't done with his irascible streak though. After Senator Marco Rubio's response, Matthews called the speech "tinker toys" and "primitive," like "something you'd hear on a High School debating team." Matthews pointed out the logical inconsistencies he saw in the speech about the role of government, ending with a comment that Rubio's response was "a kid's presentation of a philosophy reduced to maybe the 9th grade level. I'm sorry that's what it was."