President Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, left, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, during Tuesday’s address to a joint session of Congress. (NBC News screen shot)

Following President Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, the press talked once again of a “pivot.” After months of watching for a transformation from candidate Trump that would quell concerns that his ribald campaign-trail persona would carry over into the Oval Office, several outlets and pundits, including those from the “mainstream media” so frequently derided by the administration, decided that Trump finally showed he could convincingly play the part of the nation’s top statesman. At least for a beat or two.

WATCH: President Trump’s First Major Address to Congress

Not long after Trump’s moment on Capitol Hill, The Associated Press was quick out of the gates with a declaration that a “pivot” had, in fact, occurred. The organization also used another term that made its way into many other sources’ appraisals: “presidential.” “Donald Trump finally gave Republicans what they’ve spent months begging him to deliver: a pivot to presidential,” the AP’s Lisa Lerer announced Wednesday before issuing a caveat: “The question now is how long it lasts. Days, weeks, months—or simply until the next tweet?”

So far, this has been Trump’s post-address activity on Twitter, so Lerer will have to keep on the lookout:

Over on CNN, both Van Jones and Anderson Cooper singled out as “extraordinary” the moment in Trump’s speech in which he saluted fallen Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, who was killed in a recent mission in Yemen, as well as Owens’ wife Carryn, who had joined the audience in the Capitol for the occasion:

Less than an hour after Trump honored the widow of a slain NAVY Seal, the Democratic commentator suggested that the commander in chief had officially begun to look the part. …

“That was one of the most extraordinary moments you have ever seen in American politics,” Jones added.

(Other news sources, including Truthdig, pointed out that Owens’ father feels differently about tributes to his son from the White House.)

Chris Wallace at Fox News was a less unexpected voice in that chorus, offering essentially the same take as Jones about the evening’s proceedings. “I feel like, tonight, Donald Trump became the president of the United States,” Wallace said.

As Adam Johnson of the media watchdog organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting noted in his comprehensive roundup, another catchphrase making its way into Wednesday’s headlines was “kinder, gentler”—a throwback to the Bush I era:

The Washington Post’s White House Bureau Chief Philip Rucker also registered a sea change:

But upon closer inspection, the party doing much of the pivoting may have been the pundits themselves.

It might be argued that mainstream outlets that weighed Trump’s performance favorably were pushing back against accusations—not a few of which have come from Trump’s administration—of bias against the president with a conspicuous show of “objectivity.” It might also be possible that Cooper and his cohorts set out to give credit where credit was due (filmmaker Michael Moore clearly thought otherwise of CNN’s collective take), but in so doing, they would be overlooking the fact that nothing beyond the symbolic level actually happened last night.

This makes Trump’s presidential pivot a “media event,” a nonevent by any other standard than media hype that is framed and reported on as though it were naturally occurring and significant. Compounding the issue is the fact that some media events end up having real-world consequences because they sway public opinion and affect, for example, voting outcomes.

In some respects, what Trump said in that boilerplate, hour-long address wasn’t as remarkable as what he didn’t say—no calls to lock up Hillary Clinton, optimistic tones subbed in for bombast. It wasn’t lost on The New Yorker’s John Cassidy that “details of how he would bring about his ambitious goals were lacking,” as were mentions of Russia, climate change or who would pick up the bill for Trump’s proposals. “But rhetoric wasn’t.”

Ultimately, Trump gave a speech on Tuesday night, full stop. What he goes on to do with that talk in coming months is where the real action—and cause for critical evaluation—actually lies.

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#anderson cooper#associated press#cnn#donald trump#mainstream media#michael moore#state of the union#trump administration#van jones