Thread by @sullivanamy

News Outlets, we need to have a talk about how you're going to cover the Mueller Report tomorrow. Your initial coverage of the report filing and Barr's immediate response was embarrassing. Understandable, but embarrassing. To do better, you need a plan. /1

There are a lot of things we don't yet know about tomorrow, but a whole lot that we do. Let's look at them:
• We don't know how much of the report will be redacted, or what percentage of the full report tomorrow's release will include. /2

• We don't know if the release will include the Mueller Team's summaries, which would presumably make drawing and reporting conclusions easier/faster. /3

• We don't know that the release will include any legal bombshells. Remember: Clinton was never indicted for anything in the Starr Report. /4

We do know that it will be impossible to instantly draw a conclusion from the Mueller Report release that can be dumped into a headline or a chyron. We *know* that. /5

We know that despite this truth, everyone--especially Trump--will immediately issue responses, hoping to shape coverage.

They know you'll issue BREAKING NEWS alerts & be tempted to use something like "Mueller Report Now Public; Trump Says It 'Fully Exonerates' Him" /6

And we all know you'll be under pressure to publish/air/report something ASAP. To be first. Or, if not first, at least with the pack. No one gets packed on the back for taking their time to get it right, unfortunately. /7

So knowing all this, figure out a plan now. How do you fill the need for an initial headline takeaway without jumping to premature conclusions? How do you give yourselves time to have experts read the report before pressing them for WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? /8

I don't know exactly what this would look like, but I suspect it would include holding some of your curtain raiser material so that you can release that while we're waiting. If the report comes out at 9am, I don't want to see a conclusive chyron by 9:10. /9

I have vivid memories of the Starr Report's release--we all read it online, 20 million of us that first day. I can't imagine what reaction would have looked like with Twitter. /10

The publicly-released Starr Report (which was sent directly to the GOP-controlled Congress, not the AG) opened with the team's summaries, which were quoted in the ledes of every news story.

If the version Barr releases omits those summaries, that itself is worth reporting. /11

And for every news outlet tempted to book or quote Ken Starr tomorrow, can we bear in mind that he's since served on the legal team of serial child rapist Jeffrey Epstein *and* was forced out as president of Baylor after mishandling/ignoring sexual assault allegations?? /12