SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL:

I almost feel sorry for the TV news people. They have to put on a show, but they’ll have to talk about the report without reading it. It’s 400 pages. What can they do except roll out some pre-written material?

William Barr is doing a press conference on the report at 9:30, and the report won’t be available until 11. That pretty much forces everyone to give immense priority to Barr’s presentation, and not just for the 1 1/2 hours between 9:30 and 11. They’ll have to keep talking about that, because they’ll only be getting started reading the material.

What can they do, once 11 rolls around, to avoid continuing to analyze the Barr presentation (which will include denouncing his decision to do a press conference and dominate the news in advance of the release of the text)? You can be cynical and say the text won’t affect the media, and everyone will keep saying what they were already saying, and that is, in fact, my baseline assumption. The TV news is awful.

Plus some suggestions on how to not be awful, suggestions that will almost certainly be ignored.