Mueller to Draw Broadcast Crowd

Broadcast network news units will be joining cable 24-hour news operations in in providing extensive live coverage of the Hill testimony of former special counsel Robert Mueller, whose report on Russian election meddling, whose report on Russian election meddling has become a flashpoint for Hill Democrats and the President.

NBC News coverage begins at 8:15 a.m. and will continue through the afternoon, covering both sessions of testimony. Anchoring the coverage are NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, NBC News chief legal correspondent (and Today show co-anchor) Savannah Guthrie, and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, according to the network.

Fox stations will have access to Fox News Channel's coverage, also beginning at 8:15 (FNC is preempting Fox & Friends, a presidential favorite, for the testimony). FNC's coverage will be anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, with contributions from Chris Wallace and Juan Williams, among others.

ABC News will also be providing live coverage, anchored by George Stephanopoulos from New York and beginning at 8:30 a.m.

World News Tonight anchor David Muir will report from D.C., with assists from Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas, Senior Correspondent Mary Bruce, and Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, among others.  

New CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell will anchor that network's coverage, which begins at 8:15 a.m.

Joining O’Donnell for the special, branded "HIGH STAKES AND HISTORY," will be CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett; chief Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes; White House correspondent Paula Reid; and Justice and Homeland Security correspondent Jeff Pegues.

Mueller will testify before the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on Russian election interference. The Judiciary Committee testimony comes first at 8:30 a.m., followed by Intelligence at noon.

Mueller has signaled he doesn't have much to say beyond what the report has already said, but Democrats will be looking to try and pin him down on exactly why he decided not to draw a conclusion about obstruction of Justice based on the evidence outlined in the report and why he did not feel there was enough evidence for collusion.

C-SPAN, the suite of public affairs networks funded by the cable industry, will be providing its usual wall-to-wall coverage of the hearings and any post-hearing press conferences by the relevant parties.

C-SPAN's coverage will begin at 7 a.m. on Wednesday with Washington Journal. The hearing will air live on C-SPAN3, C-SPAN Radio and C-SPAN.org.

For those who need a refresher, C-SPAN also has audio and text versions of the entire Mueller report available online. 

The President said Monday (July 22) he had no plans to be among the likely millions tuning-in to the testimony. “I’m not going to be watching Mueller," he said. "[W]e had a total no-collusion finding.”

He tweeted his reasoning:

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1153286989053079552[/embed]

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.