New York (CNN Business)Michael Wolff, the controversial author of the bestselling "Fire and Fury," will release his latest dive into President Trump and his administration next week.
On Tuesday, readers got a preview of it: The Guardian reported that Wolff's new book, "Siege: Trump Under Fire," claims that Special Counsel Robert Mueller drafted a three-count obstruction of justice indictment against Trump, before ultimately deciding not to move forward with it.
Michael Wolff
But Peter Carr, the spokesperson for the Special Counsel, quickly knocked the report down. "The documents that you've described do not exist," Carr said in a curt statement to media outlets, including CNN, who inquired about the claim.
Wolff declined to comment to CNN, but told The New York Times his source was "impeccable" and that he had "no doubt about the authenticity" of the documents he relied on for his reporting.
The whole episode was not unfamiliar for Wolff. Parts of "Fire and Fury" were disputed by some of the subjects involved, and fact-checking organizations like Politifact said the book contained factual errors. For instance, Politifact noted Wolff suggested in the book that Trump didn't know who former House Speaker John Boehner was in 2016, when in fact Trump had previously tweeted about his tendency to cry. Nevertheless, Wolff said at the time that he stood by "absolutely everything" in the book.
Despite the apparent errors, when it was released last January, "Fire and Fury" served as endless fodder for media outlets -- particularly on cable news channels, including CNN, where panels poured over much of Wolff's reporting. Print publications like The Guardian obtained an advanced copy, while New York magazine secured the right to a published excerpt. The media's fixation on "Fire and Fury's" revelations -- particularly on shocking quotes from former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon -- helped send it soaring to No. 1 on Amazon days before it was scheduled to hit bookshelves. Publisher Henry Holt & Co. eventually had to release the book four days early.
Many news organizations couched their coverage carefully and expressed skepticism about some of the claims in "Fire and Fury," pointing to Wolff's controversial track record. Critics have chided him in the past for sloppy or unethical reporting practices. Still, the claims in "Fire and Fury" were hard to avoid, and at times they were perhaps repeated without enough prudence in the media.
With days to go until "Siege" hits bookshelves, news organizations will soon be faced with a predicament on how to report the book's explosive claims.
"There are salacious details in this book — many of which Trump's critics will want to eat up — though with so many unnamed sources, Trump's compulsion for hyperbole and Wolff's own journalistic record, it's hard to know which tidbits to trust," noted Jennifer Szalai in The New York Times review of "Siege."
The book is poised to generate a lot of discussion. It is highly-anticipated, coming on the heels of the success of "Fire and Fury," which has sold more than 4 million copies to date. And it will likely contain bombshell anecdotes, much like Wolff's previous books.
So how should journalists report on "Siege"?
Frank Sesno, the director of media and public affairs at the George Washington University and former CNN Washington Bureau chief and White House correspondent, said readers should be critical of what is in the book.
"Here we go again," Sesno told CNN. "Call it what you will - an update, a sequel, a follow-up - readers should bring a healthy dose of skepticism and editors should ask hard questions about unattributed quotes, unsourced descriptions, and unsubstantiated claims."
"The new book surely reflects the intrigue and chaos of Trumpworld," Sesno added. "But before the media feast on and amplify its claims, they should fact- and logic-check to determine what's real, what's credible, and what should - put charitably - be left on the cutting room floor."
Todd Gitlin, a professor at and chair of the Ph.D. program at the Columbia Journalism School, said journalists should try to re-report claims Wolff makes in his book.
"They should seek to interview his named sources. They should seek corroboration of those unnamed," Gitlin told CNN. "If they can or can't corroborate, they should say so."
And Erik Wemple, a media critic at The Washington Post, told CNN that his advice to news organizations would be to "proceed with extreme caution!"
Wemple said that Wolff "vacuumed some good quotes and atmospherics for which he deserves credit" in "Fire and Fury." Indeed, the thrust of Wolff's book, which painted a White House in chaos, has been borne out.
But Wolff's "opus was pocked with factual errors," as Wemple said -- and that's hard to get around.
Wemple pointed out that "Siege" is at "a disadvantage vis-a-vis its predecessor, which is that it comes after a plume of Trump books." Since the publication of "Fire and Fury," the market has been flooded with books on Trump, such as "Fear" by Bob Woodward and "Team of Vipers" by former White House staffer Cliff Simms.
"Accordingly, the threshold now for TV segments on some Trump book is a lot higher," Wemple said. "Cable news producers, at this point, have to view their frenzy over 'Fire and Fury' in January 2018 as a fit of collective silliness."
If Tuesday's episode were any indication, news organizations appeared to act with more caution. The claim Mueller drafted an indictment against Trump received scant coverage and much of it was centered around the Special Counsel disputing the report. And at the time of this story's publication, "Siege" sits at No. 101 on Amazon.
