Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Dylan Byers chronicles the latest drama inside Bari Weiss’s CBS News after an image of an Evening News set featuring a whiskey sponsorship was leaked online. Naturally, staffers nostalgic for Cronkite-era purity were aghast, viewing any flirtation with sponcon—even a mere proof of concept—as a violation of journalistic principles. But as legacy TV continues its march toward irrelevance, these kinds of brand partnerships may be the price of survival…

Plus, below the fold: Julia Alexander considers the merits of Bob Iger’s long-awaited move to fold Hulu into Disney+. Leigh Ann Caldwell assesses whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune can keep his members in line without crossing Trump. Bill Cohan spotlights a legal battle that might curb Wall Street’s creditor-on-creditor violence. Rachel Strugatz reveals why Sephora beauty darling Makeup by Mario has yet to find a buyer. And Lauren Sherman charts Saks Global’s first steps in the aftermath of its Chapter 11 filing.

Meanwhile, exclusively for Inner Circle members, Marion Maneker sits down with Heritage Auctions C.E.O. Steve Ivy to discuss the auction house’s $2 billion year. And on the latest episode of The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Eriq Gardner discuss the F.B.I.’s unprecedented, potentially illegal raid on the home of a Washington Post reporter.

MEDIA

The sponcon set dressing at Evening News provoked predictable outcry at the House of Bari. But are brand partners in TV news just an inevitability at this point?

HOLLYWOOD

The long-ordained integration of Disney’s two streaming services is being heralded inside Burbank as a transformational moment for both. But will the merged platform really be more than the sum of its parts?

WASHINGTON

Can the Senate leader preserve his majority, manage his members’ competing agendas, and protect his institution—all while placating the president?

WALL STREET

Wall Street invented the coercive liability management exercise, which allows companies to play their creditors against one another as they extract beneficial terms for themselves—a now-routinized tradition referred to as “creditor-on-creditor violence.” But now Apollo, Oaktree, BlackRock, and JPMorgan Chase are teaming up to put an end to this mess.

FASHION

Mario Dedivanovic created one of the most successful beauty brands in recent years—reportedly profitable, a consistent top performer at Sephora, adored by consumers, etcetera. So why hasn’t that projected $1 billion exit happened yet?

FASHION

With the filing finally official and creditors lining up, the retailer and its vendors can start facing down their futures.

ART

An eye-opening conversation with the auction house founder (and lifelong numismatist) on the explosion of the collectibles market, Heritage’s $2 billion year, and his middle-school obsession with coins.

MEDIA

Eriq Gardner joins Peter to break down the F.B.I.’s stunning raid on the home of a Washington Post journalist, a move tied to an alleged government leaker and one that’s almost without precedent. Eriq explains what the feds seized, what they may still be looking for, what the raid says about the Trump administration’s escalating hostility toward the press, and what the Post could possibly do to fight back.

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