Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best
new reporting.

Today, we lead with Matt Belloni’s candid conversation with HBO and Max content chief Casey Bloys about the prestige brand in the Zaslav era, from HBO’s recalibrated streaming strategy, the decision to lean hard into I.P.-driven shows, why Bloys is so eager to reverse the network’s comedy drought, and, of course, the Netflix of it all.

Plus, below the fold: Julia Ioffe examines the surprising
parallels between Trump’s and Obama’s foreign policy objectives. John Ourand reveals the murky future for NBA TV and other league-owned networks. And exclusively for Inner Circle members, Lauren Sherman determines whether a round of “synergies” and a freshly launched Amazon storefront can change the bleak narrative on Wall Street for Richard Baker’s Saks Global.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Dylan Byers
and Julia Alexander reunite on The Grill Room to discuss the latest twists in the 60 Minutes saga. On Fashion People, Lauren chats with the co-founders of M/M Paris about their new gig as creative directors of Harper’s Bazaar Italia. John Heilemann connects with Semafor’s Ben Smith on Impolitic to explain how Signal and WhatsApp group chats have transformed Silicon Valley’s politics. And on
The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Eriq Gardner prognosticate the outcome of Trump’s CBS News lawsuit and evaluate the D.O.J.’s updated toolkit for targeting journalists.

A candid conversation with the HBO and Max content chief about the evolution of the prestige brand
in the Zaslav era, why he’s no longer competing with Netflix, and the mandate now that he’s not programming a “something for everybody” service.

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On questions of war, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, and Asia, the worldviews of the 44th and 47th
presidents are more similar than either man would like to admit.

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The pill penalty’s harmful consequences put patients at risk 

America leads the world in medical innovation—but a flawed policy in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) threatens that progress. The pill penalty discourages the development of low-cost medicines that come in pill or tablet form, and could lead to fewer treatments for cancer, mental illness and other chronic conditions. When we
penalize the development of pills, we risk losing some of our best and most affordable weapons against disease.  

See what’s at stake. 

Like other league-owned channels, the 26-year-old NBA TV was ravaged by cord-cutting, and left with
little bargaining power in a bundled and streaming world. Now, without any exclusive games of its own, its future is a mystery.

Read Now

Wall Street is getting nervous that the company can’t repay its creditors. Vendors are worried
about outstanding invoices. And the tariff pain hasn’t even hit yet. Can Saks Global turn things around with “synergies” and an Amazon store? And what happens if it can’t?

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Julia Alexander rejoins Dylan to chew over all the challenges facing legacy media brands like CBS
News in the twilight of the cable TV era. They also dive into the latest twists in the 60 Minutes saga, as Paramount’s billionaire owner, Shari Redstone—under crippling pressure to close the Skydance deal—has leaned on the network’s prestige newsmagazine to go easy on Trump.

Listen Now

The pill penalty’s harmful consequences put patients at risk 

America leads the world in medical innovation—but a flawed policy in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) threatens that progress. The pill penalty discourages the development of low-cost medicines that come in pill or tablet form, and could lead to fewer treatments for cancer, mental illness and other chronic conditions. When we
penalize the development of pills, we risk losing some of our best and most affordable weapons against disease.  

See what’s at stake. 

M/M Paris co-founders Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag join Lauren to break down their new
role as creative directors of Harper’s Bazaar Italia. Mathias and Michael—who have worked closely with everyone from Björk and Carine Roitfeld to Nicolas Ghesquière and Jonathan Anderson—also discuss how they maintain their creative chemistry, what it’s like to pursue originality in the digital age, how to not get (work) divorced, and plenty more.

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John is joined by Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith to discuss the role of private group chats in
pushing Silicon Valley’s politics to the right. Ben lays out how dozens of hush-hush Signal and WhatsApp groups emerged during Covid among the tech elite; the seminal role of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen in seeding these forums; and how their influence now flows through X, Substack, and podcasts.

Listen Now

Eriq Gardner drops by the pod to discuss Trump’s all-out assault on the press. Eriq explains why he
thinks CBS News will settle Trump’s precarious lawsuit, breaks down Trump’s latest swing at The New York Times, and unpacks the quiet Justice Department update that could make it open season on individual journalists.

Listen
Now

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