Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best new reporting. Today, we lead with Dylan Byers’s insider chronicle of ESPN’s messy split with Major League Baseball, which was decidedly not mutual, despite commissioner Rob Manfred’s spin. For now, the blowup will hurt baseball’s popularity, but could it also set the stage for a more consumer-friendly bundle? Plus, below the fold: Leigh Ann Caldwell reveals the Democrats’ timely embrace of Sanders-inflected anti-billionaire messaging. Bill Cohan gabs with the indefatigable Andrew Ross Sorkin about his new tome on the Great Depression. Julie Davich offers a midseason auction update surrounding the recent postwar and contemporary art sales. Marion Maneker chronicles the highs and lows of Frieze L.A. And Sarah Shapiro illuminates how the new season of HBO’s The White Lotus ignited a wave of successful collaborations. Meanwhile, on the pods: Big East commissioner Val Ackerman joins John Ourand on The Varsity to break down how the basketball-centric conference thrives in a football-dominated landscape. On Impolitic, John Heilemann rings up former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance to discuss the perplexing Eric Adams case. And on The Powers That Be, Jon Kelly reunites with Peter Hamby for a rollicking discussion about how the media is navigating Trump II.

MEDIA

Last week, in what could go down as another defining moment in Major League Baseball’s slow fade from the cultural mainstream, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro informed the league that his network would be walking away from its $570 million annual deal at the end of the season. Commissioner Rob Manfred, sensing the inevitable, tried to get ahead of the story. “We do not think it’s beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform,” he wrote in a memo to MLB’s owners—effectively sealing the fate of a relationship that’s lasted three and a half decades. Caving to ESPN’s terms would have set a dangerous precedent ahead of the league’s upcoming negotiations with Fox and WBD, but it also might have put his league further out in the wilderness. Read Now

WASHINGTON

Much has changed in the week since Rep. Adam Smith, the vocal Washington state Democrat, declared that his party had moved too far left on issues of culture and inclusion. In recent days, previously bewildered Democrats have started emerging from their post-inauguration daze with a renewed sense of purpose, and a concise economic message of the billionaires versus everyone else—the Bernie Sanders approach that has been shunned and sometimes mocked by the broader party in the past. That message was overlooked during the 2024 election, but has become newly potent with the brazen ascent of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, whose DOGE experiment is cutting the civil service to the bone. Indeed, it might be one of the few tactics that Smith and his detractors, like progressive Pramila Jayapal, can agree on. Read Now

WALL STREET

In this conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin, the DealBook and CNBC impresario, Bill is regaled with the backstory of his highly anticipated forthcoming tome on the Great Depression, arriving this fall. Andrew set out to see whether he could re-create that inside-the-room feel for the incredible events of 1929. As he navigated his research, he was struck by the parallels between events from a century ago and the present day, particularly how the relationship between the Gilded Age elites and the federal government foreshadowed the power of today’s billionaire class. Perhaps an expedited publication date is in order… Read Now

ART

The midseason sales of postwar and contemporary art at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips in New York were modest last week, with only 534 lots on offer between the three houses, with a combined presale estimate of $42.5 million. That’s lower than the past two years, when the auctioneers sold between 650 and 800 lots per season, totaling between $53 million and $63.5 million. It’s no secret that the secondary market for ultra-contemporary art has shrunk substantially, and that consignors seem to be holding on to those works until the market rebounds. But a handful of standout works—by Mitchell, Condo, Dubuffet, Ruscha, Haring, and others—might have raised the stakes. Read Now

ART

After a quiet winter in the art market, expectations for Frieze Los Angeles were modest, largely because there’s been so little public clarity on where the market actually stands. Still, there was hope that the fair would offer at least a glimpse of the landscape. And in a way, it did, even though no dominant trend emerged to define it. In this elegant dispatch from this year’s fair, revealing the biggest names in attendance and the most prominent sales from the event so far, Marion noted that one thing was notably absent: grousing and complaints. These days, with so many questions swirling about the market’s health, that might be a victory in itself. Read Now

FASHION

The luxury world had a collective meltdown last week over rumors that The Row’s status-symbol Margaux handbag would be discontinued. But no need to panic buy or search for “the next Margaux”: The Row is wisely tightening the bag’s distribution to create more scarcity, boost exclusivity, and maintain ironclad control over who sells it. Relatedly, there was some good news for Net-a-Porter this week: the launch of the Ralph Lauren “Polo Country at Net” capsule collection. Though Ralph Lauren can feel very Choate, Net x Ralph Lauren is leaning into the territory of Ralph’s Colorado ranch—a big win for Net, as rancher fashion is hot right now. Meanwhile, the return of HBO’s wealth-porn dark comedy franchise, The White Lotus, has spawned some successful collabs (everyone’s talking about Parker Posey’s Banana Republic outfit) and some hotel gift shop kitsch. Read Now

SPORTS

Big East commissioner Val Ackerman joins John for a deep dive into the present and future of college sports. She lays out the Big East’s strategy for thriving in a football-dominated landscape, probes the possibility of a Big East–ACC merger, and breaks down the conference’s approach to revenue sharing. Val also reflects on her groundbreaking role as the WNBA’s first commissioner and explains why the league’s meteoric growth is anything but surprising. Listen Now

WASHINGTON

John is joined by Joyce Vance, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, to discuss the Eric Adams case. Joyce explains why the decision by Donald Trump’s Justice Department to dismiss the corruption charges against New York’s mayor was so unusual, unwarranted, and improper; the extraordinary fallout from that decision, including an open letter by more than 900 former federal prosecutors sounding the alarm over the D.O.J.’s effort to drop the charges, which has ominous implications for the rule of law. Listen Now

MEDIA

Jon Kelly rejoins Peter to dissect exclusive polling data on how the media is navigating Trump II—and how Democrats and mainstream news consumers perceive today’s press environment compared to Trump’s first term. Then the duo turn their attention to CBS News and ESPN, two legacy TV networks wrestling with linear decline, digital upheaval, and brutal cost-cutting decisions. Listen Now

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