John Ourand • February 28, 2025

Shanks and the Art of Motorsport Maintenance

Fox Sports C.E.O. Eric Shanks started his career working at the Indy 500. Now, his network is trying to leverage its NASCAR package with the rights to IndyCar. Can he restore the latter to its former glory?

Dylan Byers • February 27, 2025

Maddow as Hell

MSNBC’s $25 million-a-year anchor isn’t going to take it anymore, calling out the network—and by implication her new boss, Rebecca Kutler—for firing host Joy Reid and a slate of producers. But her colleagues are privately pointing out the irony of her latest crusade.

John Ourand • February 25, 2025

Inside the Manfred-Pitaro Divorce

The play-by-play on the dissolution of Major League Baseball’s broadcasting partnership with ESPN.

Dylan Byers • February 21, 2025

No Joy in Manfred’s Mudville

MLB and ESPN announced they will part ways at the end of the 2025 season, after the sports network refused to re-up their current, diluted deal. Now, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is trying to save face while scrambling to find a new home for America’s pastime.

John Ourand • February 21, 2025

Dude, Where’s My NASCAR? Part II

This year, NASCAR spread its races across five different media companies—everyone from Amazon Prime to The CW—testing fans’ loyalty, financial fitness, and scheduling awareness. After the grumbling stops, is it time to ask when enough is enough?

Dylan Byers • February 20, 2025

McMahon on Fire & Politico’s Prince Valiant

News and notes on the latest defenestration at CBS News (and the next one, too), plus a coronation at Politico.

Eriq Gardner • February 19, 2025

Steve Wynn’s Revenge & Defamation Nation

Trump allies sense a more favorable environment for waging lawfare against media companies, raising the question of whether the Supreme Court might reconsider Times v. Sullivan—and what the media might do to fight back.

John Ourand • February 18, 2025

The NBA’s All-Star Hangover

Okay, so everyone hated on the gimmicky round-robin tournament—including Draymond Green on live television—but the stink around the game obscured other successes for the league.

Dylan Byers • February 15, 2025

The Print Army Comes for A.I.

While publishers file sweeping, indignant (possibly useless) lawsuits against A.I. companies using their work to train their learning models, the industry is at a loss as to what to actually do about their A.I. futures—if there is anything that can be done at all.

John Ourand • February 14, 2025

ESPN & MLB Play Hardball

The worthies in Bristol are starting to feel that they’re wildly overpaying for Sunday Night Baseball, especially given Apple’s and Roku’s far more frugal deals, and they’re threatening to exercise their out clause. Meanwhile, Netflix, Amazon, and others are warming up in the bullpen.

Dylan Byers • February 13, 2025

CBS News’s Blue Period

Amid the depressing Shari-Trump ‘60 Minutes’ settlement chatter, the newly reformatted and spruced-up ‘CBS Evening News’ seems to be a quickly metastasizing ratings and formatting disaster—and the latest reminder that few things unite a newsroom quite like one of their boss’s public shortcomings.

John Ourand • February 11, 2025

ESPN and the NFL Enter Deal Heat

Once again, ESPN and the NFL are in renewed negotiations for the former to take on the latter’s media assets. What’s changed since the last time these dance partners played footsie? More linear decline, Flagship, and maybe the Draft going up for bidding, too.

Dylan Byers • February 8, 2025

Out of Fox to Give

Blue chip advertisers that long shunned Fox News (or at least its more crackpot-friendly time slots) are quietly coming back, leading the network to record-setting revenue. Is it the mainstreaming of Trump’s America, or an even broader cultural shift?

John Ourand • February 7, 2025

And on the 18th Game, Goodell Rested

As I’ve previewed before, the NFL commissioner and the league have long fantasized about the billion-dollar possibilities of eliminating another preseason contest and adding an 18th regular season game. Murmurs emanating from New Orleans suggest that the public negotiations have begun.

Dylan Byers • February 6, 2025

60 Minutes to Midnight

Inside the agony and finger-pointing at CBS News, where executives and journalists are protesting Shari Redstone’s eagerness to settle Trump’s suit, countenancing their diminishing place in the firmament, and girding for the F.C.C. to extract maximum political pain.