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

First up today, Dylan Byers gets behind the scenes of Bari Weiss’s latest maneuvers at CBS News, as the network’s ambitious new editor-in-chief prepares to reveal her grand editorial strategy next week (more town halls, more debates…) and makes key talent moves (elevating Tony Dokoupil, poaching Matt Gutman…), all while keeping one foot in the door at her spiritual home, The Free Press. As Dylan writes, Bari made her first eight figures as a provocateur—will she earn out the rest by being a suit?

Plus, below the fold: Bill Cohan predicts the Netflix counterattack as Paramount goes to war for Warner Bros. Eriq Gardner reports from inside the bizarre trial of filmmaker Carl Rinsch, accused of scamming Netflix out of $11 million. Leigh Ann Caldwell digs into the G.O.P.’s internecine war over Obamacare. And Rachel Strugatz gathers the industry chatter surrounding the professional rehabilitation of formerly canceled beauty executive John Demsey.

Meanwhile, for Inner Circle members, Marion Maneker convenes a roundtable of global art advisors to discuss the challenges of advising in an opaque market. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby connects with Bill to run the numbers on David Ellison’s hostile bid.

MEDIA

While The Free Press is flush with holiday spirit, Bari’s job reinventing CBS News is proving more vexing, amid anchor dreams dashed and the age-old challenge of enacting institutional change.

WALL STREET

Paramount has raised the stakes in its hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, and may yet go higher. Now Netflix must decide how much it wants to venture into junk credit-rating territory, or play games with its stock, to secure the prize.

HOLLYWOOD

The incredible saga of Carl Rinsch, who bilked Netflix for millions that he spent on Dogecoin, a couple of Rolls-Royces, and a half-million-dollar mattress, has come to trial. Is Rinsch a “creative genius” who merely failed to deliver, or something more sinister?

WASHINGTON

Once again, Republicans are trying to repeal Obamacare—and once again, leadership doesn’t appear to have any clear plan for what should replace it. Democrats, already anticipating an election year with the wind at their backs, couldn’t be more pleased.

FASHION

In 2022, the legendary Estée Lauder Companies executive got himself canceled—and temporarily exiled from the industry’s polite society. With a new appointment at Gap Inc. and multiple consulting gigs, he’s back on the scene.

ART

Art advisors are a fairly recent phenomenon, and no one is showing how it’s done better than Patti Wong, Brett Gorvy, and Wentworth Beaumont. In this lively roundtable discussion, the three explain an advisor’s role in a murky market, how the back office operates, and why ambitious collectors need consultants now more than ever.

WALL STREET

Bill Cohan joins Peter to break down the latest WBD deal frenzy as Paramount goes hostile and Netflix plays patient opportunist. Bill forecasts how high the Ellisons might go, what this M&A knife fight portends for Warners’ TV assets—and why the assets’ share price may ultimately decide the endgame.

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