Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know…  and stick around for more on California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s case against the WarnerMount merger.

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And now, a little more on Bonta’s push to block WarnerMount…

HOLLYWOOD

In Hollywood, California A.G. Rob Bonta has been cast by some as the last hope to stop the $110 billion WarnerMount merger—and by others as a mere political operative attacking a legally sound deal to score points in an election year. Yesterday, he filed suit on behalf of 12 blue states, then joined Matt for an exclusive interview to make his case.

The complaint alleges harm across three markets: wide-release movies, tentpoles, and cable channel distribution—conspicuously omitting the streaming arena dominated by Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. But, as Matt argued to Bonta, if the entire industry is being reshaped by vertically integrated tech giants, how can you define a theatrical or blockbuster market without them? Bonta’s answer: He’s not challenging the merger on streaming grounds, and Paramount’s insistence otherwise is “self-serving” misdirection. “Their argument is almost like, You have to allow us to do illegal things so that we can create a combined megacorporation that can compete with these other megacorporations,” Bonta told Matt. The future of the industry may hinge on whether a federal judge will enjoin the deal before it closes—and Bonta says he likes his odds…

Click here to read the full conversation.

MEDIA

As the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger has played out alongside the Bari-fication of CBS News, there was a sense among some in the media class that regulators might make hay of the deal’s proposed combination of two of the nation’s most storied brands. Any such notion turned out to be seriously misguided.

WASHINGTON

The death of the senator from South Carolina closes the chapter on a vanishing breed of politician who won power through handshakes, favors, late nights, and relentless retail politics instead of viral clips and social media warfare. His successor will inherit Graham’s seat, but not the political ecosystem that made his career possible

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FASHION

Tadashi Yanai was supposed to retire years ago, but the 77-year-old head of Uniqlo is still vetoing sweaters, consulting his wife, and recruiting designers like J.W. Anderson for the $20 billion business. What he doesn’t have is a succession plan.

SPORTS

A case pitting the Chicago Cubs against the owner of the last independent rooftop view into Wrigley Field could have lasting ramifications on sports viewership in the future. The question is: Can visibility itself function as a quasi-property right?

MEDIA

Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics and host of Freakonomics Radio, joins Dylan to discuss the makings of his new YouTube show, Better in Person. Stephen gets into his pivot from traditional to digital media, the value of authenticity in an increasingly crowded media landscape, and what he hopes audiences take away from the show.

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