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 The Brian Williams Guessing Games, Green Energy Follies, and the Tesla Enigma
Happy Wednesday. Thanks as always for reading The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to all of the latest and most noteworthy journalism at Puck.
Plus, below the fold, William D. Cohan tries to make sense of Tesla’s delirious, eye-watering, logic-defying valuation melt-up, and asks, not for the first time, is the meme-stock party finally beginning to end?
By sticking around to write a second act at MSNBC, Williams has positioned himself to write a third act somewhere else, and seemingly everything is on the table—except the CBS Evening News. In early 2016, Andy Lack and Brian Williams sat down at Canaletto, a small, white-tablecloth Italian restaurant on New York’s Upper East Side, to hatch one of the greatest redemption efforts in the recent history of American news media. Lack, who had presided over NBC News during its heyday in the 1990s, had just returned as chairman of NBC News and MSNBC. Williams, the storied Nightly News anchor and heir to Tom Brokaw, was still trying to claw his way back to respect and relevance after blowing up his career with blatantly false claims about his experiences covering the war in Iraq. After a six-month penance, he had assumed a new role anchoring breaking news and special reports for MSNBC, a considerable fall from the lofty heights of the evening news that left him untethered to any dedicated slot in the cable channel’s lineup.
The brightest stars of NBC News don’t usually leave 30 Rock with their heads held high. Deborah Norville never made it back to Today after her maternity leave. Ann Curry was publicly humiliated and fired after being undermined by Matt Lauer. Lauer, in turn, left in infamy amid a high-profile sexual harassment scandal. David Gregory, the former “Meet The Press” host, was hung out to dry in the press for a year before the network cut him loose. A few years after the Williams debacle, Megyn Kelly, who courted controversy but couldn’t draw ratings, was forced out years before her contract was up, leaving the network holding the bag on a $69 million deal. Lack saw a more promising future for Williams. Over dinner at Canaletto, he told Williams that it would be “malpractice” for him not to be on the air covering the historic 2016 presidential campaign, sources familiar with their conversation said. The two men dreamed up a vision for a late-night show, loosely based on the model of ABC’s Nightline, that would give Williams an opportunity to re-enter the news arena and re-establish his credibility. They later agreed that the show should air at 11 p.m., a fallow time in the television lineup—particularly since Jon Stewart had just vacated his position at Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. It would give Williams room to experiment and room for error. Williams later came up with the title The 11th Hour, which seemed to refer to the state of his own career as much as his time slot…
FOUR STORIES WE’RE TALKING ABOUT 
David Zaslav is taking over just as CNN is trying to make the jump to streaming—including by courting MSNBC star Rachel Maddow.
MATT BELLONI 
The merger appears reckless, even to those in Trumpworld. As one former senior advisor put it: “It’s got as much gas as the Hindenburg.”
TINA NGUYEN 
As global supply chains break down, the U.S. Department of Energy faces a political-economic crisis of its own making.
PETER HAMBY 
Tesla has broken the will of short-sellers, market prognosticators, and even the all-seeing Michael Burry. But is the party finally ending?
WILLIAM D. COHAN
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