DirecTV’s Revenge Fantasy, ABC Debate Jitters, A Kristina Carol

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

First up today, Eriq Gardner untangles the multidimensional legal battle unfolding in Reno with major implications for the future of Rupert Murdoch’s right-leaning media empire. But will the trial be televised?

Plus, below the fold: Peter Hamby chats with unfiltered political spouses James Carville and Mary Matalin about Harris’s two-month sprint. Lauren Sherman hears from Kristina O’Neill about her new gig running Sotheby’s Magazine. John Ourand identifies the source of DirecTV’s Venu fury. Marion Maneker and art market expert Magnus Resch propose a clever panacea for the auction house doldrums. On The Town, Matt Belloni rings up Lucas Shaw to dissect the Disney-DirecTV carriage dispute. And on The Powers That Be, Tara Palmeri joins Peter to reveal the inside chatter swirling around D.C. as the presidential race approaches its denouement.

ERIQ GARDNER

Barricaded doors and records kept secret? Inside the Nevada battle for control of the Fox News empire—and whether the whole drama should be sealed off from public view.

PETER HAMBY

Unfiltered political spouses James Carville and Mary Matalin hop on the phone to explain what today’s generation of always-online politicos doesn’t understand about campaigns, and what Kamala Harris has to do to maintain her momentum going into November.

LAUREN SHERMAN

Is there life for an editor-in-chief after the magazine industry effectively ends? Kristina O’Neill is trying to figure it out at newly relaunched Sotheby’s Magazine.

JOHN OURAND

News and notes on the existential fears—both real and imagined—of distribution executives as the future of the Venu sports streamer appears increasingly tenuous.