Comcast’s Stunner, Charlamagne vs. Heilemann, Bezos’s WaPo Clarity

Happy Monday, and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best new reporting.

Today, we lead with a media business doubleheader. First up, Dylan Byers considers interim NBCU C.E.O. Mike Cavanagh’s revelation that Comcast is “studying” the possibility of spinning off its struggling cable networks—a maneuver that could sever MSNBC from NBC News. Then, Bill Cohan digs into the numbers and assesses the actual viability of the spinco concept. Is this all just a smokescreen for a lackluster earnings report?

Plus, below the fold: Marion Maneker inspects Dallas’s evolution into an art market boomtown. On Impolitic, John Heilemann is joined by Charlamagne tha God to dispel the misleading narratives surrounding Black male voters. On Somebody’s Gotta Win, Tara Palmeri chats with former governors Tom Corbett (R-Pennsylvania) and Jim Blanchard (D-Michigan) about their bipartisan attempts to protect election integrity. On The Varsity, John Ourand and NASCAR president Steve Phelps unpack his plan to expand the motorsport’s reach without alienating die-hards. And on The Powers That Be, Jon Kelly links up with Peter Hamby to forecast the long-term fallout at The Washington Post from endorsement-gate.

DYLAN BYERS

Inside 30 Rock, word that Comcast is considering spinning out NBCU’s lesser cable assets—potentially severing MSNBC from NBC—has kicked off a furious sequence of questions about the future of both networks, and about the fate of NBC News Group boss Cesar Conde.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

Mike Cavanagh’s earnings call mic drop about the future of Comcast’s cable networks has the industry—and the denizens of 30 Rock, in particular—looking for tea leaves to read about what the executives in Philly are apparently “studying.”

MARION MANEKER

No longer an art world outlier, thanks partly to the booming financial services industry, Dallas is home to a trove of contemporary works by Warhol, de Kooning, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and other postwar greats, hanging inside the private homes of the city’s longtime art patrons.

JOHN HEILEMANN

John is joined by radio host Charlamagne tha God to dig into the interplay of politics, media, and culture that led to a photo finish in the 2024 election. Charlamagne discusses his reaction to seeing Trump’s team weaponize his words against Kamala in an anti-Harris (and anti-trans) TV ad; his on-air clash with Anderson Cooper over the failure of the press to hold Trump accountable; and his disdain for Biden and respect for younger Democrats.