Media Power, College Sports, and Crypto
Mike and Jay open this supporters’ exclusive midweek episode with California’s settlement of its antitrust lawsuit challenging Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. They debate whether California extracted meaningful concessions or folded under pressure, how the relevant media market should be defined, and whether concerns about David Ellison’s growing influence over CBS and CNN really belong in an antitrust case at all.
Next, they turn to the Protect College Sports Act and Congress’s attempt to bring order to the chaotic post-NIL world of college athletics. Mike and Jay discuss federal rules for NIL deals, transfers and eligibility, limited antitrust protection for the NCAA, athlete compensation, and whether big-time college football and basketball should finally acknowledge that their players function more like employees than traditional student-athletes.
Then it’s cryptocurrency and the stalled CLARITY Act. Why did Senate Democrats block debate on legislation that had strong bipartisan support in the House—and that several Democratic senators helped negotiate? Mike and Jay examine the fight over whether crypto should be regulated primarily as securities or commodities, concerns about the Trump family’s crypto interests, stablecoin interest payments, and the electoral politics complicating any deal before the midterms.
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