Disney Bets on Streaming, Joining With Major League Baseball

Here is the latest Media News from The New York Times.

Fred Schwartz, Furrier, Philanthropist and Television Pitchman, Dies at 84
Mr. Schwartz starred as Fred the Furrier in commercials in the 1970s and ’80s for the Fur Vault, retail outlets that offered mink coats at relatively modest prices.

Books of The Times: Review: Jay McInerney’s ‘Bright, Precious Days’
The latest installment in Mr. McInerney’s trilogy (so far) finds Corrine and Russell Calloway in marital and existential crises.

Disney Bets on Streaming, Joining With Major League Baseball
BamTech, which handles streaming for baseball teams and Time Warner’s HBO, will help Disney introduce an ESPN-branded subscription service.

Netflix Fuels a Surge in Scripted TV Shows. Some See a Glut.
John Landgraf, chief of FX Networks, predicted a record year for scripted TV, but worried that viewers were having a hard time choosing what to watch.

Nonfiction: Power, Ambition and Betrayal in Hollywood: James B. Stewart on ‘Powerhouse’
James Andrew Miller’s “Powerhouse,” a history of Creative Artists Agency, is full of vaunting ambition, immense wealth and power, and personal betrayal.

Sexual Harassment Suit Against Roger Ailes Stays in New Jersey
Lawyers for the former Fox News chairman had tried to move the case, filed by the former anchor Gretchen Carlson, to Manhattan.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘War Porn’ Widens the Field of Vision About the Costs in Iraq
Roy Scranton’s first novel builds on themes he has raised in essays, that focusing on the trauma of soldiers neglects the destruction they caused.

Mediator: Trump Is Testing the Norms of Objectivity in Journalism
As Donald J. Trump continues his stream of outrageous and disquieting statements, journalists must grapple with how to cover him — and if, or when, to abandon the rules of traditional reporting.

Book Entry: Review: ‘Powerhouse’ Lifts Veil on Secretive Hollywood Agency
For a look inside Creative Artists Agency, the author has simply organized more than 700 pages of raw interviews in more or less chronological order.

DJ Khaled Finds the Key to a No. 1 Album
The producer’s “Major Key” debuted at the top of the Billboard 200, bumping Drake — who is featured on the record — to No. 2.

‘Harry Potter’ Films to Be Shown on Syfy and USA Network
The deal, said to be more than $200 million, will begin in 2018 and will allow NBC Universal to use even more Potter material at its theme parks.

Cultural Studies: Bespoke This, Bespoke That. Enough Already.
A word that was once almost exclusively a descriptor for custom-made men’s suits now applies to just about everything.

The Week Ahead: Colorado Fracking Limit Deadline; Valeant and Disney Earnings Reports
Signatures are due Monday to put proposals on Colorado’s ballot that would restrict hydraulic fracturing; and attention turns to earnings at Valeant, Disney and Macy’s.

After Ailes and Cosby, a Moment for More Women to Speak Up
High-profile accusations have drawn new attention to sexual harassment and assault, but the risks of reporting incidents still discourage women from coming forward.

Advertising: ‘This Is Your Brain on Drugs,’ Tweaked for Today’s Parents
Children of the 1980s will remember the sizzling egg equated to a brain on drugs. Its coming back helps those same people talk to their own children.

Books of The Times: ‘Playing Dead,’ a Disappearing Act for the Fraudulent-Minded
Drowning in debt and tempted to line up a handy corpse? Elizabeth Greenwood’s book explores death fraud and offers a rough primer on erasing yourself.

Making ‘Suicide Squad’ a Smash, Despite Withering Reviews
The Warner Bros. film about a gang of DC Comics supervillains set box office records over the weekend, with about $135 million in domestic sales.

Nonfiction: Rosa Brooks Examines War’s Expanding Boundaries
In “How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything,” Rosa Brooks says the police have become more like soldiers, and soldiers more like the police.

NBC’s Rio Plans: A Focus on Prime Time and a Flood of Streaming
NBCUniversal’s broadcast strategy for the Rio Games will show a media giant more than ever straddling two approaches to attract viewers to is prized sports property.

Why Frank Ocean and Other Big Names Prefer the Sudden Digital Drop
Digital music has eaten into the record industry’s profits from album sales, but it also gives artists something appealing: more creative control.

Fiction: In Colson Whitehead’s Latest, the Underground Railroad Is More Than a Metaphor
In “The Underground Railroad,” his new novel about American slavery, Colson Whitehead courageously opens his eyes where the rest of us would rather look away.

Mediator: Betting Billions on Rio, Comcast Hopes to Win the Future of Television
The cable giant will provide 6,800 hours of programming on 11 channels and 41 live streams — and, for some viewers, a way to find it all.

Robert Rosencrans, Who Helped Propel C-Span, Dies at 89
Mr. Rosencrans saw the broad potential of cable television when fewer than one in five homes was wired for it.

Books of The Times: Review: ‘War and Turpentine,’ a Grandfather’s Painful Life
Stefan Hertmans uses his grandfather’s notebooks about World War I to create a harrowing account of war, poverty and despair, stoically endured.

‘Will & Jane’: Two Literary Superheroes, United in Pop Culture
The afterlives of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and the sometimes over-the-top tokens of fans’ devotion, are the subject of an exhibition in Washington.

Viacom’s Profit Slumps 29%, Providing a Lens Into a Business in Turmoil
The company has struggled for stability over the last several months as the mental capacity of its controlling shareholder, Sumner M. Redstone, is questioned.

By the Book: Jeffrey Toobin: By the Book
The author of “The Nine,” “The Run of His Life” and, most recently, “American Heiress” wrote his senior thesis about Samuel Adams: “Musical rights to this work are still available.”

How a Justice Department Ruling Could Affect Your Favorite Musician
The department, after a two-year investigation, decided to keep the complex regulatory environment of music licensing largely intact, with the addition of a rule requiring “100 percent” deals. This breaks down what that means.