Welcome to Axis Porada, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

Sponsored by Bridge Bank. Be bold. Venture wisely. I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, Elon Musk makes a big promise,

and Mayor Pete gets a bit less friendly with big tech.

But first, the next Fox News.

So later this week, Disney is expected to announce the winner of an auction for a group of

regional sports networks that it's selling as part of an agreement with the U.S. government.

Basically, this is how Disney got approval to buy 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets last year,

despite already owning ESPN.

Anyway, bidders for all or part of the package include Major League Baseball, Amazon,

and a group put together by Ice Cube.

Yep, that Ice Cube.

But the current frontrunner reportedly is Sinclair Broadcasting,

the right-wing local TV group that just last year was prevented

from buying Tribune media due to allegations of lying to the FCC and acting in bad faith

with the Tribune board. At the time, there was widespread media speculation, including here

at Axios, that Sinclair was effectively finished as a major market player, and we had three reasons.

So first, it could have regulatory difficulty getting any new deal approved, given its past behavior.

Two, there was some possibility it could lose its broadcast licenses.

And three, even if one or two didn't come to pass, who would want to do business with a company that had acted as Tribune claimed, quote,

belligerently? The answer to all three, or at least to Disney, may be that time heals all

wounds, and not even that much time either. And it matters because Sinclair wants to do much more

than just broadcast local news and baseball games. It wants to become a national, political

...