A Fox Broadcasting executive denied that Barack Obama’s half-hour ad, scheduled for tomorrow night, forced Fox and Major League Baseball to delay the start of a World Series game.
That notion — which had been reported repeatedly, including here, has become a Republican talking point.
“No one will delay the World Series game with an infomercial when I’m president,” John McCain said today.
But the Fox account executive who negotiated the ad buy said Obama’s ad isn’t delaying the first pitch — it’s just replacing the pre-game show.
“Our first pitch for the world series is usually around 8:30 anyway – so we didn’t push back the game, it was really just about suspending the pre-game — you know, Joe Buck,” said the account executive, Joe Coppola. “That’s all we did.”
Republicans and Democrats can agree on this one point. Listening to Joe Buck is like being punched in the face repeatedly. Whatever else you have to say we all can agree that Joe Buck sucks, so thank Barack for his patriotic duty tonight. It just cost him millions of dollars to spare you from 30 minutes of mindless boobery.
You want a great play-by-play team, watch Red Sox games on MLB.tv — Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy are both knowledgeable and personable, and have a great on-air dynamic. Buck is mostly inoffensive, and that’s fine by me in a world where Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver actually draw salaries as baseball “experts.”
Let’s not forget the pain Chicago White Sox fans endure six months out of the year being forced to listen to Hawk Harrelson and his buddy DJ.
These guys? Experts? Seriously now, it’s an insult to experts everywhere to actually PAY these guys to do what they do.
I think all of us- Democrat, Republican, Farmer-Laborite- can agree that listening to the Buck/McCarver ticket prattle on during the postseason is an offense to the ears and minds of baseball fans across this great state and our great nation…
Ah, drat. On preview, everything Joe said.
so maybe being spared the pregame show is a favor to some in the nation (I only watch series when Twins are in it) I think Obama’s overtaking most of the air waves tomorrow is risky when he is currently so well positioned to win big. That this big ad buy would be used to attack him is very predictable. That I think he may have gone a bit overboard with this suggests to me that the attacks may be at least somewhat effective. Hope he has everyone talking about his program Thurday in a very positive way. I predict an emphasis on themes of unity and hope he hits all the right notes.
I’d prefer Joe Buck.
By the way, according to multiple sports news sites, they did push the game back to accomodate Obama (and his $1 million dollars). To be safe, I chose an NBC source since you all seem to find them highly reputable.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/27217024/
I have to admit, though, brilliant political move. He’ll reach much of the demographic who perhaps skipped the debates, he’ll have an ad that won’t simply be TiVo’d past, he’ll subliminally associate himself with the great american pastime. And to think that at one point he was going to accept public financing!
DtM, you get so much, so consistently wrong I’m not going to bother with this.
Does McCain remember that the NFL season opener was moved up an hour and a half to accommodate his RNC speech? Sometimes his selective memory is intentional.
Obama initially offered to purchase the ad time only if the Series was over before Game Six. FOX made the decision to sell the campaign the time whether or not a game was played (this is according to a FOX executive so it must be true). Why is McCain now criticizing Obama for a business decision made by a private corporation?
Is there a World Series going on?
Yawn…
They’ll, like on every year anyway, aren’t they?
Sounds kinda crybaby of McCain.
I feel sorry for DantheMan’s mother. It must be tough knowing that she failed so miserably.
Classy, Dan.
Maybe when you stop being such a lying sack of crap, you can talk about class.
Dan - When I say things that you disagree with, it is not the same as lying.
The amazing thing here is how little I actually get any kind of rebuttal or reasoned disagreement with my points.
Simply responding to a point by calling the person names or spewing insults is precisely why people are leery of Al Franken. He made his living being divisive and now he is claiming he can be part of the solution. That is incredibly hard to buy.
Dan, if you have any reasoned responses to the honest points I’m making, I have yet to see them.
No DantheMan, when I (and others here) call you a liar, its because you are lying. Your problem is that you have a hard time making points without lying, so it seems as if you are being called out on everything you say.
The diary (and the links to it) explain exactly what happened, and the truth is that the game did not get pushed back for Obama’s speech. The original plan was not to run Obama’s speech if the series went to a sixth game, but Fox decided it wanted the ad revenue and said it would run it anyway. The games have all started between 8:27 and 8:35 (where it will start now), so if for some reason this game was supposed to be at 8:27 (and there is no particular reason it would) the delay would be 8 minutes. There was no accomodation of Obama. This was a windfall for Fox, compared to the ad revenue they would get for that crappy pregame.
In any event, your claim that the game was pushed back to accomodate Obama is simply false. The irony of course is that the only sporting event that was actually moved to accomodate a candidate, was the football game that was moved up for McCain’s speech.
Poor Mrs. theMan.
McCain’s 30 second spot after the Obama infomercial:
Barack Obama said that he would accept public financing for this campaign but then stabbed me in the back and changed his mind. Since I kept my pledge I’m all out of money and cannot compete for airtime. I’m John McCain and I approved this very short message.
Oh yes. Everyone in the country must watch this ad. If you can’t watch Obama for 30 minutes, what makes you think you can stand four (8 really) years of him?