World Series pushed back for Barack Obama (and Fox Sports)
Major League Baseball agreed Wednesday to push back the start time of Game 6 of the World Series by about 15 minutes so that Fox Broadcasting Co. could sell Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama a half-hour of prime time on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
The campaign also has bought the same time period -- 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29 -- on CBS and NBC so Obama can run a 30-minute program on all of the networks. Each network is selling the time for $950,000 to $1 million. Buying time on all of the major broadcast networks would allow Obama to reach more than 20 million people on the Wednesday before the election.
A spokesman for Fox said the network would make available a similar 30-minute block of time for the Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain, if he chooses. Time for McCain would be either later that night (if there is no Game 6) or the following evening.
Major League Baseball did not have an immediate comment.
UPDATE: Alex Conant, spokesman with the Republican National Committee responds with this: “It’s unfortunate that the World Series’ first pitch is being delayed for Obama’s political pitch. Not only is Obama putting politics before principle, he’s putting it before our national pastime.”
-- Meg James
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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That's nice! "Alex Conant, spokesman with the Republican National Committee responds with this: “It’s unfortunate that the World Series’ first pitch is being delayed for Obama’s political pitch. Not only is Obama putting politics before principle, he’s putting it before our national pastime.”
Please, its not the first pitch of the World Series, its the pitch of game 6! PLUS if anyone should be criticized it should be FOX for trying to make money during that time period. Obama isn't pushing anything back. Alex Conant is a moron who has nothing better to say.
Posted by: Ohplease | October 15, 2008 at 07:12 PM
McCain's campaign is complaining? That's rich.
Last September, the NFL moved up the kickoff time of the opening-night game to make sure the game would be over before John McCain gave his acceptance speech at the Republican national convention.
Posted by: Zuzu | October 16, 2008 at 03:41 AM
Alex is just mad his Team didn't think of it first....
I can't wait to see what Obama has planned for 10/29
Posted by: C Shaw | October 16, 2008 at 09:32 AM
What's next, banning apple pie? The World Series has only been postponed for rain, earthquakes, and the events after 9/11. The World Series has never been postponed for some jackass trying to buy an election. We've been listening to his propaganda for nearly two years, enough already! But now to delay America's passtime? I've lost all respect for the stuffed suit Obama and his money flaunting ploy. Then again, I have very little repsect for politicians in general.
Posted by: DL | October 27, 2008 at 06:07 AM