A Democratic Senate candidate's political advertisement was removed from the New England Sports Network (NESN) midway through a baseball game after it criticised the Boston Red Sox owners. Graham Platner, who is running for the Maine Senate seat currently held by Republican Susan Collins, aired the 15-second ad on May 22, accusing the team's owners of allowing private equity firms to destroy the franchise.
In the ad, Platner said: 'Private equity has destroyed our favourite baseball team. Stripping them for parts.' He promised to 'reverse the private equity curse' and added: 'I'm Graham Platner, and I approve this message because I miss Mookie Betts,' referencing the outfielder traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.
NESN, which is partly owned by the Red Sox, stated that the ad was removed 'because the creative included unauthorised use of third-party intellectual property and did not comply with NESN's advertising standards.' The network did not specify which aspects of the ad violated these standards.
Platner's campaign referenced a 2021 Axios article reporting that the Red Sox majority owner sold roughly 11 per cent of his stake in Fenway Sports Group, the team's parent company, to a New York-based private equity firm. Platner, a 41-year-old Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer, is running on a progressive Democratic platform and has gained national attention, though he has also faced controversy over past social media posts and a tattoo.
