NY Times Busted!

[Blotan Hunka]

N.Y. Times admits violation of ad policy
By Howard Kurtz - WASHINGTON POST
Updated: 09/24/07 6:55 AM

WASHINGTON — After two weeks of denials, the New York Times acknowledged that it should not have given a discount to MoveOn.org for a fullpage advertisement assailing Gen. David H. Petraeus.

The liberal advocacy group should have paid $142,000 for the ad calling the U.S. commander in Iraq “General Betray Us,” not $65,000, the newspaper’s public editor wrote Sunday.

Clark Hoyt said in his column that MoveOn was not entitled to the cheaper “standby” rate for advertising that can run any time over the following week because the Times did promise that the ad would run Sept. 10, the day Petraeus began his congressional testimony. “We made a mistake,” Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis was quoted as saying.

MoveOn, saying it had no reason to believe it was paying “anything other than the normal and usual charge,” said Sunday that it would send the Times $77,000 to make up the difference.

The Times also violated its advertising policy, which bars “attacks of a personal nature,” Hoyt reported. He wrote that the episode “gave fresh ammunition to a cottage industry that loves to bash The Times as a bastion of the ‘liberal media.’ ”

On Friday, the Senate voted 75-25 to denounce the ad.

The group told its 3 million members by e-mail that some might think “the language went too far . . . But make no mistake: this is much bigger than one ad.”

No liberal media bias??

Right.

 

[Big Don]

If you expect to see this on tonight's news as anything other than a footnote, you're crazy

 

[CoryKS]

heh.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=NYT&t=5y

 

[Phoenix44]

I heard about this on the radio, and read about it on AP. MoveOn's Executive Director had no idea they'd gotten a discount--and promptly paid the difference. Shouldn't really matter to MoveOn, since they took in $500,000 in donations in a single day after the Senate issued a resolution against MoveOn.

But I'm sure you'll keep hearing about the "discount" on Fox News for the next week or so.

 

[KogaTengu]

I heard about this on the radio, and read about it on AP. MoveOn's Executive Director had no idea they'd gotten a discount--and promptly paid the difference. Shouldn't really matter to MoveOn, since they took in $500,000 in donations in a single day after the Senate issued a resolution against MoveOn.

But I'm sure you'll keep hearing about the "discount" on Fox News for the next week or so.

Yea, from the tone of the ad they sound real innocent

Yes, it's called CYOA.

Yup, there are a lot of gullible people with money to throw away in this country.

...and Fox isn't the one on trial here....nice redirect.

 

[CoryKS]

I predict that for a few days they will remember why they called their organization "MoveOn", and then it will be back to the same tired litany of stolen elections, WMD, and chimpeachment.

 

[michaeledward]

N.Y. Times admits violation of ad policy
By Howard Kurtz - WASHINGTON POST
Updated: 09/24/07 6:55 AM

No liberal media bias??

Right.

Is this a conservative arguing for price controls? Wow.

Seems to me, the NY Times, in a free market, should charge what ever it wants to whom ever it wants, and it shouldn't be anyone elses business.

 

[michaeledward]

Hey ... guess what ...

The Rudy Guiliani Presidential Campaign demanded to run an advertisement in the New York Times ....

Wanna guess what rate they paid?

Do you suppose the Guiliani campaign is going to make up the difference, out of an 'abundance of caution'?

 

[Phoenix44]

...and Fox isn't the one on trial here....nice redirect.

True. As a matter of fact, no one's on trial here.

The NY Times quoted a price. MoveOn paid it. The Times said they made a mistake, and MoveOn paid the difference. End of story.

And I'd love to see the Giuliani campaign make up the difference, too.