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09-24-2007, 12:27 AM
New York Times gave 'price break' on ad berating Petraeus (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/2-0-2&fp=46f74f50baa9d0a8&ei=Czz3RqOlE5igar2UuNkP&url=http%3A//www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usrudy0924%2C0%2C4525747.story%3Fcoll%3Dny_home_ra il_headlines&cid=1121192389)
Newsday.com
New York Times gave 'price break' on ad berating Petraeus
BY TOM BRUNE
tom.brune@newsday.com
11:33 PM EDT, September 23, 2007
WASHINGTON
The New York Times gave an unwarranted $77,000 "price break" to liberal MoveOn.org on its Sept. 10 full-page ad berating Army Gen. David Petraeus after all, the newspaper admitted Sunday.
After two weeks of saying it had given no special discount, the Times' Public Editor Clark Hoyt revealed Sunday that the paper should have charged MoveOn.org a $142,083 fixed-date rate instead of the $64,575 "seven-day standby" rate it did.
MoveOn.org executive director Eli Pariser insisted his political action group thought it had gotten a standard rate when it paid $65,000 for the ad, but said it would wire the Times the $77,083 difference today.
The Times' admission is certain to revive the ad controversy just as it was dying out, and could affect a federal probe.
The American Conservative Union has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, charging the Times' lower rate was an illegal campaign donation to MoveOn.org.
In his column yesterday, Hoyt said the Times also violated a policy against ads containing "attacks of a personal nature" by accepting the MoveOn.org ad copy, titled "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"
"I think the ad violated The Times' own written standards, and the paper now says that the advertiser got a price break it was not entitled to," he said.
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis told Hoyt, "We made a mistake."
Mathis blamed the ad department.
Pariser told Hoyt that MoveOn.org called the Times on Friday, Sept. 7, asking for a rush ad for the following Monday when Petraeus would go to Capitol Hill to give his Iraq war report.
The ad representative said there was room Monday and it would cost $65,000 -- without saying that "standby rate" did not guarantee a certain day, but simply one day of the Times' choosing in a seven-day period.
Not only did the representative fail to spell that out, Mathis said, but he "left MoveOn.org with the understanding that the ad would run" that Monday.
Pariser called on Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who demanded and got the same low rate from the Times for his own Sept. 14 ad attacking MoveOn.org, to also pay the more than $77,000 difference.
But Giuliani spokeswoman Katie Levinson replied, "While we appreciate that The New York Times and MoveOn.org have both publicly acknowledged their sweetheart deal, no amount of money will make right this misguided ploy attacking a general in a time of war."
Copyright © 2007, Newsday Inc.
Newsday.com
New York Times gave 'price break' on ad berating Petraeus
BY TOM BRUNE
tom.brune@newsday.com
11:33 PM EDT, September 23, 2007
WASHINGTON
The New York Times gave an unwarranted $77,000 "price break" to liberal MoveOn.org on its Sept. 10 full-page ad berating Army Gen. David Petraeus after all, the newspaper admitted Sunday.
After two weeks of saying it had given no special discount, the Times' Public Editor Clark Hoyt revealed Sunday that the paper should have charged MoveOn.org a $142,083 fixed-date rate instead of the $64,575 "seven-day standby" rate it did.
MoveOn.org executive director Eli Pariser insisted his political action group thought it had gotten a standard rate when it paid $65,000 for the ad, but said it would wire the Times the $77,083 difference today.
The Times' admission is certain to revive the ad controversy just as it was dying out, and could affect a federal probe.
The American Conservative Union has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, charging the Times' lower rate was an illegal campaign donation to MoveOn.org.
In his column yesterday, Hoyt said the Times also violated a policy against ads containing "attacks of a personal nature" by accepting the MoveOn.org ad copy, titled "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"
"I think the ad violated The Times' own written standards, and the paper now says that the advertiser got a price break it was not entitled to," he said.
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis told Hoyt, "We made a mistake."
Mathis blamed the ad department.
Pariser told Hoyt that MoveOn.org called the Times on Friday, Sept. 7, asking for a rush ad for the following Monday when Petraeus would go to Capitol Hill to give his Iraq war report.
The ad representative said there was room Monday and it would cost $65,000 -- without saying that "standby rate" did not guarantee a certain day, but simply one day of the Times' choosing in a seven-day period.
Not only did the representative fail to spell that out, Mathis said, but he "left MoveOn.org with the understanding that the ad would run" that Monday.
Pariser called on Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who demanded and got the same low rate from the Times for his own Sept. 14 ad attacking MoveOn.org, to also pay the more than $77,000 difference.
But Giuliani spokeswoman Katie Levinson replied, "While we appreciate that The New York Times and MoveOn.org have both publicly acknowledged their sweetheart deal, no amount of money will make right this misguided ploy attacking a general in a time of war."
Copyright © 2007, Newsday Inc.