Why Didn’t They Pay It In The First Place?
That’s the question I’m asking after reading this article about MoveOn.org announcing that they’ll pay what they should’ve paid in the first place:
The activist group MoveOn.org said it will pay the New York Times $77,083 to make up the difference between what it paid for an advertisement attacking U.S. Army General David Petraeus and the regular ad rate.
The group acted after the newspaper’s public editor wrote in a column today that the controversial full-page advertisement on Sept. 10 violated standards on content and the price given to MoveOn.org wasn’t proper under Times policies.
“While we believe that the $142,083 figure is above the market rate paid by most organizations, out of abundance of caution we have decided to pay that rate for this ad,” Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org’s executive director, said in a statement confirmed by the organization.
That’s professional spin and then some. The truth is that MoveOn.org paid the standby rate even though they were guaranteed to run on the morning of Gen. Petraeus’ testimony. Here’s the last sentence from the MoveOn.org ad:
Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us.
The Times originally said that MoveOn.org paid the standby rate, meaning that they weren’t guaranteed a date on which it would run. I think that people are insulted by the Times giving that reason when the last paragraph of the ad starts with the word TODAY. Why wouldn’t MoveOn.org simply swap out the word Today and replace it with this wording: “Sometime this week”? If they were buying a standby ad, they should’ve worded it that way. MoveOn.org isn’t the only dishonest actor in this. Here’s what Hillary said Sunday:
Clinton, of New York, said today she didn’t condone the language used against Petraeus, without naming MoveOn.org.
“I don’t believe that that should be said about General Petraeus, and I condemn that,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “I didn’t think it should’ve been said about Senator Cleland or Senator Kerry.”
Supposedly, Hillary’s got problems with the MoveOn ad but she’s perfectly willing to call Gen. Petraeus a liar:
Yesterday Clinton said the general’s testimony on progress in Iraq requires a “willing suspension of disbelief.”
Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Am I supposed to think that Hillary is against the politics of personal destruction except when she’s accusing the commander of troops in Iraq of being a liar? She didn’t use the term liar but I don’t think there’s a difference between what she said and bluntly calling Gen. Petraeus a liar.
Technorati Tags: Hillary, MoveOn.org, John Kerry, Max Cleland, General Betray Us, David Petraeus
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
September 24th, 2007 at 8:16 am
There is no difference. Hillary called Petraeus a liar as did the rest of the Democratic Party. What I cannot understand is that Petraeus should be court-martialed for treason and lying to Congress. Why hasn’t Nancy or Harry gone there yet. Oh that’s right….there’s Jefferson with $100K in his freezer, Norman Hsu (Abramoff as a ChiCom), Feinstein and her military prowess for her husband and who could leave out Murtha ‘King of Pork’?
September 24th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Gosh, let’s see. You call up any advertising vehicle on Friday and say, “I wanna run an ad on Monday.” And what’s the ad rep gonna do? Hey, he’s thrilled, he just made a sale for ad space in an edition that had plenty of space available. So, he pulls the MoveOn account, looks up what their rate is — and for those of you who don’t know how the advertising industry works, there is rack rate (the $142k) and there is the real rate which is negotiated based on frequency that you advertise, the size of the advertisement itself, and the availability of space in the desired edition — and takes the insertion order.
I dare say that any ad rep who refused an ad of that size on a Friday for Monday publication would be fired.
Even The Times itself made clear the rationale (and as you have, once again, skewed to your liking) that their policy was unclear and not followed. So MoveOn made good on The Times’ mistake.
Has Rudy, who demanded response space of the same size and at the same rate, made good on same?
And why is it that this is only such a cause celeb for the right, now? If you all were so much against misleading and lying, why didn’t you call out The Swift Boaters, the slime machine that defamed War Heroes Max Clelland and John Kerry…
Oh yeah, I forgot again. It’s okay if you’re a republican.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Rocky, its obvious your a member of Moveon.org anyway. Hell, you obviously have first hand knowledge of the avertising rate. For all we know you could be the guy that signed the check, or else its in your weekly talking pints email.
Thats OK. As I said before, my beef isnt with really with Moveon, but rather with the Dems reluctance to condemn your over the top insinuation that Patreus is a liar.
September 24th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Revealing republicans for what they are
With all the brou-ha-ha over MoveOn’s ad, which has now descended into name calling and petty bickering, what’s been lost is the discussion of the war. But what else should we expect from obstructionist republicans blocking every attempt to actually change course in Iraq.
To whit:
[David Shuster, MSNBC]: “Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last solider from your district who was killed in Iraq?”
[Marsha Blackburn, R-TN]:”The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq uh - from my district I - I do not know his name -”
Shuster: “Ok, his name was Jeremy Bohannon, he was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?”
Blackburn: “I - I, you know, I - I do not know why I did not know the name…” [Snip]
Shuster: “But you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man, he was 18 years old who was killed, and yet you can say chapter and verse about what’s going on with the New York Times and Move On.org.” [Snip]
Shuster: “But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? I mean, here we have a war that took the life of an 18 year old kid, Jeremy Bohannon from your district, and you didn’t even know his name.”
Meanwhile, it’s revealed that it was OxyRush Limpdick to first use the Betrayus slogan, specifically in reference to republican Senator Hagel.
Wow. That’s hypocrisy honed to fine art.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Shuster: “Ok, his name was Jeremy Bohannon, he was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?”
Funny thing, but the last I heard Mr. Bohannon wasn’t from her district.
So much for accuracy, Rocky.
As I understand the situation, Shuster invited Blackburn under the pretense of discussing a quite different, unrelated topic, and ambushed her with this line.
Yes, she should know all the names of soldiers killed in her district (as should every congresscritter) and their families, but some peoples’ minds just don’t work as fast as yours.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:07 am
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