PrintSeptember 13, 2007
Moveon.Org Got Huge Discount from the Times for Petraeus Smear Ad
Never let sound business principles get in the way of a good liberal smear.
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr's New York Times ran an ad by the George Soros funded Moveon.Org on Monday that slimed 4-star General David Petraeus, basically accusing him of being a traitor. What is truly amazing is that while Sulzberger's Times is rapidly declining and losing investor confidence (as thoroughly chronicled here at AT), the paper gave a $116,000 discount to the liberal group so that they could run the ad:
According to Abbe Serphos, director of public relations for the Times, "the open rate for an ad of that size and type is $181,692."One GOP staffer on the Hill quipped it was a "family discount."
A spokesman for MoveOn.org confirmed to The Post that the liberal activist group had paid only $65,000 for the ad - a reduction of more than $116,000 from the stated rate.
A Post reporter who called the Times advertising department yesterday without identifying himself was quoted a price of $167,000 for a full-page black-and-white ad on a Monday.
Serphos declined to confirm the price and refused to offer any inkling for why the paper would give MoveOn.org such a discounted price.
I'm surprised they had to pay anything at all for the ad," the GOP staffer said. "They could have just asked the editorial page to run it and it wouldn't have cost them a cent."I wonder what the stockholders might have to say about that "discount?" More importantly, is the editorial department making business decisions for the paper now? Besides being unprecedented, it might be amusing to see if the liberals would accept ads from conservative advocacy groups and whether they would get a similar discount or, perhaps more realistically, be charged more than the going rate.
Unbelievable.
Thomas Lifson adds:
Just imagine of Fox News Channel gave a similar discount for an ad from a conservative PAC. You never see the end of it in the press, with the NYT leading the charge.
