MoveOn PaysUp for New York Times Ad

The anti-war organization MoveOn.org stated that it will pay The New York Times an additional $77,083 for an ad that ran earlier this month alleging that General Petraeus was betraying the country by mischaracterizing the state of progress of the war in Iraq. The additional payment comes after some raised objections to what was portrayed as preferential pricing offered to MoveOn and accompanying accusations of political bias against the Times.

The ad, its pricing, and follow-up ads criticizing people for not criticizing the ad caused quite a ruckus two weeks ago. Rudy Giuliani placed a large ad in the Times himself, knocking Hillary Clinton for not objecting to the MoveOn piece. There was a good deal of back-and-forth arguing about whether the Times offered a political advocacy group a preferential ad rate for airing a viewpoint to which it was possibly sympathetic. According to the New York Post, MoveOn is sending the Times more than $75,000 to put the issue to rest. MoveOn's director, Eli Pariser, said that he thought his organization was paying the appropriate rate at the time, but that it was sending the additional funds to the Times after the paper said that the lower price was a mistake.

We were wondering if former Mayor Giuliani would be sending the Times additional funds, since he insisted on equal pricing when he ran his ad criticizing Sen. Clinton. The Post says that the Times shouldn't hold its breath waiting for a check. A spokesperson for Giuliani was quoted, "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."

(Graphic from the New York Post)