By now, many of you have probably heard about the MoveOn.org ad that ran in the 10 Sept edition of the NY Times, which cost them $65,000--far below the rate quoted on their card. If you haven't, Bob Owens over at Confederate Yankee has been all over it.
However, it now seems that there's another twist to the story:
In short, either MoveOn got preferential treatment for their "standby" ad, or they got a heck of a discount. I can't wait to see if the NY Times permits Freedom's Watch to rerun their ad at the same rate that MoveOn paid.The full page MoveOn.org ran on September 10, 2007 attacked General David Patreus’ credibility and patriotism. Freedom’s Watch’s full page on September 11, 2007 honored the memory of the victims of 9-11 and reminded your readers that America is engaged in a global war on terror.
According to the published reports, MoveOn.org paid $65,000 for its full page ad. This rate was not offered to Freedom’s Watch to run the same size ad with the same placement on September 11, 2007. The New York Times representative explained to us that we could run a “standby rate” ad for $65,000, but we could not pick the date or placement of the ad. At a minimum, it’s clear that MoveOn.org was able to pick the date of their ad or was given preferential treatment on the timing of the ad because it was reported before it was published.
We are at a loss to explain this discriminatory pricing. The only difference between the ads appears to be that Freedom's Watch disagrees with your paper’s editorial policy while MoveOn.org basically agrees with it. Surely it is not the policy of the Times to give discounts to certain advertisers based on this. And surely you do not wish to convey that your newspaper has suspended any patina of objectivity and fairness and is now actively promoting the MoveOn.org worldview in your news pages.
I am betting they won't, to be quite honest with you. Lefties like those in charge of the NY Times are nothing if not shameless.
|