The New York Times dramatically slashed its normal rates for a full-page advertisement for MoveOn.org's ad questioning the integrity of Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Headlined "Cooking the Books for the White House," the ad which ran in Monday's Times says Petraeus is "a military man constantly at war with the facts" and concluded - even before he testified before Congress - that "General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us."
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."
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.
Giuliani has put together an ad of his own. He's running a fundraising effort in connection with the ad, "make a contribution to help set the record straight."
Rudy Giuliani is asking the Times for the same discounted rate that MoveOn received.
What are the chances of Giuliani placing a full-page ad in the New York Times for just $65,000?
I'd say very, very slim.
The point isn't to run the ad as much as it is to draw attention to the MoveOn.org - New York Times - Democrat party axis of liberal bias.
From The Hill:
Giuliani, calling MoveOn.org’s controversial “General Betray Us” ad “abominable,” said his campaign is asking the paper for a comparable rate for an ad to run following President Bush’s speech on Iraq.
The former mayor said his ad “will obviously take the opposite view” from MoveOn.org, which argued in its ad that Gen. David Petraeus is “cooking the books” on Iraq and cherry-picking facts that support his recommendation to keep a large number of troops in Iraq for some time.
Giuliani continued to include Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in his criticisms for her comments that it would take “a willing suspension of disbelief” to accept at face value Petraeus’s report on the situation in Iraq. Giuliani interpreted Clinton’s remarks at a hearing earlier this week as questioning the general’s integrity.
“We think that her attack on Gen. Petraeus was a follow-up to the MoveOn.org/Times attack,” Giuliani told reporters in Atlanta.
Giuliani reiterated that he agrees with Petraeus’s assessment of the Iraq war, and called MoveOn.org’s ad attacking “an American general in a time of war” unprecedented.
“It’s time for Americans to really insist that American politicians move beyond character assassination,” Giuliani said. “And this is exactly what they tried to do with Gen. Petraeus. Well, it’s one thing when politicians do it to each other. It’s another thing when it’s done to an American general who has put his life at risk to protect us.”
The ad targets the Democrats in general, with particular emphasis on the goofy phrase that Hillary Clinton used at the hearing on Tuesday to belittle Gen. Petraeus' assessment of the Iraq mission, "the willing suspension of disbelief."
(Sounds like the story of her marriage.)
The ad poses the question:
Who should America listen to...
A decorated soldier's commitment to defending America, or Hillary Clinton's commitment to defending MoveOn.org?
Good question.
Simple answer.
The country should listen to "a decorated soldier's commitment to defending America," NOT "Hillary Clinton's commitment to defending MoveOn.org."
And the New York Times should give Giuliani a full-page ad for $65,000.
MoveOn.org's "General Petraeus or General Betray Us" ad has backfired big time. It shows the extremism of the MoveOn people and the desperation of Democrats willing to climb into bed with them.
NO Democrat has the courage nor the decency to denounce the ad. NO Democrat has the spine to break ranks and exhibit some integrity.
_________________________
The New York Post is enjoying watching the Times squirm.
Giuliani blasted the ad as a "character assassination of an American general in a time of war."
He also called on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to apologize to Petraeus for her treatment of him during a Senate hearing this week.
Also demanding the same price to defend Petraeus yesterday was Freedom's Watch, a group recently formed to counter organizations such as MoveOn on the Iraq war.
"It's outrageous that The New York Times would give a radical left-wing organization like MoveOn.org a discounted rate to publish an ad smearing the credibility of Gen. Petraeus," said the group's president, Brad Blakeman.
There was no response from the Times to the requests for discounted ads, the Giuliani camp and Freedom Watch said.
The Times acknowledged to The Post on Wednesday that the going rate for such an ad would be $181,692.
But a spokesman for MoveOn told The Post that the group paid just $65,000.
Amid a firestorm of criticism yesterday, the Times seemed confused about the proper ad rate.
Earlier in the day, the paper's spokeswoman said MoveOn had re ceived a discount and confirmed to Reuters the normal rate was "about $181,000." But later, the same spokeswoman told The Associated Press that the proper rate for such an ad is about $65,000.
Saying he wanted to place an advocacy group ad similar to MoveOn's, a Post re porter who contacted the Times without identifying himself was told earlier this week that the rate was about $167,000.
"We do not distinguish the advertising rates based on the political content of the ad," spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said, confirming that the normal rate was "around $181,000."
Is this a case of the NYT cover-up being worse than the offense?
I don't know. I think the offense was pretty bad.
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