NY Times Favors MoveOn.org and Lies to Readers
The NY Times public editor Clark Hoyt looked into the story of MoveOn.org’s “General Betray Us?” ad and found the newspaper violated its own policies and lied to everyone. Here are the key paragraphs:
Did MoveOn.org get favored treatment from The Times? And was the ad outside the bounds of acceptable political discourse?
The answer to the first question is that MoveOn.org paid what is known in the newspaper industry as a standby rate of $64,575 that it should not have received under Times policies. The group should have paid $142,083. The Times had maintained for a week that the standby rate was appropriate, but a company spokeswoman told me late Thursday afternoon that an advertising sales representative made a mistake.
The answer to the second question is that the ad appears to fly in the face of an internal advertising acceptability manual that says, “We do not accept opinion advertisements that are attacks of a personal nature.” Steph Jespersen, the executive who approved the ad, said that, while it was “rough,” he regarded it as a comment on a public official’s management of his office and therefore acceptable speech for The Times to print.
Someone cost the newspaper nearly $80,000 in ad revenue. In the real world that person would be fired. Times stockholders should be furious.
Then there’s the question of why MoveOn.org got favored treatment. The answer should be obvious. The Times is a liberal newspaper. They’ll give the benefit of the doubt to those with a similar ideology. It may not have been as blatant as “Give MoveOn.org a deal to bash President Bush.” More likely it was subtler with Times employees not being as critical with a group they sympathize with.
At the Times lying doesn’t rest with fraudulent reporters like Jason Blair. Deceit lies in the marrow of that institution. Removing some of its content from paid firewalls can’t combat the propaganda spewed from an organization that formally reeked of integrity.
Eric Lindholm asks, “What liberal media?” Only those using the NY Times for blinders will ask that with a straight face.
“Betraying Its Own Best Interests”
“Someone cost the newspaper nearly $80,000 in ad revenue. In the real world that person would be fired.”
Don’t be so sure about that. Discounting in the ad business is very prevalent and occasionally very deep. At the end of the day, what matters is how much revenue a rep brings in, not how close to rate card they are.