MoveOn.org Story Moves On
Bob Bauer, lawyer to Sen. Obama’s Presidential campaign and an expert on campaign law, describes the bind the NY Times is now in:
The campaign finance laws that the Times has so righteously championed have, by its own admission, trapped the paper in a violation. A salesperson got the rate wrong, and though the advertisement is not aimed at an election, does not support a candidate, and does not promote a political party—though its purpose is to weigh in on a debate over national security policy—the discounted price paid by MoveOn is arguably an illegal contribution in kind from the Times to a federally regulated “political committee.” Silly as this may seem, the Times is the last publication in the land to grouse about the madness and injustice of it all.
Then we see MoveOn.org sent a check [via Michelle Malkin] to the Times to pay the going rate for an ad. I first thought the idea of an FEC violation to be ludicrous and a waste of time. MoveOn.org’s actions indicate there may be something there.
What about the (non-Fred) candidate’s bargain ad that was run in the Times? Is he required to retroactively pay that higher rate too?