N.Y. Times Admits Petraeus Ad Sold to Moveon.org at 1/2 Off

The old gray lady has some explaining to do.

Officials at the New York Times have admitted a liberal activist group was permitted to pay half the rate it should have for a provocative ad condemning U.S. Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus.

The MoveOn ad, which cast Petraeus as "General Betray Us" and attacked his truthfulness, ran on the same day the commander made a highly anticipated appearance before Congress.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the Public Editor
column of today's New York Times, the Times' vice president admits that,
without the knowledge or consent of MoveOn.org Political Action, the Times
"made a mistake" in charging MoveOn its standby rate of $65,000 for the
advertisement run on Monday September 10.

MoveOn to Pay Full Times Ad Rate

On the issue of an issue that just hasn’t moved on, the liberal activist group MoveOn.org announced this afternoon that, in light of today’s column by The Times’s public editor, Clark Hoyt, it would pay the full advertisement rate of $142,083 for its controversial “General Betray Us?” spot in the A-section of the newspaper nearly two weeks ago.