For nearly two weeks, the New York Times has been defending a political advertisement that critics say was an unfair shot at the US commander in Iraq.
But I think the ad violated the Times' own written standards, and the paper now says that the advertiser got a price break it was not entitled to.
On Monday, Sept. 10, the day General David Petraeus came before Congress to warn against a rapid withdrawal of troops, the Times carried a full-page ad attacking his truthfulness.
Under the provocative headline "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" the ad, purchased by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org, charged that the highly decorated Petraeus was "constantly at war with the facts" in giving upbeat assessments of progress and refusing to acknowledge that Iraq is "mired in an unwinnable religious civil war."
"Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us," MoveOn.org declared.
The ad infuriated conservatives, dismayed many Democrats and ignited charges that the liberal Times aided its friends at MoveOn.org with a steep discount in the price paid to publish its message, which might amount to an illegal contribution to a political action committee.
In more than 4,000 e-mails, people around the country raged at the Times with words like "despicable," "disgrace" and "treason."
US President George W. Bush called the ad "disgusting."
The Senate, controlled by Democrats, voted overwhelmingly to condemn the ad.
The American Conservative Union filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the New York Times Co and MoveOn.org. FreedomsWatch.org, a group recently formed to support the war, asked me to investigate because it said it wasn't offered the same terms for a response ad that MoveOn.org got.
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 US$64,575 that it should not have received under Times policies.
The group should have paid US$142,083. The Times had maintained for a week that the standby rate was appropriate, but a company spokeswoman told me on Thursday afternoon that an ad 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.
By the end of last week the ad appeared to have backfired on both MoveOn.org and fellow opponents of the war in Iraq -- and on the Times.
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