MoveOn Pays The Times $77,508 for Ad Cost

MOVEON PAYS THE TIMES $77,508 FOR AD COST
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katharine Seelye]
The end of the story? Probably not. MoveOn.org said yesterday that it paid The New York Times $77,508 after the newspaper revealed that its advertising department had undercharged the organization for an advertisement that ran two weeks ago and proved controversial. The American Conservative Union has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against both The Times and MoveOn. It said The Times violated federal rules because corporations cannot make campaign donations. It said MoveOn’s acceptance of the rate was a violation because the “contribution” was over the legal limit. Among those attacking the advertisement has been Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Republican presidential candidate, who ran his own advertisement later in the week. He paid the same standby rate that MoveOn paid. Lane Hudson, a liberal blogger (www.newsfortheleft.com), filed a complaint Monday saying the Giuliani campaign should pay The Times an additional $77,000 for its advertisement; otherwise it would be accepting an illegal corporate contribution that was over the legal limit. A spokesman for the Giuliani campaign said that it would not pay the difference because The Times did not guarantee when it would run the advertisement. “Our ad not only met the acceptability standards of The New York Times, but it was placed at the standby rate with no commitment it would run on a specific date,” the spokesman said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/us/26moveon.html?ref=todayspaper
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* Sauce for the Times
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: George Will]
[Commentary] The Times, a media corporation that is a fountain of detailed editorial instructions about how the rest of the world should conduct its business, seems confused about how it conducts its own.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/25/AR200709...
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* MoveOn.org ad scares away some Democrats
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/moveon.org-ad-scares-away-some-democ...