JustOneMinute: No Liberal Bias At The Times

No Liberal Bias At The Times

Timeswoman Katherine Seelye pursues the "General Betray Us" discounted ad puzzle and delivers a great laugher. Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis explained to Ms. Seelye why there was no bias displayed by the ad department when they gave a discount to MoveOn:

The newspaper had maintained that it charged MoveOn the same “standby” rate of $64,575 that it charges all advocacy groups for full-page, black-and-white advertisements that can run anytime in a seven-day window. But the newspaper’s spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, was quoted Sunday by The Times’s public editor, Clark Hoyt, as saying an advertising sales representative had “made a mistake” in granting the discount.

The sales representative should have charged $142,083, she said, because MoveOn wanted the advertisement to run on a specific day — Monday, Sept. 10 — and was therefore not entitled to the “standby” rate.

In a follow-up interview yesterday, Ms. Mathis declined to comment on how the original mistake occurred or how it came to light.

Asked if the sales representative was sympathetic to MoveOn or was unaware of the pricing policy, Ms. Mathis said: “The salesperson did not see the content of the ad at the time the rate was quoted. There was no bias.”

No bias! Because the sales rep had no idea at all which side of the issue MoveOn was taking!

The story reprises a bit of the background:

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.

Many critics, including some of the Republican presidential candidates as well as Vice President Dick Cheney, had accused the newspaper of giving subsidized rates to MoveOn, a liberal antiwar organization, out of sympathy with its views. The advertisement challenged the credibility of Gen. David W. Petraeus, commander of the American forces in Iraq, and asked whether he should be called “General Betray Us.”

However, the Times Public Editor stirred the pot last Sunday, as Ms. Seelye explains:

The newspaper had maintained that it charged MoveOn the same “standby” rate of $64,575 that it charges all advocacy groups for full-page, black-and-white advertisements that can run anytime in a seven-day window. But the newspaper’s spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, was quoted Sunday by The Times’s public editor, Clark Hoyt, as saying an advertising sales representative had “made a mistake” in granting the discount.

For some odd reason Ms. Seelye mentions the criticism of the ad and/or the Times from the right (President Bush, Rudy Giuliani and Dick Cheney are named, as well as "some of the Republican presidential candidates"), but she neglects to mention that the Senate voted by 72-35 to condemn the ad. Since Joe Biden, Elizabeth Edwards and eventually even Hillary Clinton spoke out against the ad, one might say we have achieved a rare bipartisan consensus here, although Ms. Seelye didn't notice it.

But there is no liberal bias at the Times. Glad they cleared that up.

Posted by Tom Maguire on September 26, 2007 | Permalink

The comments to this entry are closed.