Summary
Even in the highly negotiable realm of newspaper advertising rates, the deal MoveOn.org got for its "General Petraeus or Betray Us?" full-page advertisement in the New York Times raises legitimate questions. Thanks to onerous campaign-finance laws championed by the New York Times (and opposed by this newspaper), this deal among sweethearts may warrant examination by the Federal Election Commission. The question is whether the New York Times effectively made an "in-kind" contribution to MoveOn.org.
The issue hinges on whether the newspaper's "stand-by" rate - $45,575 for a full-page, black-and-white advertisement with no guarantee to run on a given day - became more than the stand-by rate. Such an advertisement with a guaranteed "run date" costs more than three times that. Two additional details raising interesting questions have now come to light. The first suggests that MoveOn.org knew, for certain, that the advertisement would run on Monday, Sept. 10. The other suggests that the newspaper had told certain persons on the previous Friday that the advertisement would run on Monday. This matters, because such treatment could arguably constitute the "in-kind" contribution to a political-action committee subject to legal restrictions.See the full content of this document
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The Family Discount
"Today, before Congress and before the American people," t...
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