I remember reading the Confederate Yankee's Sept. 10 post about New York Times ad rates, and thinking, this whole thing is just a crazy kind of oblique attack on MoveOn. But, I thought, it really isn't worth writing about. Crazy stuff gets said on these rightie blogs all the time.
Well, I was wrong. How could I have known that the entire Right Wing Echo Machine would line up behind an unresearched blog attack? From Rush Limbaugh to Fox News, to Michelle Malkin, Captains Quarters and just about every major rightie blogger, and rightie milblogger, the screaming was incredible.
They HAD the New York Times dead to rights. Right?
Er ... Whoopsies!
Friday's Advertising Age confirms that there was nothing untoward about the New York Times ad buy by MoveOn.org. Giuliani paid the same price for HIS ad.
Whoops!
Virtually EVERY major Rightie blogger, magazine and news source had trumpeted the Confederate Yankee's classic 2+2=5 formulation and the Conservative Union even went so far as to file a complaint with the FEC against the New York Times.
Whoops!
Read 'em & weep, righties:
from Advertising Age
Giuliani Also Gets Liberal Discount From Times
Marketers, Take Note: 61% Price Chop for Ad in Grey Lady if You Buy Standby
By Nat Ives and Ira Teinowitz
Published: September 14, 2007
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Rudy Giuliani got a lot of attention yesterday when he attacked The New York Times for giving MoveOn.org what he called sweetheart pricing on the group's "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" ad. Mr. Giuliani expertly rode the right-wing wave of anger over what appeared to be a $65,000 bargain -- a $116,000 discount off the rate card.
The MoveOn ad that angered Rudy Giuliani and his ad team. The GOP presidential candidate received the same sweet deal he railed against for his rebuttal ad today.
The MoveOn ad that angered Rudy Giuliani and his ad team. The GOP presidential candidate received the same sweet deal he railed against for his rebuttal ad today.
The American Conservative Union went so far as to file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, claiming that MoveOn and the New York Times Co. violated the "Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended, and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002."
[...]
MoveOn told ABC's Jake Tapper that the group paid $65,000 for a Sept. 10 ad accusing General David Petraeus of "cooking the books for the White House" in his status reports on Iraq. The Times rate card implies that weekday, full-page, black-and-white cause, appeal or political ads cost $181,692.
Our old friend Butt Plug Bob is cited directly as the source. The irony in all of this was that Friday was the day that (in between begging for money, and thanking folks for the new laptop they bought for him) the self-righteous little "citizen journalist" decided to preach about journalistic ethics in a carpet chewing post, attacking The New Republic, which, via L'Affaire Beauchamp, is rapidly turning into Bob's Fifteen Minutes of Fame:
I think we can come up with just a few journalistic offenses more damning than mere plagiarism.
(Gee, I can't. But then, I've been plagiarized, and been a professional writer for more than 30 years. But, as usual, the Confederate Yankee, Butt Plug Bob knows more than us mere mortals. Except ... whoops!)
And here's the "Famous last words" line:
When you try to justify the fact you didn't do basic fact-checking before you ran these stories ...
Advertising Age continues:
A post on the blog Confederate Yankee soon noted the disparity. "While I'm fairly certain that nobody pays 'sticker' prices, 61% off seems a rather sweet deal," his post said. The New York Post picked up the story yesterday, running a piece headlined "Times Gives Lefties a Hefty Discount for 'Betray Us' Ad" and followed up with another article and an editorial today. "Citing the shared liberal bias of the group and the Times," the Post wrote, "one Republican aide on Capitol Hill speculated that it was the 'family discount.'"
Mr. Giuliani, speaking in Atlanta yesterday, demanded that the Times apologize and offer him the same price.
Standby basis
But MoveOn bought its ad on a "standby" basis, under which it can ask for a day and placement in the paper but doesn't get any guarantees. Standby pricing doesn't appear on the Times rate card -- but that kind of ad at a standby rate turns out to run about $65,000.
And that's what the Giuliani campaign paid as well, according to one person close to the Times, for its counter ad today berating MoveOn and, in turn, Hillary Clinton for refusing to denounce the "Betray Us" ad.
A campaign spokeswoman declined to say what the Giuliani campaign paid but said it was told by the newspaper that it was being charged the same standard rate MoveOn was charged.
Virtually every major Rightie news source got caught in the credibility gap, including Fox News, and all the astroturf groups, like Newsbusters (for whom Butt Plug Bob blogs), The Weekly Standard, Malkin, Captain's Quarters, Gateway Pundit, Ace of Spaces, O'Reilly, Limbaugh ... on and on goes the list. "The Whole Scurvy Crew," to crib from Pynchon.
Now, who's lecturing about "fact-checking" and "anonymous sources" and how "incompetent" the Main Stream Media is?
And how come it doesn't bother anybody that THIS was the guy that Petraeus' P.R. officer wrote the email "confirming" that Beauchamp's TNR articles were supposedly debunked?
Hmmm. It's damned quiet out there in Wingnut Land. Ain't that funny?
You'd think they'd have the good grace to issue a correction or an apology. After all, they're sure as hell quick and loud to demand one when anyone else screws up this bad.
(Sound of a lone cricket chirping in a very large hall.)
Courage.
==============
See: How Green Was My Talking Point
Domino Theory
Betray Us, Petraeus? Righties Can’t Seem To ‘Move On’
Meet The New Baghdad Bob