Bad Journalists, Bad Businessmen

No wonder the New York Times is losing money, the people working there don’t know what their ads cost. The Petraeus-Betray Us controversy lingers as Rudy Giuliani sought to buy an opposing ad at the same price:

There was no response from the Times to the requests for discounted ads, the Giuliani camp and Freedom Watch said.

The Times acknowledged to The Post on Wednesday that the going rate for such an ad would be $181,692.

But a spokesman for MoveOn told The Post that the group paid just $65,000.

Amid a firestorm of criticism yesterday, the Times seemed confused about the proper ad rate.

Earlier in the day, the paper’s spokeswoman said MoveOn had re ceived a discount and confirmed to Reuters the normal rate was "about $181,000." But later, the same spokeswoman told The Associated Press that the proper rate for such an ad is about $65,000.

Saying he wanted to place an advocacy group ad similar to MoveOn’s, a Post reporter who contacted the Times without identifying himself was told earlier this week that the rate was about $167,000.

"We do not distinguish the advertising rates based on the political content of the ad," spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said, confirming that the normal rate was "around $181,000."

Gee, for people who supposedly are experts at revealing scandals, the Times folk do a lousy job of handling their own. (Via Drudge.)