Bob Bauer has some interesting thoughts on the legal aspects of the NYT‘s acknowledgment that MoveOn.Org was not charged the proper rate for its “General Betray-Us” ad at the More Soft Money Hard Law blog.
The campaign finance laws that the Times has so righteously championed have, by its own admission, trapped the paper in a violation. A salesperson got the rate wrong, and though the advertisement is not aimed at an election, does not support a candidate, and does not promote a political party—though its purpose is to weigh in on a debate over national security policy—the discounted price paid by MoveOn is arguably an illegal contribution in kind from the Times to a federally regulated “political committee.” Silly as this may seem, the Times is the last publication in the land to grouse about the madness and injustice of it all.