Caveat Emptor - Especially if You're Emptoring Anti-Administration Ads at the NYT

Jeez, if my husband didn't love reading it, I'd cancel my subscription to the rag. From Not in Our Name:

We had planned for the new Not In Our Name statement of conscience to run on Friday, January 21, in the New York Times. We had a contract and a confirmation number. This ad was to be our answer to the inauguration, and it was timed to appear in the middle of the inauguration news coverage.

The ad did not run. The advertising department were themselves deeply surprised by this, and have not been able to explain what happened. In fact, we were told that to their knowledge this had never happened before.

At the same time, the Times lead editorial said that this should be a time of legitimacy and acceptance for the President -- and that this was especially something that the opposition has to come to terms with.

It is unacceptable that we do not yet know why something that "has never happened before" happened -- a full page paid ad, accepted and slotted in, did not run. This is especially so when the content of the ad, the need to resist the course that this administration has set, is so important to the people of this country and the world. There needs to be an investigation of what went wrong and why. If it was just an honest mistake, we expect that the Times itself would want to know why in order to prevent it from occurring again.

What are the odds that the paper will take any action to get to the bottom of this? We can up them slightly by spreading the word and contacting Okrent. Although it's tough to shame a whore, it's not impossible.

email: Public@nytimes.com
phone: 212.556.7652
Address: Public Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036-3959

Links via Body and Soul and Sisyphus Shrugged

Comments

[Diane Clark]

I do know of another instance that the NYT has made choices of what to allow on their pages. Some years ago a piece was written by the President of NOW in LA. She wrote an article on a major news maker and after 2 weeks of waiting called and called again and was assured it would run. It never did. The piece was written by Tammy Bruce regarding Dr. Laura. It works that way at the times. Despite what you may have thought about the times being fair and balanced the other side of the aisle has been in your spot for decades, it is a very good feeling to know finally you folks are walking in the same shoes.

[eRobin]

An article isn't the same as an ad that was contracted to run.