NY Times in legal hot water after Petraeus ad

The New York Times has 15 days to respond to the FEC after a complaint was filed against it by the American Conservative Union in the wake of the MoveOn.org "General Petraeus or General Betray Us" ad.

The New York Post editorialized:

In theory, the commission could launch a massive investigation to determine whether the Times willfully flaunted the law, or - as it now claims - someone in the ad department made a convenient "mistake."

If evidence of the former pops up, the Times could face fines amounting to several times the discount it gave MoveOn.

George Will writes:

Bob Bauer, a Democratic lawyer specializing in laws regulating political speech, notes —not approvingly—that the Times supposedly has a policy of rejecting ads involving "personal attack" speech. But the Times accepted MoveOn.org's ad accusing a soldier of betraying his country. According to the Times' public editor, a Times official said the ad was "a comment on a public official's management of his office."

Check out ACU for more links to articles condemning MoveOn.org's ad and the New York Times' role in that sad affair.