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NYT Lies, People Will Die

… If they have their way, that is.

UPDATE: James Hanson, aka Jimbo at Blackfive, former newspaper ad salesman, is of the opinion that cutting rates on political ads could be an issue deserving of FEC attention.  That’s what they always told him: Don’t do it. Hence his grievance re NYT/MoveOn.* 

UPDATE: Spectator, NYT rejected ads from Swift Boat Vets and National Right to Life that would have qualified for same “advocacy” discount.   

If you’re new to this story, here’s what it’s about:

Wouldn’t you know it. Times gave a break to MoveOn.org to gratuitously and falsely insult Petraeus. It isn’t editorializing. It’s subsidizing propaganda. Maybe Petraeus should consider cutting the NYT’s Baghdad bureau off from any access to the U.S. military in Iraq.  It’s not like they are doing much in the way of meaningful reporting there, anyway. Could lead to some unpleasant truths being aired, a little housecleaning. Theoretically what the ad department does and what the editorial page does are separate from what the news department does. Or doesn’t do.

Speaking of Petraeus, here’s how he deals with this nonsense.

* I’m not in the ad half of the business, I have no clue.  But imagine if that were true, and the New York Times had make up for it. Giving a cutrate full-page ad to everyone else who wants to make a political point about Iraq seems fair. I might like to place one myself. I’m as entitled to a political opinion on Iraq as MoveOn.org is.  So is my buddy Surber.  Midwest Jim at Gateway might want to weigh in.  I know Blackfive and Mudville have a lot to say. That could add up quick and get real expensive for the New York Times real fast. Could be a problem. There’s Cassandra, and Captains Quarters, and Powerline, and Instapundit … there’s really a lot of people who would like an opportunity to express their views about Iraq and Gen. Petraeus in a full-page ad in the New York Times. Take up a collection, raise that special political cutrate fee.  Or maybe get it free, as there ought to be some kind of penalty.  Can’t leave out Daily Kos and that crowd. They’ll need a rebuttal. Cutrate. Or free, whatever. Free ads all around! Fair’s fair. 

 … I don’t think the Sulzbergers aren’t going to like this.  

Surber: “Asking an editorial writer about advertising is like asking the monkey how much the organ grinder makes. What do I know? They throw me peanuts and I’m happy.” Ha! On an equally serious note, Surber points out that one shouldn’t discount the obvious. Maybe NYT’s so desperate for money they’ll take any cheap bid.

Topics: Iraq, media, military

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:48 am on Thursday, September 13, 2007

32 Responses to “NYT Lies, People Will Die”

1. Purple Avenger Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 11:44 am

   The NYT should have been thrown out 3 years ago.

2. Betray Us, Petraeus? Righties Can’t Seem To ‘Move On’ « his vorpal sword Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

   [...] Jules Crittenden: NYT Lies, People Will Die [...]

3. wirro Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

   In fairness, can you tell us how often the Boston Herald actually receives the Rate Card price?

4. Balloon Juice Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

   [...] Allegedly a reporter, Jules Crittenden writes: [...]

5. RebeccaH Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

   The left becomes ever more shrilly lunatic, and the New York Times steps closer to becoming known as the Grey Baglady.

6. saltydog Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 2:31 pm

   Grey Baglady! Hahahahaha! Thanks, Rebecca!

   Jules, they’re on to you. “Allegedly a reporter.” They must not have caught your lantern jaw.

7. The_Real_JeffS Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

   John Cole seems not to read anything but the NYT. That’s his problem, it seems.

8. Vanguard of the Commentariat Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

   “Allegedly a reporter”.

   JC it sounds like they have you confused with Dan Rather.

9. The_Real_JeffS Says:
   September 13th, 2007 at 2:39 pm

   From the Boston Herald link:

   If you can keep your head when all about you
   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
   If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
   But make allowance for their doubting too;
   If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
   Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
   Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
   And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise
   Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
   And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!

   Ah, the immortal Kipling! Nice catch, whoever sent this to GEN Petraeus.

10. corndog Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

    Yeah, Jeffy. Too bad he missed this one:

    And when ten million such were slain
    To please one crazy king,
    Man, schooled in bulk by fear and pain,
    Grew weary of the thing;

    All Power, each Tyrant, every Mob
    Whose head has grown too large,
    Ends by destroying its own job
    And works its own discharge

11. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 4:47 pm

    corndog, I admit what I posted (as copied from the Herald) was incomplete, but at least it kept the intent of the poem. I’m not so sure you can say the same. Specifically, you skipped an entire verse:

    And when ten million such were slain
    To please one crazy king,
    Man, schooled in bulk by fear and pain,
    Grew weary of the thing;

    And, at the very hour designed,
    To enslave him past recall,
    His tooth-stone-arrow-gun-shy mind
    Turned and abolished all.

    All Power, each Tyrant, every Mob
    Whose head has grown too large,
    Ends by destroying its own job
    And works its own discharge;

    The Benefactors

    Assuming, of course, that Kipling meant what you think he meant. Given the rest of his writings, I rather doubt it.

12. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 4:52 pm

    And just so I can be above board on this latest exchange of broadsides:

    If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
    Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

    If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two imposters just the same;
    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
    And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch,
    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

    If

    And that, I believe, is far more appropriate to GEN Petraeus than “The Benefactors”.

13. corndog Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:08 pm

    Dang, Jeffy, I wasn’t looking for a battle of the long-winded verses. I cut that verse out because I thought it was boring and, um, do you know what he’s talking about there? I don’t.

14. Vanguard of the Commentariat Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:13 pm

    TRJ, don’t you get the game? A hundred plus year old poem alludes to current events. See, the “crazy king” is Bush and he’s had “millions” slain just to please himself. Why, a 19th century poet knew he was the devil even before he was born!

    Heh.

    Reminds me of English Lit. You couldn’t just read something for the pure pleasure of it. No, you had to spend weeks finding the lefty symbolism in it to please some Stalinist crone.

15. corndog Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    VOTC,

    “When the litters are overturned by the whirlwind
    and faces are covered by cloaks,
    the new republic will be troubled by its people.
    At this time the reds and the whites will rule wrongly.”

    - Nostradamus

16.   Birds of a Feather…. - The Detroit Times Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:21 pm

    [...] TPM Election Central, Weekly Standard, Political Radar, The Democratic Daily, Blue Crab Boulevard, Jules Crittenden, Outside The Beltway, Sweetness & Light, QandO and [...]

17. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:26 pm

    Try reading the poem, corndog, that’s why I linked to it.

    But the poem is a history lesson, and the last verses a projection of what Man might do when he (or she) finally learns from history:

    And when ten million such were slain
    To please one crazy king,
    Man, schooled in bulk by fear and pain,
    Grew weary of the thing;

    And, at the very hour designed,
    To enslave him past recall,
    His tooth-stone-arrow-gun-shy mind
    Turned and abolished all.

    The rest is left as an exercise for the student.

    And if you don’t know what Kipling is talking about, why do you quote him in any fashion?

18. Terrye Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

    Nostradamus????

    corndog you are such a tool. I know you mourn the loss of your hero Saddam. The idea that he will never again run the rape rooms, poke out the eyeballs of small children, try to kill American presidents, starve and maim and terrorize his own people must weigh heavily on you. But cheer up, there is still North Korea. Someone for you to love and admire, your kind of people.

19. RebeccaH Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    For the same reason he doesn’t bother to read any links, Jeff. That stuff’s just boring and hard.

20. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:36 pm

    Not to mention Kipling wrote good things about stuff corndog doesn’t like, such as honor, duty, respect, the military, etc. Taken together with “boring” and “hard”, and it’s rejected faster than you can say “QUAGMIRE!”

21. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:37 pm

    Yeah, Terrye, Nostradamus is an amusing read, but not to be taken seriously. Unless one pines for the print version of the World Weekly News…….

22. corndog Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

    Lighten up, there, Terrye, it was a joke that clearly flew over your head. You see, Van was complaining about how I took a hundred-year-old poem and tried to show how it “alludes to current events.” So I slid him some Nostradamus.

    Jeffy, the last place I go for lit crit is Julescrittenden.com. But the poem is about the fact that fear is what drives politics:

    It is not learning, grace nor gear,
    Nor easy meat and drink,
    But bitter pinch of pain and fear
    That makes creation think

    When in this world’s unpleasing youth
    Our god-like race began,
    The longest arm, the sharpest tooth,
    Gave man control of man;

    Then Kipling imagines a magic powder that would turn politics on its head:

    Then was there safety for the rich
    And danger for the poor,
    Till someone mixed a powder which
    Redressed the scale once more.

    And so the king finally gets beaten down, and that’s where the verses I quoted come in, followed by the one I left out. I think all readers can admit that it was all better off leaving it at the two verses I posted. Much less boring and hard.

23. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:52 pm

    Defining poetry from another era is often a matter of context based on personal experience, corndog. I won’t say that your interpretation is wrong, I will merely point out that it may be incomplete or narrowly focused (i.e., “politics”…..and that mine offers a much wider vision (i.e., “history”).

    I will also note that if you don’t want lit crit at Jules Crit, try not to dowdify poetry to meet your (un)exacting standards. If nothing else, you will avoid the perception that you are cherry picking.

24. corndog Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 5:57 pm

    It is light past seven when the door bell rings.
    In no time ago we went
    plucking cherries under the stacking planes

    while the colander parties jammed and pruned
    blocking the ring-road and corso.
    And into the shadows you went to gather

25. Dave Surls Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 7:41 pm

    “Then Kipling imagines a magic powder that would turn politics on its head:”

    LOL. He’s talking about the invention of gunpowder (and how it cancelled out the advantage that “the rich”/noble knights had enjoyed on the battlefield), simple simon. Since you obviously don’t understand the poem, why don’t you just shut your yap and avoid looking like a fool.

26. Dave Surls Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 7:47 pm

    “Wouldn’t you know it. Times gave a break to MoveOn.org to gratuitously and falsely insult Petraeus.”

    Big shock. The NYT is a mouthpiece for the Dems, and the Dems are a party of Traitors. Always have been.

    What the heck do you think our Civil War was all about?

    Nothing’s changed…except we don’t have an Abe Lincoln in power to shut down traitor newspapers or throw Democrat turncoats in prison, where they belong.

    Well, not yet anyway.

27. Vanguard of the Commentariat Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 8:33 pm

    ‘dog, t’was not a complaint, it was a comment. I know the caring and sharing crowd has trouble with that distinction.

    “Nothing’s changed…except we don’t have an Abe Lincoln in power to shut down traitor newspapers or throw Democrat turncoats in prison, where they belong.”

    Oh goodness. With all the lib caturwaulling that has gone on in the last 6 years about what has been literally no curtailment of rights or freedoms, can you imagine if Bush had even done half the things FDR did, let alone Lincoln?

28. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 9:15 pm

    He’s talking about the invention of gunpowder

    Like I said, Dave — the poem is a history lesson. Kipling was a pragmatic fellow, and didn’t worry much about politics.

29. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    September 13th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    Although, now that I think upon the matter, I suppose gunpowder would appear magical to people who insist on redefining things to what they want it to mean, and not what the original intention was.

    A point that Jeff Goldstein at PW talks about constantly. I do believe that we’ve seen a real-time example of that here.

    Stand in awe, people. Stand in awe.

30. corndog Says:
    September 14th, 2007 at 8:23 am

    Jeffy, I’ll be very disappointed if you didn’t pick up on the jokes imbedded in my last post. Did you google?

31. corndog Says:
    September 14th, 2007 at 8:34 am

    Oh, and Surley? We can take this discussion up over at your second-favorite site, http://www.everypoet.com/pffa.htm, where we can discuss the difference between metaphor and fact.*

    * Conservative humorlessness alert: This is a joke. I’m not really going to go over there.

32. Dave Surls Says:
    September 15th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

    “can you imagine if Bush had even done half the things FDR did, let alone Lincoln?”

    Sure. The lefty pundits would be screaming their bloody heads off about what a tyrant Bush is, and telling us how Roosevelt was the greatest president of all time, justy like they always do.

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