EDITORIAL: MoveOn.Org Gets a Media Enabler

Oh, good for Rudy Giuliani!

The Republican presidential candidate staged a direct hit on that dreadful MoveOn.org ad which ran in Monday’s New York Times, the Democrats who bought into it and on the paper which allowed it to run – at a bargain rate.

The ad, you’ll recall, was a slur on the reputation of Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. It mocked him as “General Betray Us,” and questioned his statistics (on civilian casualties and on lowering the level of violence in Iraq).

And, as Giuliani notes in HISown ad, which ran in yesterday’s Times, Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton in her questioning of the general seemed to buy into the MoveOn.org premise that Petraeus was, as they put it, “cooking the books for the White House.”

Clinton was only slightly more subtle, telling Petraeus, “The reports that you provide us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.”

Giuliani, in the ad paid for by his campaign committee, says in response, “These times call for statesmanship, not politicians spewing political venom.”

A sidebar to the political flap was that the Times charged MoveOn.org a mere $65,000 for the full-page ad – a far cry from the $181,000 most folks would have to pay. (The dubious nature of the “facts” cited in the ad present a whole other field ripe for inquiry.) Faced with the disclosure about the bargain basement price offered to MoveOn.org, the Times agreed to charge Giuliani the same favorable rate.

No question MoveOn.org will go to any lengths to destroy those with whom it disagrees. That it has acquired a media partner in the venture is truly shameful.

(c) 2007 Boston Herald. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.