Too clever by half

MoveOnl.org wunderkind Eli Pariser offers up his services to “resolve” the issue of his “General Betray Us” ad getting a discount from those careless marketing folks at the New York Times. Which, anyone getting paid the big bux by the Gray Lady could be forgiven for leaving nearly $80k on the table. So long as it was for a good cause:

According to the Public Editor, the Times’ vice president admitted that the company’s advertising representative “failed to make it clear that for that rate the Times could not guarantee the Monday placement but left MoveOn.org with the understanding that the ad would run then.” According to the Public Editor, “the group should have paid $142,083.”

Now that the Times has revealed this mistake for the first time, and while we believe that the $142,083 figure is above the market rate paid by most organizations, out of an abundance of caution we have decided to pay that rate for this ad. We will therefore wire the $77,083 difference to the Times tomorrow (Monday, September 24, 2007).

We call on Mayor Giuliani, who received exactly the same ad deal for the same price, to pay the corrected fee also.

Of course, the “Betray Us” ad and the backlash it evoked in the Senate enriched Pariser’s coffers to the tune of $500,000 as the spittle flecked set dug deep to endorse the right of MoveOn to engage in the a middle school style ad hominem against a dedicated public servant.

Tell you what, if I was Rudy Giulani, I’d gladly pay the difference to match MoveOn’s new bid.

For say, half of that $500k.

For starters.