At Ed Morrissey's secondary blog, Heading Right, the Captain's Quarters editor and Blog Talk Radio host noted that by giving MoveOn.org a discount to smear General Petraeus, the paper of record has exposed itself as a radical activist shill willing to engage in character assassination (emphasis mine):
By writing off more than half of its normal price, it encouraged the publication of a nasty hit piece on the honor of a serving commander in a theater of war. The Paper of Record helped call Petraeus a traitor, surely one of the worst moments in modern American media.
The Sulzberger familiy should apologize to General Petraeus and issue a retraction. Furthermore, it should act to remove Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger as publisher of the Times and finally put an adult in charge of what used to be the nation’s premiere newspaper. Offering discounts to a rabidly partisan outfit like MoveOn for the purpose of character assassination has stripped the last fantasies of objectivity from the paper and exposed it as the fringe-Left shill that it is.
Morrissey echoes the lament of other conservatives, including NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell, who on "Fox News Live" today said that the Times was effectively a "co-sponsor" of a "despicable" smear ad.
