Features

John Gertz has told the Daily Planet that he alone did not pay for the signature ad which appeared in the East Bay Express. This was his own prior description of his relationship to the series of ads denouncing the Planet, which have been appearing in the Express, as e-mailed to the Planet’s advertising sales representative on Sept. 8: 

“Our first East Bay Express ad runs in about 10 days … Actually, to be honest, it isn’t my ad running in the EBX, but rather a full page ad being run by some supporters who stepped forward on their own. Nevertheless, they asked my permission to feature DPWatchDog prominently in their ad, so, although I haven’t seen the final ad layout, it might look like it came from us. I will then run some follow-up ads on my own in the East Bay Express.”  

He was right in surmising that the signature ad would look like it came from him and his associates, whoever they are. The editor did not see the e-mail to the sales rep, and was indeed confused by the ad. Last week’s editorial said that “Gertz took a full-page signature ad in the East Bay Express (using the name of a front committee) to publicize the URL of his site.” He did sign the ad, but we have no proof of who paid for it. Readers can draw their own conclusions.