Apparently New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro is working on a story detailing the corporate behemoth’s attempts to buy good PR by paying bloggers to write sympathetically about the world’s largest employer of low-wage workers.
That’s according to the Marquette Warrior, a blog sympathetic to Wal-Mart and apparently on Barbaro’s list of paid bloggers. The blog, run and written by John McAdams, is not officially associated with Marquette University—a good thing, because he stands against most issues the Jesuit-based university (my alma mater).
Michael Barbaro's New York Times story is up, and he does not make the claim that bloggers are paid by Wal-Mart. Hat tip: Bob the Crazy Politico.
The article ends like way:
In a sign of how eager Wal-Mart is to develop ties to bloggers, the company has invited them to a media conference to be held at its headquarters in April. In e-mail messages, Wal-Mart has polled several bloggers about whether they would make the trip, which the bloggers would have to pay for themselves.
Mr. Reynolds of Instapundit.com said he recently was invited to Wal-Mart's offices but declined. "Bentonville, Arkansas," he said, "is not my idea of a fun destination."
No one invited me!
There are accusations in the article that the bloggers just cut-and-paste stuff sent by Wal-Mart's PR contact, Marshall Manson.
Barbaro is reinforcing the stereotype of bloggers are only cut-and-paste practioners. The e-mails I received, and I hope to continue to receive, consisted of a few links.
Here's what Barbaro wrote about Manson:
The author of the e-mail messages is a blogger named Marshall Manson, a senior account supervisor at Edelman who writes for conservative Web sites like Human Events Online, which advocates limited government, and Confirm Them, which has pushed for the confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees
Damning stuff: Marshall Manson is not an enlightened New York Times liberal!
I get a few tips now and then. Some of the stuff is worthless and I don't use. Most of the time I have to keep the source anonymous, since I write about controversial and heated subjects such as Islamic terrorism and holocaust denial. I correspond regularly with a few anonymous bloggers.
Wal-Mart is a good company. Do I agree with them on everything? No. Then again, I don't agree with my wife on everything either, and that goes both ways, as she posted a critical comment today (see the Autonomist blog post) about what I wrote about George Clooney.
Technorti tags: Wal-Mart WalMart New York Times AFL-CIO Tula Connell
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