Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

“Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in P.R. Campaign” (or the New York Times and Me)

A story about a Wal-Mart PR rep (Marshall Manson) sending news release and tips to sympathetic bloggers appeared in the New York Times today.

New York Times business reporter Michael Barbaro interviewed me, but my comments did not make into the article. As I am not on Marshall Manson’s mailing list (or anyone else’s for that matter), do not condemn Wal-Mart’s tactics (it’s about time they started fighting back) and do not condemn bloggers who cut and paste releases without attribution (who am I to judge what other bloggers do?), my viewpoints did not fit with Barbaro’s obvious anti-blogger/anti-Wal-Mart agenda and ended up on the cutting room floor, so to speak.

Palousitics is, has, and always will be an original and independent voice in support of freedom and prosperity in Pullman and against the leftist intelligentsia who stand in the way. I am a local grassroots activist, not a shill or paid hack for anyone. The liberals just don’t get that, even though the unions do it all the time through the Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart websites. Take a look at what was posted over at Moscow's Vision 2020 for an example.

Apparently Wal-Mart's tactics must be working, hence the attack piece from the official organ of big labor and the Democratic Party. I’ll have more about this tomorrow.

In the meantime, Blog Critics has a good critique of Barbaro’s story, as does Newsbusters. Political Science professor John McAdams at Marquette Warrior has a good round-up of what the bloggers in the story are saying (including himself) and PR Linker has the buzz in the blogosphere.

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1 comment:

April E. Coggins said...

The New York Times writer seems to have the opinion that Wal-Mart should send out new info exclusively to Wal-Mart Watch. His view seems to be that only union funded, anti-Wal-Mart sites are the approved sieve that information should pass through.