Pro Wal-Mart Travel Blog Screeches To A Halt

[Scriptor Ignotus]

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=49505&Nid=24192&p=378325

Pro-Wal-Mart Travel Blog Screeches To A Halt
by Tom Siebert, Thursday, Oct 12, 2006 6:00 AM ET

WHAT DO YOU CALL A phony blog that's actually a front for a huge corporation? A "flog"?

A pro-Wal-Mart blog called "Wal-Marting Across America," ostensibly launched by a pair of average Americans chronicling their cross-country travels in an RV and lodging in Wal-Mart parking lots, has been reduced to a farewell entry. One of its two contributors was revealed to be Jim Thresher, a staff photographer for The Washington Post.

The blog, launched Sept. 27, was profiled in this week's issue of BusinessWeek, which exposed the site as a promotional tactic engineered by Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFWM), an organization launched by Wal-Mart's public relations firm Edelman. WFWM paid for the RV and all travel expenses, rerouted the trip's original plan, and plastered a logo on the RV's side. Although the blog featured a link to WFWM, it did not identify the organization as a paid sponsor.

Thresher contributed both photos and promotional commentary to the site--one entry describes a Wal-Mart employee "going the extra mile." Another plugs the store as "the nation's largest supplier of organic milk ... by shopping at Wal-Mart eat healthy while stretching food dollar (paying $3.48 for a half gallon of organic milk is one way)."

Leonard Downie, Jr., executive editor for The Washington Post, says Thresher's activities are a violation of the paper's policy for freelancing for special interests. While Thresher "did have a conversation with an editor , he did not make clear to his supervisor" that he would be working in a promotional capacity.

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