Wal-Mart, Edelman Flogged For Blog

A travel blog featuring a couple traveling the country by RV and camping in Wal-Mart parking lots turned out to be a fake, its pro-Wal-Mart message backed by the Edelman PR firm.

revealing its backing by an Edelman-financed organization called Working Families for Wal-Mart. The demise of the fake blog, being called a "flog" by MediaPost in its now-exposed site blasted those who revealed their identities in the final post on the site: Thanks to an organized Wal-Mart opposition group, the whole world now knows who Jim and I are, where we live, what our home life is like and where we work. We didn't disclose all that stuff in the beginning, of course, for a couple of reasons. We kept our last names and personal lives out of it because of concerns about our privacy. We had heard that Wal-Mart's critics could be vicious in their attacks. Now we know those concerns were valid. So now we're being attacked. Why? Because we dared to write positive things about Wal-Mart. The people who hate Wal-Mart couldn't argue with anything we said - we were writing about real people and telling true stories. Edelman's side of the story has not been told yet. Blogger Shel Holtz report at Editor & Publisher noted that while Thresher received approval for the trip from his boss, there was a "miscommunication" as to the true nature of the trip. [Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr.] did not believe Thresher had sought to mislead the photo chief. "The photo editor did not fully understand what Jim was going to do, but gave permission," Downie said. "He did not understand what was being asked." Thresher will have to repay his share of the travel expenses received from the Edelman-backed group, and his job could be in jeopardy for violating the Post's guidelines on freelance work. Maybe he can apply for work at Edelman if that happens. Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark Murdok: David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.