Washington Post Photographer Blogged for Wal-Mart Incognito [Updated]

by JR Monsterfodder
Daily Kos
Oct. 12, 2006

Yesterday, Business Week online ran a story about "Jim" and "Laura," two people taking an RV trip across the country visiting Wal-Marts and telling everybody about the super people they met there through their blog. Not by coincidence, this story also marked my debut in the MSM:

On Sept. 27, 2006, a folksy blog called Wal-Marting Across America was born. It features the journey of Laura and Jim, a couple on their maiden trip in an RV (recreational vehicle), capturing lives and stories as they journey from Las Vegas to Georgia, and park for free at Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ) parking lots. Laura's first blog post features a black-and-white photograph and humbly says: "We are not bloggers, but since our lives have always been more journey than destination we are explorers at heart.... We figured we'd give it a go."

Every Wal-Mart employee that Laura and Jim run into, from store clerks to photogenic executives, absolutely loves to work at the store. Sound like a great Wal-Mart publicity campaign? Anyone familiar with Wal-Mart and its reputation for being quite stingy with wages and benefits will roll their eyes at such a rosy picture. In fact, some critics are so skeptical that they wonder whether Jim and Laura are real or whether they were concocted at the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

"Wal-Mart has hired fake people," says Jonathan Rees, a labor historian and associate professor at Colorado State University at Pueblo, who has also worked as a staff researcher at the AFL-CIO. In a blog posting for the Web site The Writing On the Wal, Reese [JR: error in original] published an open letter to Laura and Jim challenging them to reveal themselves and asking who paid for their RV and gas.

In the story, "Laura" revealed herself to be a freelance writer who works "with the Treasury Department." "Jim," on the other hand:

wouldn't reveal his last name or his identity. He says he wants to protect his employer. He would only say that he's a professional photographer.

Wal-Mart Watch has just revealed Jim's identity. He's James Thresher, a photographer for the Washington Post.

In order to understand just how disturbing this is, you need to know some backstory. As of this writing, you can find their blog Walmartingacrossamerica here. If you look in the bottom right-hand corner you'll see that their blog is sponsored by "Working Families for Wal-Mart." Working Families for Wal-Mart is a front group funded by Wal-Mart and run by the Washington p.r. firm Edelman. It was created in order to spread positive stories about Wal-Mart in the media. Thresher, in other words, just shot and co-wrote a gigantic ad for Wal-Mart in exchange for a free RV trip, paid for by Wal-Mart. Your "liberal" media at work.

The Post has gotta have rules about this sort of thing, right?

JR

UPDATE: It appears Thresher still has a job. From Editor and Publisher:

A photographer for The Washington Post, who shot photos during a cross-country trip for a pro-Wal-Mart web site, broke the paper's policy about freelancing and has been ordered to remove the photos, Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said Wednesday.

And get this, the Post approved the trip in advance:

Thresher, whom Downie described as "a fine photographer" had discussed the pending trip with Joe Elbert, the paper's assistant managing editor/photo, before it occurred, Downie added. But he said there was a "miscommunication" between the two and it was not clear to Elbert exactly what the trip would include.

"I approved it," Elbert said. "It reminds me how cautious we have to be." Elbert said he did not know that Thresher would have the costs covered by the advocacy group, saying, "There is no way we would have approved that."

What exactly did they expect from a group backed by Wal-Mart? Or did Thresher not bother to tell them that?

PS The place to go for further updates on this story is http://www.thewritingonthewal.net












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