Daily Record Refuses Anti-Wal-Mart Ad
by September 26, 2005 12:00 am 68 views
On Sept. 12, the Benton County Daily Record refused to publish a full-page ad from WakeUpWalMart.com on the grounds that it could be “defamatory to Wal-Mart.”
“There were potential defamatory statements in there, and there were unsubstantiated claims,” said Jeff Jeffus, vice president and general manager of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest Arkansas edition. “We just didn’t feel like we could run it. Anytime we have an ad that might raise questions, it’s a process we go through of running it through our legal counsel. So we refunded their money [$2,000].
“We don’t tell them what we feel is wrong with the ad. They have to resubmit the copy and we will reconsider it for publication.”
“The only problem with that is they won’t tell us what language to change,” said Chris Kofinis, a spokesman with WakeUpWalMart.com in Washington, D.C. “They’re doing a little two-step. Give me a break … We are going to resubmit the ad if we can get them to return our phone calls.”
The Daily Record is owned by Community Publishers Inc. of Bentonville, which in turn is owned primarily by Jim Walton, an heir to the Wal-Mart fortune.
Walter Hussman of Little Rock, who owns the D-G, is in the process of buying the Daily Record and nine other newspapers from CPI. That deal is scheduled to close on Oct. 1, but the D-G has been operating CPI’s advertising department since 2000 through a lease agreement. Jeffus said CPI “had nothing to do” with the decision to refuse the ad.
The ad, which consisted of an “open letter” to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, at first praised Wal-Mart for its relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
Then the ad listed six improvements WakeUpWalMart.com thought the retailer should implement, including paying a “living wage,” affordable healthcare for employees, ending discrimination, zero tolerance on child labor, buying more products made in the U.S. and showing more respect for communities.
The Daily Record has published full-page ads from Wal-Mart in the past, allowing the world’s largest retailer to put its spin on national media coverage.