KHOG: Inside Wal-Mart? Not Really

We waited with anticipation to see a Nov. 24 expose on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. after KHBS/KHOG, Channels 40/29, began airing advertisements a few days earlier saying it would take viewers “inside Wal-Mart.”

We wondered how KHOG could have gotten into the headquarters of the world’s largest company and interviewed executives there. And we were ready to give them a big kudo for doing so. Wal-Mart is notoriously guarded when it comes to press access, unless it’s during the annual shareholders meeting.

When the KHOG segment aired, though, we quickly realized the station had gone “inside” a Wal-Mart store, not the headquarters in Bentonville. And no executives were interviewed, just the requisite PR man and a couple of people shopping for vegetables.

The story was basically a brief profile of the company. Nothing new here at all. We felt cheated by the teaser ads KHOG aired before the segment.