Wal-Mart Finds an Ally in Conservatives (NYT)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/business/08walmart.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Wal-Mart Finds an Ally in Conservatives

By MICHAEL BARBARO and STEPHANIE STROM
Published: September 8, 2006

As Wal-Mart Stores struggles to rebut criticism from unions and Democratic leaders, the company has discovered a reliable ally: prominent conservative research groups like the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Manhattan Institute.

Top policy analysts at these groups have written newspaper opinion pieces around the country supporting Wal-Mart, defended the company in interviews with reporters and testified on its behalf before government committees in Washington.

But the groups — and their employees — have consistently failed to disclose a tie to the giant discount retailer: financing from the Walton Family Foundation, which is run by the Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton’s three children, who have a controlling stake in the company.

The groups said the donations from the foundation have no influence over their research, which is deliberately kept separate from their fund-raising activities. What’s more, the pro-business philosophies of these groups often dovetail with the interests of Wal-Mart.

But the financing, which totaled more than $2.5 million over the last six years, according to data compiled by GuideStar, a research organization, raises questions about what the research groups should disclose to newspaper editors, reporters or government officials. The Walton Family Foundation must disclose its annual donations in forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service, but research groups are under no such obligation.

FULL story at link above.

[Selatius]

1. Well, we all knew the AEI, the HF, and the MI were corporatist fronts

Wal-Mart deciding to get into the business of helping to perpetuate these front groups is no big surprise. If they truly had their way, there would be no Fair Labor Standards Act.

[silverweb]

2. It's all about the ideology.

Everything the right does now will involve full attack on anything that does not fit with the neoconservative ideology -- with the intent to obliterate it.

Everything.