Don't Go Into The Light

Via Instapundit, there's this jewel on Marquette Warrior about a NYT reporter looking into connections between bloggers and Wal-Mart:

We got an e-mail from Barbaro this past Thursday evening, saying he is working on a story and that several of the postings on the Marquette Warrior are relevant to it.

At least two other bloggers on the Wal-Mart mailing list have been similarly contacted.

Barbaro has apparently noticed that similar stories concerning Wal-Mart have appeared roughly simultaneously in recent months. In some cases, bloggers on the list simply cut and pasted information in the e-mails into their blog posts.

I may as well 'fess up - I'm part of this great conspiratorial network as well. Marshall Manson contacted me after I posted a view of the players in a scuffle at a Wal-Mart in North Lauderdale between union protesters and store personnel. Here's the email I received:

LB:

I hope you’re well. I just wanted to drop you a line and introduce myself. I’m a blogger myself (I contribute to Confirm Them and Human Events’ Right Angle among others), but for my day job - I do online public affairs for Wal-Mart, working with Mike Krempasky who runs Redstate.org.

Just wanted you to know that your post (http://dontgointothelight.com/2005/12/union_vs_walmart_a_scuffle_dur_1.php) on the anti-Wal-Mart groups incursion into Wal-Mart's Lauderdale store is making the rounds here and at heaquarters in Bentonville.

It’s always a challenge when opponents organize to attack corporations. The companies always seems to have one arm tied behind their backs when they try to respond, so it’s nice to see folks like you defending them when it’s the right thing to do .

If you're interested, I'd like to drop you the occasional update with some newsworthy info about the company. Let me know.

Sincerely,

Marshall

Marshall Manson

Edelman

Prior to this, I had already posted several stories about the left's war against Wal-Mart, so there was no sword taken up based on Marshall's offer. Since then, I've received occasional emails, many of them were mostly links to editorials and news articles - some I had already found on my own (I know how to use Google and Yahoo).

Not that I'm saying there was no value in Marshall's emails - he's saved me hours of searching, and provided me with several story ideas (some not even related to Wal-Mart). And I've passed up most of what Marshall has sent. Indeed, it's been a two-way street, as I sent him a link to my post about Hillary Clinton's involvement with Wal-Mart:

http://dontgointothelight.com/2006/02/more_walmart_fun.php

Marshall,

In case you missed this. I thought it was pretty funny.

Regards,

LB

And his reply?

That's awesome. Thanks for sending. I'm LMAO. The whole team will see this one.

M

I didn't credit Marshall in any of my posts because the opinions given were my own. That my opinions dove-tailed with others doesn't make them any less my opinion. I had specifically asked Marshall for groundrules to follow in using whatever he sent, and he provided me with none. Since I've seen several news articles parroting WakeUpWalMart's talking points without crediting the source, I believe I've conformed to the norm in posting on these topics. Indeed, John at Marquette Warrior notes:

In fact, journalists are always dependent on various sources to supply leads and information. Barbaro's article on Scott's communications with his employees was based on material leaked by Wal-Mart Watch, an anti-Wal Mart group backed by unions and leftist foundations.

I think it would be delicious to learn whether Barbaro simply "discovered" the blogging connection with Marshall as he claims, or was led to it by the same folks who had already been sourcing his stories. Of course, it was out there to find - even though Marquette Warrior and I didn't credit Marshall, others did:

"It took a while, but Lee Scott came out swinging. And of all the newspapers, the Washington Post published his piece. It's not one of my regular reads, but our friend Marshall Manson (who does PR for Wal-Mart) alerted me:"

Incidentally, I didn't post on the same story - one of many that I passed up. I would have preferred that Wal-Mart had taken a different track after the Wal-Mart bill was passed - capitulating simply encourages bad behaviour in other states.

But back to sourcing from PR folks - should I have credited Marshall for leads I received? Possibly. Although it would have been more in the form of a hat tip, as I didn't engage in the wholesale cutting and pasting of Marshall's material - instead, I used the leads to news articles to assist in researching for posts that were about my opinion. But I think Glenn Reynolds has a point in his post on the subject:

I talked to a reporter about blogs and PR -- I won't spoil the story, but the gist is that some PR people have been sending stuff to bloggers, and some bloggers have apparently reprinted some of it without attribution.

I think that's bad, but as I stressed in our interview, it's not as if this supports a "bloggers lack the standards of mainstream journalism" conclusion.

I think I'll start giving hat tips in the future for this kind of thing just to be complete. And I hope that Marshall doesn't stop sending his emails as a result of all this. I've enjoyed corresponding with him, and his leads have proven to be useful on occasion. It would be tragic if Barbaro's efforts (and by proxy those that feed him with material) silenced him.

Update: A clarification, actually. I was not contacted by any reporters regarding Marshall's emails. Apologies for any misunderstandings.