Mixed feelings about Edelman's blogging initiative for Wal-Mart

Today's New York Times article on Edelman's efforts to get positive coverage of Wal-Mart in blogs is an interesting read, even for PR pros who understand how this stuff works.

Richard Edelman -- of course -- defends his agency and its work. Jeff Jarvis uses the experience to slam the media for not following the same guidelines it expects of bloggers. And Media Orchard is at peace.

But I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Here's why:

I can certainly understand the desire for Wal-Mart to tell its story. And because the giant retailer is an obvious target for bloggers, it makes sense to try and balance that hue and cry in the blogosphere itself.


PR must be transparent

But bloggers by and large are not journalists, and despite the "code of the blogosphere to be transparent," most of these folks have likely never taken an ethics course or had a gruff city editor looking past his bifocals and questioning the origin of a story or a quote.

In other words, at the very least the mainstream media has a level of oversight that is designed to protect against PR abuse. It doesn't always work, but let's face it ... most reporters have a built-in BS meter that a part-time blogger simply doesn't.

So wouldn't it be more transparent -- more blog-like -- for Wal-Mart to simply make this information available to bloggers via its own blog, and let them come and get it if they are interested? Or perhaps utilize trackbacks or comments to alert them? Isn't that the "conversation" we all talk about?


PR e-mails make you cringe

It's the frequent e-mailing of supposed "inside information" that makes people question this program. As a comparison, is there a PR blogger out there who wants a company e-mailing them once or twice a week with information? I didn't think so.

Plus, when you read Marshall Manson's e-mails to conservative blogger Rob Port, you can't help but feel a little dirty.

For example, his initial pitch is all about his own conservative blog connections, with an "oh by the way" reference to Wal-Mart and no mention of Edelman at all, except in his signature. The e-mail itself comes from an Edelman business unit called Blue Worldwide, which is not very well known. And he says he works in "online public affairs" for Wal-Mart, not for a public relations firm.

That approach might fit his boss's disclosure rule by the letter, but not necessarily the spirit.

Plus, some of the language is just cringe-inducing:

"Unfortunately, we don't have any funds for travel -- but I think I might be able to get you access to the largest company in the world. Tours, briefings, the works. Everything that they would do for a reporter from the New York Times. I've been there, and I can tell you it's staggering. Just consider this little factoid: every two weeks, the Wal-Mart payroll department direct deposits more than a billion dollars in wages. Yikes."

Yikes is right.

Wal-Mart can't afford to swing the costs of a few bloggers to visit? What he means is, it's not ethical to pay for your visit. And "he thinks he might be able" to get access? Of course he'll get access. Why invite anyone if there's no access?

In other words, this e-mail is written to sound all "gee whiz innocent" but it's a press junket, plain and simple. Why not say so?

In addition, his praise of particular posts and how they "made folks' day" -- and his crack against Target -- seem more like Bad Pitch Blog fodder than transparent information sharing.


Same ol' PR sleight-of-hand

The problem here is that many bloggers are NOT going to understand the rules of engagement that mainstream media and PR people live by every day. So it's incumbent upon the PR firms contacting them to be overly protective of the need for transparency.

I applaud Edelman for being ahead of the curve as it relates to blogging and blogger relations. But this move appears to be a step backward. It's not about facilitating the conversation ... it's simply the same ol' sleight-of-hand model PR firms have used for years.

Quick hit: Ryan McGrath has a great round-up of commentary on this topic here.

Technorati Tags: Public Relations, PR, Blogging, Wal-Mart, Edelman