Gadgetopia

Wal-Mart turns to bloggers to gild its image: Wal-mart is sending “excusive” information emails to hand-picked bloggers to try and inject their side of stories into the blogosphere.

[…] Wal- Mart is increasingly looking beyond the mainstream media and working directly with bloggers, feeding them exclusive nuggets of news, suggesting topics for postings and even inviting them to visit its corporate headquarters.

[…] In the messages, Wal-Mart promotes positive news about itself, like the large number of job applications it received at a new store in Illinois, and criticizes opponents, noting for example that a rival, Target, raised “zero” money for the Salvation Army in 2005 because it banned red-kettle collectors from stores.