Chuck Ross of The Daily Caller documents Wal-Mart’s recent response to a hit piece in the New York Times.
The Arkansas-based company responded to an article from New York Times columnist Timothy Egan, titled “The Corporate Daddy” by doing the work that it felt Egan’s Times editors should have done.
“Thanks for sharing your first draft,” reads a red-inked note from Wal-Mart, which is known more for its low prices than its snark.
“Below are a few thoughts to ensure something inaccurate doesn’t get published,” continued the note, which was posted at Walmart’s blog and is attributed to David Tovar, Wal-Mart’s director of corporate communications.
The retail giant apparently couldn’t resist sarcasm after it found what it considered numerous problems with Egan’s piece in which he criticized the company for paying its 2.2 million employees what he called “humiliating wages.”
“Walmart is a net drain on taxpayers,” wrote Egan in the missive, adding that the company forces “employees into public assistance with its poverty-wage structure.
“We are the largest tax payer in America,” Tovar wrote in his edit. “Can we see your math?”
“We see more associates move off of public assistance as a result of their job at Walmart,” Tovar wrote.
Egan argued that “most advanced nations” look for ways to boost the middle class but that the U.S. had ceased doing that. “Witness the G.I. Bill, which helped millions of returning soldiers get a lift to a better life,” wrote the Times columnist.
“Did you know?” Tovar quizzed. “Walmart has hired more than 42,000 veterans this year.”
One suspects that the ill-informed attack on Wal-Mart will come as no surprise to Richard Vedder.
