We know: Wal-Mart isn’t perfect. But this post isn’t about Wal-Mart.
It’s about the ax-grinding bloggers who decided to exploit a minor, obviously unintentional mistake on the Wal-Mart Web site to accuse the retailer of racism — specifically, of comparing black people to primates.
If you haven’t heard the story:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is shutting down the system that creates movie recommendations on its shopping Web site after it linked a “Planet of the Apes” DVD to films about famous black Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr…
Wal-Mart moved swiftly after a link to the page for “Planet of the Apes” began circulating on the Internet.
“We are heartsick that this happened and are currently doing everything possible to correct the problem,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said in a statement.
“Walmart.com’s item mapping process does not work correctly and at this point is mapping seemingly random combinations of titles. We were horrified to discover that some hurtful and offensive combinations are being mapped together,” she said, adding that the company was “deeply sorry that this happened.”
“To further illustrate the bizarre nature of this technical issue, the site is also mapping movies such as `Home Alone’ and `Power Puff Girls’ to African-American-themed DVDs,” Williams said.
Upon further investigation, Wal-Mart discovered that the mapping pattern stemmed not from a technical error, but from a well-intended human one:
A business manager trying to promote “Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream” programmed the site so that shoppers who bought any boxed set also would be offered the movie about the civil rights leader and other black-themed films. “Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series” was one of the boxed sets…
Overall, Wal-Mart handled the controversy well. The bloggers who created it? Not so much.
We have to agree with Frank Ahrens, who wrote in today’s Washington Post:
It was amazing, frankly, how quickly some bloggers were ready to believe that Wal-Mart linked its “Planet of the Apes” DVDs to black-themed DVD titles on purpose. Aside from kiddie porn and e-mail scams, this is perhaps the most troubling trait of the Internet: Rather than opening minds, it can close them, thanks to echo-chamber Web sites and blogs…
People who hate Wal-Mart are going to flock to anti-Wal-Mart sites and blogs. And they did in droves on Thursday, writing sentiments along the lines of, “Well, what do you expect from a company that has non-progressive labor rules?” In other words: “Well, of course Wal-Mart is racist. Look at how they engage in various practices we don’t agree with.”
This is no different from Michelle Malkin using a poorly Photoshopped picture of Condoleezza Rice to prove that USA Today is biased, or Matt Drudge exploiting the inarticulate rantings of a switchboard operator to trash CNN.
It’s embarrassing. Really, it makes us sick.
And more bloggers need to stand up against this BS — wherever it comes from on the political spectrum.
Technorati tags: Blogs, PR, Public Relations, Wal-Mart, Planet of the Apes
While I do not disagree with you, it is understandable that this is happening.
Wal-Mart is viewed by many as a southern company. So, there is the inclination (by some) to apply the racist stereotype, for instance. It is unfair.
A similar incident happened about a year ago (November 29th, 2004) regarding Target/Amazon and the quirks of a database driven Web site.
I guess one thing that this does highlight for online retailers is the myriad of potential semantic algorithm-caused (item mapping process) problems that may arise. And, blogs give everyone a voice. Some of those voices are like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Scott,
Excellent post about some ax-grinding and not-so-common-sense posts. Wal-Mart is an easy target for people who want to jump to conclusions without using common sense. The example of other movie search titles linking to unrelated topics proves that Wal-Mart isn’t corporately racist. (Unless that was just a lie!)
It is posts like those that attack Wal-Mart that really gives bloggers a reputation of being uncivilized, unprofessional and nothing short of a mob.
Mike
When you’re that big, people are desperate to drag you down. Remember Target, last holiday season (04) when they decided not to have Salvation Army bell ringers?
Never mind that Target gives millions of its earnings to charity every day of the year.
Bloggers do propigate the outrage, b/c everyone’s looking for an audience. Everyone wants to break something big and new, ethics be damned.