Think Tanks for Sale: The Waltons Buy More Opinion Columns

For Immediate Release
Monday, September 11, 2006

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday’s St. Petersburg Times and Friday’s New York Times reported on Wal-Mart’s latest tactic in the public relations wars: funneling large contributions to think tanks that publish favorable opinion pieces about the company. Since 1998, the Walton Family Foundation has given $5 million to organizations like the Heartland Institute ($310,000 contribution), the Pacific Research Institute ($220,000), the Evergreen Freedom Foundation ($350,000) and the American Enterprise Institute ($107,000) – reliable allies that consistently generate pro-Wal-Mart opinion columns without disclosing their financial ties. Excerpts from the St. Petersburg Times story are below.

If McDonald’s makes the case that fast food is nutritious or ExxonMobil argues against higher taxes, it looks like simple self-interest. But when an independent voice makes the case, the ideas gain credibility.

So big corporations have devised a form of idea laundering, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to seemingly independent groups that act as spokesmen under disguise.

Their views wind up on the opinion pages of the nation’s newspapers – often with no disclosure that the writer has financial ties to the companies involved…

Helping Wal-Mart

The Walton Family Foundation, run by the heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, has given more than $100,000 to the American Enterprise Institute and more than $300,000 to the Heartland Institute since 2002.

When Wal-Mart came under fire for everything from its treatment of employees to its impact on mom-and-pop stores, the think tanks came to its defense.

Kevin Hassett of AEI wrote an op-ed for the Bloomberg News Service that said “high-tech goons” from labor unions were leading an unfair attack against Wal-Mart.

The Heartland Institute got an op-ed published in the Louisville Courier-Journal that called Wal-Mart “a major force in promoting prosperity for everyone, including consumers, employees, shareholders, and suppliers.”

Neither column disclosed the financial connection between the groups and the Walton foundation.

The Heartland Institute has been particularly energetic defending Wal-Mart. When labor unions criticized the retail chain for its hiring practices in late 2005, the institute issued a news release that highlighted pro-Wal-Mart essays written by Semmens and other Heartland authors and invited reporters to contact them for interviews. The news release said “none of these authors was paid to defend Wal-Mart” and said the institute did not receive funding from the company. The release did not mention the $300,000-plus Heartland had received from the Walton foundation.

Semmens said the institute asked him to write about the retail chain but did not pay him or tell him what to write. That wasn’t necessary, he said. “I agree with Heartland philosophically. We’re all supporters of a free market.”
Jay Allen, a spokesman for the Walton foundation, said the group is not affiliated with Wal-Mart and does not promote the store’s interests. He said the foundation promotes education reforms, environmental restoration and economic development in Arkansas. The grants to the think tanks were for projects on education reform, he said.

But Stauber, of the Center for Media and Democracy, said he believes the Walton foundation is trying to win support for Wal-Mart: “There is an understanding that this money is going to be spent in ways that Sam Walton, wherever he is, would look down and smile.”

• St. Petersburg Times: “Corporate Spin Can Come In Disguise”

• New York Times: “Wal-Mart Finds an Ally in Conservatives”

• American Enterprise Institute: “Unions Wage Vicious, Misguided War on Wal-Mart”

• Heartland Institute: “Wal-Mart, A Business We Can All Look Up To”

  
  

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  Message: I thought you might enjoy this story from Wal-Mart Watch, a group who is starting to expose Wal-Mart for their bad labor standards, political corruptness and overall bad citizenship. It's getting a lot of attention in the press. Take a look. http://walmartwatch.com/press/releases/5264