'Nightly News' Joins Anti-Wal-Mart Groups in Airing Embarrassing Video

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080410120051.aspx

CNBC reporter admits network is purchasing footage from Wal-Mart executive meetings that anti-Wal-Mart groups are also planning to exploit.

By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
4/10/2008 12:24:55 PM

One would think Wal-Mart might catch a break from the media, thanks to its recent environmental initiatives and in-store price cuts aimed at helping consumers. But that’s not the case.


The April 9 “NBC Nightly News” aired footage from a 1995 Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) executive meeting that shows some executives dressed in drag. It was part of a gag that a company spokesman told ABC News on April 9 was executives being “just plain silly.”


But now, after being fired by Wal-Mart in 2006, the video production company that taped the meeting is selling the footage to groups that want to exploit it, including the media.


“For nearly 30 years, the company called Flagler Productions says they had a deal, an oral agreement, no written contract, to tape the meetings for Wal-Mart’s internal use, but then a few years ago new management at the retailing giant ended the relationship,” CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera said.


“Now Flagler claims they own the rights to the video, about 15,000 tapes, and they’re selling its use for a profit to anti-Wal-Mart groups, lawyers and the media, including CNBC,” Caruso-Cabrera said.


The Wall Street Journal reported April 9 that “The material is proving irresistible to everyone from business historians and documentary filmmakers to plaintiffs lawyers and union organizers.”

FULL story and video at link.