“I’m not nearly as Pro-Wal Mart as I am anti-union.”
That’s how Bob Beller aka CrazyPolitico explained getting caught (with several other right-wing bloggers) blogging Wal-Mart PR spin straight from the Edelman computers.
Beller insists that nobody paid him for channeling Wal-Mart. He was happy to do it in return for a regular supply of punchy blogfodder bashing big unions and other Wal-Mart critics. Disclosure? Only after the New York Times breaks the story.*
Did you imagine that it’s a GTFB (Good Thing For Blogging) when Big PR Firm Edelman teams with Technorati to study bloggers and hires Steve Rubel?
If you thought so, check out today’s NYT.
p.s. Richard Edelman has responded, spinning the story as yet another big media attack on bloggers.
p.p.s. Steve Rubel responds to some personal attacks made on him about this story. Read his response, and give the guy a break.
* Correction: Bob Beller sent me email saying that he personally did disclose that he got information from Wal-Mart. I’m assuming this is the blogpost he’s talking about–his email doesn’t link to it, nor does either of his front-page NYT/Wal-Mart stories. Please consider me fact-checked by Mr. Beller and disregard my suggestion above that he personally failed to disclose that Wal-Mart/Edelman was feeding him information.