September 8, 2006 3:13PM # How Dare You Support Those Who Agree with You! By [Thomas A. Firey](https://www.cato.org/people/thomas-firey) --- SHARE The *New York Times* is generally recognized at the nation’s newspaper of record, and rightly so. *Times* reporting typically is broad, in-depth, nuanced, and thoughtful. It should be on everyone’s daily reading list. But the *Times* sometimes allows its general excellence to be interrupted by yellow journalism, as exemplified by [today’s prominent article](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/business/08walmart.html?ref=business) describing (and implicitly decrying) contributions made by the Walton Family Foundation to several public policy groups whose scholars have written or spoken in support of various Wal-Mart practices. (In the interest of full disclosure, Cato was not mentioned in the article. I have no idea whether Cato receives any contributions from the Walton Family Foundation.) The upshot: > \[T\]he financing, which totaled more than $2.5 million over the last six years, according to data compiled by GuideStar, a research organization, raises questions about what the research groups should disclose to newspaper editors, reporters or government officials. Curiously, buried deep in the article, is this little nugget: > Conservative groups are not the only ones weighing in on the Wal-Mart debate. Ms. Williams of Wal-Mart noted labor unions have financed organizations that have been critical of Wal-Mart, like the Economic Policy Institute, which received $2.5 million from unions in 2005. > > > In response, Chris Kofinis, communications director for [Wake​Up​Wal​mart​.com](http://wakeupwalmart.com/), an arm of the [United Food and Commercial Workers Union](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_food_and_commercial_workers_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org) that gives money to liberal research groups, said: “While we openly support the mission of economic justice, Wal-Mart and the Waltons put on a smiley face, hide the truth, all while supporting right-wing causes who are paid to defend Wal-Mart’s exploitative practices.” So, the *New York Times* gives the scandal treatment to the Walton Family Foundation’s handing out a little over over $400,000 a year to a bunch of public policy groups that write favorably about Wal-Mart, but barely acknowledges that anti–Wal-Mart forces gave out $2.5 million in just one year to just one group that criticizes Wal-Mart. And the *Times* lets the leader of one of those anti–Wal-Mart groups give a hammer quote decrying think tanks as Wal-Mart hacks. What’s most disappointing is that the *Times* didn’t give any consideration at all to what should have been the fundamental question of the article: Is there merit to the pro–Wal-Mart arguments made by think tanks that receive Walton money? Or, are those arguments flawed, suggesting their authors may have been influenced by the Walton money? The *Times* article is, in essence, a pathetic [ad hominem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem) attack. And that is a ridiculous failure for a newspaper as fine as the Gray Lady. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).