• NY Times, Friday, February 17, 2006 4:30 PM

The New York Times was among the big media guns able to look beneath Wal-Mart's corporate façade by analyzing postings from a confidential, internal Web site for the company's managers. Wal-Mart Watch, "a group backed by unions and foundations that is pressing Wal-Mart to improve its wages and benefits" gave the postings to the paper; a disgruntled manager was said to have given the postings to Wal-Mart Watch. "The Web site shows many sides of one of the nation's most powerful executives [Wal-Mart chief H. Lee Scott Jr.]," writes the Times. "He denounces managers who complain about the company or their subordinates.... He mocks General Motors for problems caused by its generous benefits. He rejects a manager's suggestion that Wal-Mart has created 'a culture of fear,' and he hails Wal-Mart's performance in responding to Hurricane Katrina."

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