UN Ambassador turned Wal-Mart PR flak stumbles with diplomacy

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Andrew Young, ex-mayor of Atlanta and former United Nations Ambassador, resigned last night from his post at Wal-Mart. Brought in 6 months ago to improve the retail giant’s image, this civil rights icon has lost his way. In response to the superstore’s displacement of mom-and-pop shops in Atlanta, Young told the Los Angeles Sentinel:

Those are the people who have been overcharging us…I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.

 

 

Certainly a blow to Wal-Mart’s image and its already dwindling profits, down 26% in the second fiscal quarter, Young’s commentary could bode well for the Democrats’ new campaign against the company. Some have reservations—do the Democrats really want to paint themselves as anti-business? But Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) put it this way:

It’s not anti-business…Wal-Mart has become emblematic of the anxiety around the country, and the middle-class squeeze.

 

We can now add ethnic slandering to that happy-faced emblem.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

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