WAL-MART HALTS WEB SITE'S MOVIE REFERENCES

<snip>
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is shutting down the system that creates movie recommendations on its shopping Web site after it linked a "Planet of the Apes" DVD to films about famous black Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr.

Wal-Mart said Thursday it had removed what it called the "offensive combinations" from a walmart.com page advertising a boxed DVD set, "Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series."

Under a "similar items" section, the DVD set's page linked shoppers to four films about the lives of King, actress Dorothy Dandridge, boxer Jack Johnson and singer Tina Turner. Wal-Mart later altered the page to link with television show DVDs.

The world's largest retailer said the software that generates links for shoppers from one movie to others of similar interest would be shut down. All cross references would be removed as soon as technically possible until the system can be fixed, Wal-Mart said.
<snip>

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2006/01/05/ap2431560.html?partner=alerts

Exactly how did MLK get associated with Planet of the Apes? There's Wal-mart for you.
:wow:

:kick:

TURN IT DOWN, I NEED TO GET TO SLEEP DAMN YOU!

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

As much as I loathe Walmart, those recommendations are not picked by humans. This is about the dumbest non-issue I've seen in awhile.

except that they created an interface that allowed racists to easily create insulting and vicious comments through links.

Wal-Mart's Blatantly Racist Planet-of-the-Apes Page.
Topic started by yodermon on Jan-05-06 05:31 PM (128 replies)
Last modified by IanDB1 on Jan-06-06 04:52 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=61145

Wal-Mart web site calls Martin Luther King an ape
Topic started by kurth on Jan-06-06 12:33 PM (5 replies)
Last modified by Dob Bole on Jan-06-06 01:41 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=67068

BREAKING: WALMART HALTS ALL DVD REFERENCES AFTER PLANET OF THE APES FIASCO
Topic started by Halliburton on Jan-06-06 12:01 AM (16 replies)
Last modified by Loonman on Jan-06-06 10:54 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=64258

Self-Delete. Walmart may in fact be innocent on this one.
Topic started by OPERATIONMINDCRIME on Jan-05-06 06:32 PM (21 replies)
Last modified by Touchdown on Jan-06-06 10:48 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=61637

WAL-MART HALTS WEB SITE'S MOVIE REFERENCES
Topic started by Halliburton on Jan-05-06 11:55 PM (6 replies)
Last modified by pop goes the weasel on Jan-06-06 01:07 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=64644

Dear gawd, did we REALLY spend so much time here talking about THIS??

WaPo on Walmart, C&L and FDL

WaPo: "...The blog Firedoglake, run by Jane Hamsher in Oregon, posted news of the combination yesterday afternoon under the heading "So Wrong." The incident illustrated how quickly a firestorm can build on the Internet. Two minutes after the post appeared on Hamsher's blog, it was up on the Crooks and Liars site. Within hours, more than 100 comments were posted to that site, questioning such things as Wal-Mart's agenda and the technicalities of mapping--

As Jane says: Boy that "mapping" program sure does have a low-rent cracker sense of humor.

Steve Gilliard: " I don't agree with John{Aravosis}, and here's why. This is no mistake. The programmer did this on purpose. Wal-Mart has a bad record on race as is. When I watched Planet of the Apes, it was sci-fi to me, and not marketed to blacks specifically....read on"

More:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/01/05.html#a6591