Wal*Mart reverses course, lifts ban on Penascola News Journal

Earlier, we told you about how a Wal*Mart regional manager decided to ban a Penascola newspaper from area stores because he didn't like what one of the paper's columnists was writing.

Well, Wal*Mart bigwigs have apparently realized the error their manager made:

Wal-Mart will allow the Pensacola News Journal to be sold at area stores, rescinding a ban imposed because of a newspaper column that a local manager considered derogatory to the retailer.

Columnist Mark O'Brien wrote in June 19 editions that Pensacola should "be more than the Wal-Mart kind of town we're becoming -- cheap and comfy on the surface, lots of unhappiness and hidden costs underneath."

O'Brien then cited a New York Times report that Georgia's health-care program included more than 10,000 children of Wal-Mart workers, costing taxpayers nearly $10 million a year. He noted the Times report was cited in "The World is Flat," a new book by Thomas Friedman about the global economy.

"We did make an error in judgment by removing the papers from our stores," Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Sharon Weber said in an e-mail from company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. "They should be available in our stores by the end of the week."

Wal-Mart sells the "The World is Flat" in its stores and on its Web site, Weber noted in a follow-up e-mail.

"I am unaware of any prior instance in which a book or periodical was removed from our shelves because it was critical of our company," she wrote.

Weber declined to discuss any disciplinary action against Pensacola district manager Bob Hart, who issued the ban.

Tip to Joe Reilly for pointing this out in our comment thread.