Cedar Mill Communications

In my last post, Real Journalism, I pointed out the benefit of educating and paying people to investigate and write about our world. How else will we know about abuses of power or inequality or any number of societal ills? But as a writer, if I’m given a choice between tackling a paying job that comes in or writing a blog about a subject that rankles me, I’ll take the paying one. The bills can’t be paid on ire after all.

I still stand by that argument. But I’ve learned that the blogosphere does have the power to help traditional media effect change. The most recent evidence is a story of how a New York City college student went up against two large retail chains over an apparent policy to destroy unworn clothing they couldn’t sell. Cynthia Magnus found garbage bags of slashed clothing outside a NYC H&M store along with bags of clothing bearing Wal-Mart tags that had been punched full of holes. Rather than donate the clothing, the retailers left them fit only for the garbage dump. H&M’s action was especially egregious because the garbage bags of destroyed clothing were just around the corner from a collection point from New York Cares, a charity that collects coats for the needy.

I heard the story as a quick news blurb on KINK, the station my alarm is set to. I woke up thinking geez, what a crappy thing to do in a city with so many poor people – and such cold weather.

Turns out the story didn’t spring from a blog as KINK reported, but from the New York Times. Magnus had tried unsuccessfully to contact H&M. When they wouldn’t give her the time of day, she turned to the Times. Two days after the story ran H&M issued a promise to donate, not destroy unsold clothing. I searched but didn’t find out what happened with Wal-Mart. The story got picked up by AP and ran about everywhere. Twitter even got in on the action, as one blogger claimed the flurry of tweets led H&M to straighten up. What this says to me is that reporters and bloggers and people who twitter (twitterers?) can have a synergy that leads to action, in this case for cold, poor New Yorkers.

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