Target apologizes for giving to group backing Emmer
CEO Gregg Steinhafel said he was "genuinely sorry" the $150,000 disappointed some workers as well as the public.
By JACKIE CROSBY, Star Tribune Last update: August 5, 2010 - 9:25 PM
Unable to extinguish a firestorm of protest among some of its customers and gay rights supporters, Target Corp. on Thursday took the unusual step of apologizing for making a political donation.
CEO Gregg Steinhafel sent a message to company leaders saying he was "genuinely sorry" that the donation had disappointed some. The message was posted on the company's Intranet, making it available to all employees.
Minneapolis-based Target had tried for days to emphasize that the $150,000 donation to MN Forward, a pro-business group backing Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, was based solely on a tax and jobs platform. But because of Emmer's stance against gay marriage, many perceived the donation as flying in the face of Target's longstanding commitment to workplace equality.
A Facebook page calling for a Target boycott has grown to more than 44,000 fans. The Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, condemned Target as well as Best Buy, which contributed $100,000 to MN Forward.
MoveOn.org, a liberal political action group, circulated its own petition aimed at collecting 150,000 signatures, and YouTube videos circulated of people cutting up their cards in Target stores.
"While I firmly believe that a business climate conducive to growth is critical to our future, I realize our decision affected many of you in a way I did not anticipate, and for that I am genuinely sorry," Steinhafel wrote.
A new era of business
While the apology could put an end to what Heather LaMarre, a University of Minnesota assistant journalism professor, called "a PR nightmare," it could also signal the beginning of a combustible new era of corporate decisionmaking..................................>>>>..................>>>>................http://www.startribune.com/local/100051999.html
I will be sure to shop at Target today, to negate the bully tactics of the left.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
I will be sure to shop at Target today, to negate the bully tactics of the left.
My thoughts exactly!! pass the word around!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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