Our little PR corner of the blogosphere is awash with opinion about the Wal-Mart/Edelman blogger outreach campaign stemming from a story in the New York Times on Tuesday.

3:40 a.m. is an ungodly time to be answering questions fired at your through and earpiece while staring into the bright lights of a camera. Intrepid communicator that I am, though, I undertook the challenge-with only one cup of coffee in me, no less-when I answered questions this morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

The New York Times manages to make a huge story from the fact that some bloggers apparently “cut and paste” whole sentences sent to them by Wal-Mart and other companies.

The NYT takes a *very* interesting look at how Edelman is increasingly engaging bloggers on behalf of Wal-Mart:

Walmart is starting to use bloggers, this New York Times article says.

Would you buy a computer encased in a Scotch bottle? Of course you would. [Hic] I would, too. How about a mouse that’s also a phone? How about a CPU that looks like an anime girl? [Hic] That’s sick man, some things should just be left alone.

Reasserting itself as a “no-market-out-of-reach” company, Wal-Mart launched an MTV-style online/in-store hybrid music service. Dubbed Wal-Mart Soundcheck, studio performances and interviews with musicians and bands will be viewable every week at store promotions and downloadable from the company’s website.

The world’s biggest retailer issued apologies after discovering several prominent African-American themed films listed as “similar items” for titles like “Planet of the Apes.”

John Walton, the son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, died in a plane crash yesterday at about 1:20 P.M. local time near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

John Walton, 58, crashed in an experimental homemade aircraft shortly after takeoff in Wyoming.

Daily Telegraph: The Wal-Mart publicity manager behind an advert that equated the retail giant to victims of the Nazis has resigned. Peter Kanelos, who had overseen public relations in Arizona and southern California on behalf of Wal-Mart, left his job yesterday, a few weeks after the company apologised for its PR gaffe.

John Battelle notes that Google’s market capitalization is now just north of 80 billion dollars, making it the largest media company on the planet, overtaking Time Warner.

Wal-Mart and Netflix have decided to join forces in the online movie business with a promotional campaign for Walmart.com’s movie sales and Netflix’s DVD movie rentals.

Wal-Mart and Netflix are teaming up to help each other out in the online movie business with a promotional campaign for Walmart.com’s movie sales and Netflix’s DVD movie rentals.

New partnership with Netflix connects Wal-Mart’s movie sales business with Netflix’s rental operations.

Wal-Mart predicted that it will miss Wall Street expectations for its current-quarter earnings as a result of a drop in consumer spending. On the other hand, Target’s earnings exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Wal-Mart has predicted that its earnings for this quarter will be lower than Wall Street analysts’ expectations. Consumer spending has decreased as a result of high fuel prices.

The Dow goes down swinging and loses 110 points off its average as the massive retailer makes a profit warning.

Wal-Mart had a slight increase in sales in April, but didn’t quite meet the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

Following the cue of other successful ventures such as Apple iTunes, Walmart said yesterday it would offer downloadable music and customized CD’s on the Internet.

The world’s largest retailer lets you put Los Lonely Boys and Double Trouble together on a disc, but questions about demand persist.