"As part of its ongoing effort to improve its image [3], Wal-Mart [4] is hosting its first-ever media conference for 50 invited print journalists this week near company headquarters in Arkansas," reports PR Week. "We are doing this to send a clear signal of Wal-Mart's willingness to be open with the media," said a company spokesperson [5]. Wal-Mart "plans to make the media event an annual one and to expand it to broadcast outlets." The AFL-CIO [6] union will demonstrate outside the conference. In related news, twenty-one members of Congress sent a letter [7] to ABC News protesting Wal-Mart's sponsorship of Good Morning America's "Only in America [8]" segment. Representative Anthony Weiner said [9] Wal-Mart's business practices "cost thousands of Americans their jobs and businesses."