"No one should be denied access to the medications they need"

In the P-I today, in an article about the expansion of Wal-Mart's $4 generic prescription program to Washington State.

"No one should be denied access to the medications they need, and this program is a big step in moving our customers and communities toward access to affordable medicines," Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said in a statement.

Astonishingly, the article fails to mention that the "no one" in Lee Scott's statement does not include the company's thousands of employees nationwide who have no health insurance. The piece mentions that "critics" call the $4 program a "publicity stunt" -- but what press release isn't a publicity stunt when you're the world's largest private employer? And the article doesn't get to the heart of more crucial criticism: job one for the company ought to be providing its own employees with health care, including prescription drug coverage.

But heaven forbid the mainstream press talks directly about workers. As usual, it's all consumers, all the time. (ok, not all the time -- sometimes they speak as investors instead.) So the piece is organized around what drugstore competitors will do in response.

The answer: basically, nothing. Confirming that the program in fact is pretty much a publicity stunt.