Press & Sun Bulltin, page 3D sports section. SEPT.29 1999
Rosie O"Donnel-Talk show host, Comedian and actress-apparently has quite a national following. Known alternately as the "Queen on Nice" by the media in reference to her soft-subject talk show and "Rosie O'Doughnuts" By Don Imus' irreverent crew in reference to her heftiness,O'Donnell grabbed national headlines last spring when she shouted down guest Tom Selleck when he defended his rights as a gun owner on her talk show. The incident occured shortly after the Columbine and Conyers gun tragedies. Using her talk show seat as a podium, Rosie the next day essentially told the TV audience that it was "tough" if hunters and shooters would miss their guns and that "...only military and police should have guns"
O'Donnell is certainly entitled to her opinions, and is entitled to express them in her national TV forum. That's what Kmart, for which Rosie was a paid spokesperson, said in a statment shortly thereafter. O'Donnell, coincidentaly, immediately issued a statment that Kmart was OK because it sold legal guns and ammunition to hunters and shooters who used lawfully-ignoring the fact that she attacked those very people previously. Well, according to published reports, the threatend boycott did come to pass and with its margins on hunting items cut deeply entering hunting season-Kmart has dissmissed O'Donnell as a spokesperson.
The move apparently has triggered an even bigger response as Wal-Mart, the nation's leading retailer has reacted to the move by making arrangments with firearms training orginazations to support and provide meeting room space for training sessions nationwide.
Kmart and Wal-Mart, incidentally, are the nation's leading retailers of sporting arms and ammunition. The adage "when you really want their attention, hit them in the wallet" certainly proved itelf in this case.