Never mind Mexico, where the ghosts of the Incas are picketing a Wal-Mart superstore in the sight line of a pyramid. Frontline is more agitated on the home front. In this documentary, the camera follows U.S. jobs from Circleville, Ohio, where a maker of picture tubes employed a thousand workers, to China, where 50 cents an hour buys labor a lot cheaper—and this outsourcing didn’t occur because the TV manufacturer, RCA, was looking for a bargain, but because it knuckled under to pressure from one of its most important retailers (Wal-Mart, natch) to cut the price of its sets. Not by accident, Wal-Mart has a cozy relationship with sweatshops all over China. You may be struck by how closely global capitalism resembles a pomo novel and a clandestine intelligence operation, with deep covers, false-bottomed narratives, and unreliable narrators.

Is Wal-Mart Good for America?
Channel 13
Tuesday, November 16. 9 to 10 P.M.

Related:

• Archive: “Television”
• Articles by John Leonard
• Table of Contents: November 22, 2004 issue of New York | Subscribe!