When you’re the largest retailer on Earth, I imagine there is palpable hubris to public perception in the executive level; A sort of, “You may disagree with us; you may not even like us, but our greeters will see you this week anyway” frame of mind. Walmart doubled-down on their company-wide disregard of bad publicity with their latest bold move, blaming Tracy Morgan for the injuries he received in the fatal crash involving one of their semi-trucks.

The crash that occurred in June led to the death of fellow comedian, and was purportedly the result of a Walmart driver who had not slept in over 24 hours. Tracy Morgan was hospitalized for several weeks recovering from severe injuries.

On Monday, attorneys representing Walmart in the resulting lawsuit filed a brief alleging that because the passengers were not wearing seatbelts in the limousine they were partially to blame for the death and injuries.

Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Walmart is a lightning rod for bad press for such issues as low employee wages (while simultaneously providing information as to how to take advantage of government assistance), and their (soulless) domination of family-owned businesses. But with all of the Walmart-focused controversy, the worst aspect is that they don’t seem to care at all. As long as they continue to churn out astronomical profits, the folks at the top couldn’t care less what you think of them or their company. It’s like their C-Suite is comprised entirely of Mr. Burns clones.

Their army of attorneys is presumably attempting to establish leverage to bring to the lawsuit settlement table, while adding to their negative reputation in the court of public opinion (which they don’t appear to mind.)

The public’s view of a corporation should be an integral aspect of their operations strategy. When it appears that a company pays no mind to this, you should immediately question their motivations. Walmart knows they will continue to rake in profits, and until there’s an impact to their bottom-line, their decision-makers will continue to disregard their public standing.