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“Dirty Jobs” star Mike Rowe recently berated a reporter who dragged him through the mud online for his stance on vaccines.
What happened?
In a bestselling article published last Friday by The Bulwark – an independent anti-Trump news and opinion site – editor Jonathan Last twisted and twisted the TV personality’s recent Facebook remarks to give the impression that he was lying to the American people in an attempt to “discredit vaccines”.
In the salacious article titled “Mike Rowe’s Dirty Lies,” Last accused Rowe’s take on coronavirus vaccines of “being an example of vile dishonesty or breathtaking stupidity.”
Yet, in the Facebook post, Rowe – who is both coronavirus vaccinated and a vaccine supporter, in general – simply said he was not on a mission to encourage everyone to get vaccinated, especially given the lack of credibility of public figures in America. have demonstrated during the pandemic. People should be free to assess the risks and make their own decisions.
Sounds reasonable enough, right? No, according to Last, who prefers to put people in one of two camps: either in favor of vaccines for all, or in opposition to vaccines for all. There is no room for nuance or discussion.
But Rowe didn’t take the punches while lying down. In a follow-up Facebook post on Sunday, he defended his position against lies, point by point.
What did he say?
“In addition to ‘the dastardly dishonesty and breathtaking stupidity’ I would like to offer a few more options for your readers,” Rowe wrote:
How about “a refreshing and honest take on a controversial issue”, or “a thoughtful series of observations shrouded in a patina of common sense”, or perhaps “a brilliant mix of disturbing facts and truths that leave the skeptical reader with much to consider. “
Then he got to the heart of the matter, which was the lack of trust many Americans have in their political leaders – a lack of trust they have earned through their actions, he argued.
What I was trying to make is that half of the country has lost faith in our most important institutions. We have a huge credibility problem, exacerbated by powerful people who not only have moved the goalposts time and time again, but also defended the same restrictions they chose to ignore. In my opinion, this constant drop of hypocrisy has helped foster a deep level of mistrust among millions of unvaccinated Americans. If you really need specific examples, just search for “COVID-Politics-Hypocrites”. These are the people I’m talking about, and they are legion.
Rowe cited President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as examples of being against former President Trump’s vaccine before they were.
“No, I don’t agree with a noble or despicable lie. Neither do millions of other people, who would rather hear the truth,” Rowe said. “To that end, I’m not comfortable telling people that vaccines are ‘perfectly safe’ when the FDA hasn’t approved them yet. “
Regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine, Rowe suggested the following:
The government has only one sensible course of action – involve the FDA, do some statistics, then provide an honest, daily breakdown of how quickly the virus is spreading among the unvaccinated versus the vaccinated. No more threats, no more judgments, no more politics, no more celebrity-run public service announcements, no more clumsy attempts at public humiliation. Just a constant stream of verifiable data that definitely proves that the great, undeniable, overwhelming majority of people who get this disease are not vaccinated.
Again, that sounds pretty reasonable. But not to last.
In a tee shot, Rowe said: “What is wrong and cowardly is your attempt to misrepresent what I have written and deliberately misinform your readers. If I was to really deter people from get vaccinated, why admit that I got vaccinated myself? ”He continued with this:
I am happy to let readers make up their own minds about who is telling the truth. But let’s be clear about what you’ve been doing with your little slice of the Internet. You ignored the point of my original post, omitted key passages regarding my current stance on vaccines, wrote a damning and misleading headline, and got beat up with a guy who just reminded six million people that the The overwhelming majority of Americans currently hospitalized with COVID have not been vaccinated. Oh yeah, ET told them he got the hang of it as soon as he could.
“That was the point of my post, Jonathan,” Rowe concluded. “What was the point of yours?
Nothing else?
Commentator Victoria Robinson summed it up well, writing: “Dear Mr. Reporter Dude, you just had ‘Mike Rowed.'”
“You might not have liked it, but I know I certainly liked it,” she added.
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