A little love on a Saturday, Off The Wall…
Kathy Mcferrin writes…
“Wow what a douchbag you have been with this whole Masonry competition thing. You came off very badly my stupid friend!”
Tigernan Douglas Quinn says…
“I see you’ve stooped to scolding little girls about their character. That's lovely.”
Derek Hanna reveals…
“I never realized you were such an asshole. Very disappointing.”
Howdy kids. How’s your weekend going? I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you’ve been pursuing the headlines over at The Raw Story. https://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/tv-star-mike-rowe-trashes-ohio-girls-character-after-shes-stripped-of-prize-in-contest-he-helps-run/ Am I right? I knew it!
Back in college, I had a professor named Dr. Vatz who taught a wonderful course called Rhetoric and Persuasion. I remember an exercise where we were instructed to take an article from the local paper, and without changing the underlying facts, rewrite it in such a way that left the reader with a completely different version of the truth. To this day, I think about that exercise whenever I come across an article whose sole purpose is to make people angry.
Happily for the writer in question - a guy named Tom Boggioni - The Raw Story does not appear to be terribly concerned with the facts. I suspect his future there is a bright one. However, since I have nothing better to do on this fine Saturday but defend myself from the slings and arrows of outrageous bloggers, I thought it might be fun to juxtapose “The Raw Story, as told by Tom Boggionia” with “The Real Story, as told by Mike Rowe.” Perhaps if Dr. Vatz sees this, he’ll let us know which version is the more fanciful…
The Raw Story: HEADLINE: “TV’s Mike Rowe Trashes Ohio Girl’s ‘Character’ After She’s Stripped of Prize in Contest He Helps Run”
The Real Story: HEADLINE: “Mike Rowe Defends the Importance of Fair Play - Encourages Observers to Look Beyond Politics and Gender Stereotypes in Recent Controversy.”
The Raw Story: TV host and pitch man Mike Rowe took to his Facebook page to address the controversy over Ohio teen Shania Clifford being denied a spot in a national masonry contests and ended up smearing her character in the process. Rowe, who hosts the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs and is affiliated with contest sponsor SkillWorks, responded to a question on his Facebook page about Clifford based on an article found here on The Raw Story.
The Real Story: Yesterday on Facebook, Mike Rowe answered hundreds of readers who asked him to comment on a petition demanding that a female contestant be allowed to compete in a competition she didn’t actually qualify for. Rowe, who now runs mikeroweWORKS - the countries most visible foundation in support of the skilled trades - is a longtime supporter of SkillsUSA, (though he has nothing to do with “running” the organization.) In that capacity, Rowe responded to an article that first appeared in The Columbus Dispatch, and was subsequently picked up a number of websites desperate to generate traffic by ginning up imaginary controversies and posting unflattering images of Rowe’s giant and wrinkly face.
The Raw Story: Clifford thought she was going to a national leadership and skills conference after coming in first place in a SkillsUSA Ohio masonry competition, only to find out that her spot had been awarded to boy who came in third. It was later determined that the scores had been input incorrectly. However Clifford was never notified and only found out that she wasn’t passed over by reading about it on Facebook.
The Real Story: In a most unfortunate mistake, Shania Clifford’s actual score in the Masonry competition was incorrectly entered into the master spreadsheet, leading all concerned to assume that Shania had earned the highest score. In fact, she had not. Unfortunately, Shania was not properly notified about the discrepancy and got the bad news on Facebook. The good news is, the mistake was corrected, and the student with the highest score went to the Nationals.
The Raw Story: Clifford’s place in the local competition was downgraded to third based upon the correction in the scores, but she was still allowed to keep the first place gold medal after the controversy embarrassed all involved. For some reason this annoyed Rowe who, after explaining the errors involved, pushed the teen to return the medal to prove that she is a person of good character while playing the “everybody gets a trophy” card.
The Real Story: Rowe, a longtime critic of so called “participation trophies,” was troubled by the fact that so many uninformed observers would rush to sign a petition demanding Shania be rewarded on the basis of a clerical error. He encouraged Shania not to allow anyone to define her as a victim of gender discrimination if such a claim was untrue - which it clearly was in this case. Rowe also pointed out that those demanding “justice for Shania” were not acting in her best interest. In fact, Rowe went so far as to imply that those who signed the petition were insulting all women in the most insidious way possible - by demanding special treatment based on nothing but gender. Rowe then asked, “Would anyone be demanding “justice for Shania,” if she were a boy? How in the world is it good for women to benefit from a clerical error? When Steve Harvey mistakenly awarded the title of Ms. Universe to Ms. Colombia instead of Ms. Philippines, should the mistake have gone uncorrected? Should Ms. Colombia be Ms. Universe today, simply because Steve Harvey screwed up?”
Finally, Rowe offered Shania some unsolicited advice that would surely catch the eye of a prospective employer - he encouraged her to “return the Gold Medal, along with her sincere thanks for the opportunity to compete, her heartfelt congratulations to the actual winner, and her steadfast resolve to come back next year and kick some serious ass.”
The Raw Story: After the uproar over the SkillsUSA competition went viral, Clifford was given an invitation to compete in the Mason Contractors Association of America’s convention next year.
The Real Story: After the uproar over the SkillsUSA competition went viral, a dubious assortment of hysterical activists masquerading as journalists continued to look for a story that simply wasn’t there, and encourage people with no real knowledge of the facts to sign a bogus petition. The Raw Story actually accused Rowe of “trashing Shania’s character,” when in fact, he did nothing but point out how important character actually is. Even now - after the Columbus Dispatch clarified their original story - The Raw Story continues to fan the flames of confusion and self-righteous indignation, driving many of their nearly two dozen readers to clutter up Rowe’s Facebook Wall with the kind of insults most often associated with a petulant eight-year old.
Mike Rowe
(Managing Editor of The Real Story with Mike Rowe)
RAWSTORY.COM
TV’s Mike Rowe trashes Ohio girl’s ‘character’ after she’s stripped of prize in contest he helps run
Second, I am sad to say that Mr. Rowe's rebuttal just drove thousands more readers (including me) to support this ad-driven site full of garbage, clickbait headlines.
Finally, the couple dozen folks who wrote in to trash Mr. Rowe are letting piss-yellow journalism like Raw Story guide their thoughts and decisions.
To those couple dozen folks: If you happen upon this comment, please know that you really need to examine your life and what you allow to influence your brain. There is no doubt that you screwed up, but you didn't screw up in a fatal way (it is more than likely that no one else will ever even know of your error). Please take this gift of an opportunity and grow from it… and, for Pete's sake, stop clicking on Raw Story links!
Needless to say, this left me scratching my head over several aspects of the story, as well as your response...whic
Your 're-write' of the Raw Story article actually cleared up ALL of my personal confusion on the matter, and makes your response much more comprehensible.
Thanks for keeping it real.
Second I though at this point everyone understood the fact the any media source has the ability to change the real story to point in whatever direction they would like. This is why the internet is soooo damn important. We wouldn't have known any different if it wasn't for Rowe to tell his side. Never believe the media. Google any story you read and look for variations in the story.
Thank you to Mike Rowe and everything you do!
It was well written and you gave solid advice to the young lady.
Don't let them get you down. Those of us who know what true character and integrity are see it in both your written and physical work.
That all being said, I don't believe there would have been an issue with allowing the young lady to participate this weeks competition, though it is too late now. What harm is there in those running the state competition from saying, "hey, we screwed up, and too show that we are stand up folks who own our mistakes, we won't deprive someone who genuinely though they had won and celebrated and made plans to attend the national compitition from going. We will assure that our mistake does not have adverse impact on thise we were charged with serving as the directors of the state competition. Just my thoughts.
In my opinion, You are a constant delight and staggering representation of a true mentor. It's very hard for me to imagine the strain you must feel when trying to not only, "do the right thing", but to also teach a proper lesson of character to today's youth, only to have the entire situation turned against you.
I will offer some personally opinionated advice concerning participation awards. No, I don't agree with them. However, if society continues to deem them a politically correct necessity, they should be fashioned to resemble the classic "Facebook thumbs up". Simple enough, but the reality its just one of my half witted attempts at sarcasm.
Thanks for sharing the story. Luckily I haven't seen an article on the "raw story" prior to this post. Of course I don't typically regard drive by media reports as being very credible either.
Oh and by the way. I've seen several "memes" joking about Morgan Freeman narrating people's life stories. Well not me. I want Mike Rowe!
She had nothing to gain, at that point, by keeping the award, and everything to gain. It was well written and I wish everyone was brave and bold enough to think things through and say it like it is. I applaud you!
People really need to get a life instead of trying to stir the pot with misrepresentati
Keep on keeping on Mike.
