– Brad Lovin, North Carolina Manufactured Housing Association.
“My 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy.” – Ronald Reagan.
“Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” – Sun Tzu.
“Manufactured homes once were called mobile homes or trailers, but in many cases they’ve become more varied in appearance in recent decades, and it’s true they provide a more affordable form of housing for some people in a time when conventional housing is more and more expensive,” begins a commentary by the Editorial Board of the Charlotte, NC News and Observer (N&O).
The N&O editorial continued, “But a report by The News & Observer’s Martha Quillin has safety experts saying the safety standards for the homes need to be updated and strengthened.”
“In Eastern North Carolina, those experts say, there could be up to 200,000 households settled in homes that might not withstand hurricane winds, because the wind-zone maps that govern manufactured housing are out of date,” their editorial said.
What they didn’t mention was that the same engineer they quoted said almost the opposite to MHLivingNews. More on that, in a follow up. Far more conventional houses are vulnerable, than pre-code mobile homes or post code manufactured homes. So why did they single out factory built housing, that they admit is more affordable and fills a vital role?
Let’s return to the N&O’s allegedly agenda-driven editorial.
“Indeed, the pattern when it comes to manufactured housing and regulation seems to be that rules are updated after hurricanes, when the damage done shows the need for stronger rules,” their editorial board said.
Death, Disaster and Perceived Problems – Often Lead to Reactions in the U.S.
Death and disaster often leads to new regulations or other changes. Isn’t that the pattern in almost anything deemed a problem in American society?
Didn’t Tylenol start putting a one penny seal under the lid, and above the contents of each bottle, only after a murderous man laced a few bottles with poison? That now distant incident caused that drug company – and all others – to create a new safety standard in its wake.
In the wake of 9/11, the federal government created the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) – and spent billions doing it.
Thousands of such examples exist. So why did their editorial board single out manufactured housing in this way? What is their agenda?
Selective Target Reporting
“It’s very disappointing that this reporter sought out the manufactured home style properties, but ignored the more numerous site built, conventional properties damaged in North Carolina and elsewhere this past year in windstorms,” said Reverend Donald Tye, Jr. “This type of “Selective Target Reporting” has a recent Harvard study saying 65% of Americans don’t trust the media. Gallup’s similar poll said only 32% trust the media now,” he said in texted comments to MHProNews, adding the word, “Sad.”
Back to Facts Revealed by Lovin
NCMHA’s Lovin told MHProNews that N&O reporter Martha Quillin called a few times over the course of several weeks.
Lovin reportedly asked Quillin on her second call, why hadn’t her story already published? He said her reply explained that Quillin was doing more research.
Objective research by journalists and media are precisely how good media should operate.
But agenda media – and mainstream media (MSM) hit pieces – operate differently.
“The reports we’ve heard about this matter is that the mainstream media reporter involved in this story did her research over the course of several weeks. Even a basic internet search will turn up reports and videos by MHLivingNews, as well as an NBC News video,” said Mark Weiss, JD, President & CEO Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR).
“Those [online resources] resources demonstrate almost the polar opposite of what the local media reported and editorialized about, regarding the alleged need to “improve” manufactured homes,” Weiss stated.
“The reality is that since the advent of federal manufactured housing regulation in 1976, modern HUD Code manufactured homes — according to metrics maintained by HUD itself — have achieved the fundamental goals and objectives of federal law, by providing a safe, durable, quality home at an inherently affordable price that is accessible to all Americans, at every rung of the economic ladder,” Weiss said. (Editor’s note, to underscore his last point, see this link here.)
A North Carolina Media Hit Piece?
If one views the N&O story – see that and their editorial, linked here – as a ‘hit piece,’ that’s where Tye’s and Lovin’s points about hand-selected information comes into play.
How a “news”
- story is structured,
- what facts are shown,
- and which ones are left out,
are the writer’s – and/or editorial – decisions.
Read the link above, and ask – in the light of all the known facts – not just their hand-picked ones – does their report seem fair and balanced?
MHProNews – in conjunction with a pair of other professionals – engaged Quillin, her editor, a senior editor and the N&O publisher in follow up discussion.
That engagement and our research will result in a series of articles affordable housing advocates and manufactured home pros will not want to miss.
Because what the local North Carolina media left out, and what they hand-picked to leave in, reveals what manufactured home advocate – Reverend Donald Tye, Jr. – says reflects “a disgraceful prejudice,” one “that reminds him of the anti-black bigotry” of decades ago.
It’s a bigotry, says Tye, that ought not to be tolerated about manufactured homes and the millions of people who do – and can – benefit from factory-built homes.
Watch for those upcoming reports. ## (News, analysis, critique.)
(Publisher’s footnote: MHProNews has been advised by sources that MHI has not yet engaged on this NC issue.
An MHI member president – in response to an emailed challenge for that Arlington, VA based association to step up to the plate and do something on this NC issue (see download, linked here) – told MHProNews that, “Can’t agree more thank you.” That and other members are tired of MHI’s lack of engagement, see MHI/NCC member Frank Rolfe, linked here. Should MHI continue to fail to defend the industry and our industry’s homeowners, we will make that another spotlighted report.)
Related story, linked here.
(Image credits are as shown above, and when provided by third parties, are shared under fair use guidelines.)
