Rooting Out Federal-Corporate-Media Corruption; New DOE Secretary Chris Wright Outreach by Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform; plus Sunday Weekly MHVille Headlines Review
Among the headlines in our ongoing series of topics via The Patch found among our Sunday weekly recap is on the subject of “Federal Racket-Follow the Money-Tammany Hall 2.0 and Big U.S. Media.” MHProNews and our MHLivingNews sister site have for years periodically focused on problems within media; both mainstream media and manufactured housing trade media. The mainstream media side of that is found in that report. The manufactured home industry media aspect of the vexing issue of media manipulation of news is found further below. Next up in Part I is the communication obtained from the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) to recently confirmed Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright. The headlines for the week in review are found in Part II.
As a disclosure, note that the MHARR news header below was created by MHProNews and is not their ‘official’ news header.
Part I
February 6, 2025
VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS
Hon. Chris Wright
Secretary
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20585
Dear Secretary Wright:
On behalf of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) and its members, and as a follow-up to our initial letter dated November 18, 2024, please accept our congratulations on your confirmation to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
MHARR is Washington, D.C.-based national trade organization representing the views and interests of producers of manufactured housing subject to federal regulation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) pursuant to the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, as amended by the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 5401, etseq.) and DOE pursuant to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA)(42 U.S.C. 17071). MHARR’s members are primarily smaller and medium-sized businesses from all regions of the United States.
We look forward to further introducing ourselves and meeting with you soon. In particular, though, and as explained in much greater detail in our communication to you (and HUD Secretary Turner) dated January 23, 2025, we urge you to take immediate action to withdraw and retract draconian, costly and destructive manufactured housing “energy conservation” standards imposed by the former Biden Administration as part of its so-called “climate” agenda, as well as related enforcement rules proposed by DOE on December 26, 2023. These excessive and unnecessary regulatory actions needlessly threaten not only the industry itself, but also the availability of unsubsidized affordable homeownership for millions of lower and moderate-income Americans. Such a step would be unconscionable at a time when the nation faces an unprecedented housing crisis, with a documented shortage of affordable homes numbering in the millions.
We thank you for your attention to this urgent matter and we shall call your office soon to schedule a meeting with you.
Part II – Additional Information with More News, Tips, Views (Includes Facts-Evidence-Analysis and Commentary) are the Following
Among the items that are included in our ongoing Patch series of topics and reports mentioned in the headline is the video that follows.
As a committed and multiple award-winning history buff (starting in 6th grade, yeah, those many moons ago…) this writer can tell you that the insights from the Forgotten History series are routinely well supported by facts and evidence. That’s why we have shared several of their videos. The point in sharing that video above in the context of the emerging details under Trump 2.0 that federal tax dollars are supporting much more than NPR and PBS. The media getting that taxpayer funded support are routinely left-leaning yet also includes the normally pro-Establishment and right-leaning Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
See that and more among our Patch headlines in review. We’ll probe what passes for MHVille trade media in the Postscript today.
With no further adieu, here are the headlines for the week in review from 2.2 to 2.9.2025.
Postscript – Insights into the State of Manufactured Housing Trade Media and Bloggers
Beyond MHProNews and MHLivingNews, there are a relatively few ‘serious’ bloggers and publishers in manufactured housing. But once upon a time, there were numbers of manufactured home trade media. That loss of multiple trade publishers is part of the sign of the ‘lack of health’ in the manufactured home industry today vs. say the 1990s.
That said, the others that are out there are at times instructive, not always for what they say, but sometimes for what they fail to say or do.
For example.
a) As a rule, the bulk of the balance of trade publishers in MHVille do not systematically spotlight the fact that the industry is underperforming as measured by decades of industry performance prior to 2000.
b) Some are “MHI Award Winners” or “MHI endorsed,” which is to say that they do not ever or seriously criticize or critique MHI.
c) Essentially all of those rivals have at various times publicly praised this publication and/or our sister publication. For example. Frank Rolfe spotted this writer in his audience at a bus tour he was on. He didn’t know in advance, certainly not from this writer, that I planned on being there. Rolfe upon seeing this writer pointed me out to the others on that tour in that Chicago suburb and said: ‘We have a celebrity with us today…’ and went on to praise our publication.
d) MHI’s own leaders praised us for years, until they apparently got tired of being publicly questioned about the wisdom and effectiveness of their so-called advocacy.
e) Blogger George Allen, who a former client said was best understood this way: ‘With George, it is AAA. All About Allen.’ Be that as it may, Allen publicly praised MHProNews for our willingness to critique the powers that be in MHVille by name. Which is to say, Allen won’t do that because he doesn’t want to bite the hands that feed his. What critiques Allen gives MHI are routinely a form of posturing balanced out by odd remarks about MHARR that are routinely facts taken out of context.
f) MHInsider is considered by some as the most serious rival to MHProNews, and it is nowhere near our size, quality, depth, or traffic. But in fairness, MHInsider looks nice.
g) ManufacturedHomes.com has a blog that on occasion may mention MHARR or may mention something less than flattering about an MHI member, but typically because it is such big news that it is difficult to ignore. Why MHARR members support ManufacturedHomes.com, or MHInsider, or Kurt Kelley’s MHReview is a mystery. Perhaps they think that they are getting a benefit? But if they were, then why is it that the industry is not growing? If MHVillage (connected to MHInsider and Datacomp, which is being sued for purported antitrust violations) and the others were truly good at marketing the industry, then the industry would be growing. But it isn’t, at least, not relative to what it achieved in the late mid-to-late 1990s., or for that matter, through the 20th century history of the HUD Code.
h) Kurt Kelley’s MHReview is perhaps the most open to MHARR content, periodically publishing this or that article by MHARR. But the bulk of that publication is pro-MHI.
i) Frank Rolfe’s blog, from time to time, takes aim at MHI by name. He normally doesn’t go out of his way to embarrass MHI, demonstrated by the fact that MHI has had Rolfe speak at events they host or attend. But some of what Rolfe has said is demonstrably useful, in part, because he is in a sense pointing a finger at himself in doing so.
The principle of separating wheat from the chaff must be used with Frank Rolfe and all others. In quoting Rolfe, we are not endorsing his business practices, but rather pointing out an apt statement that criticizes the association he himself is a member of today.
Indeed, Kelley has contributed to MHProNews numerous times over the years and whether it was intentional or not has had MHReview articles that commented on ‘industry politics” topics too. For instance, MHR published an article about Berkshire Hathaway unit manager Joanne Stevens, which without mentioning MHI, was clearly slamming them for what her article in MHR saw as a failure of industry preparation for obvious attacks on the industry. That said, to be fair and accurate and to Kelley and MHR’s credit, they do from time to time publish a MHARR article. Of course, those articles are routinely found days or weeks earlier on MHProNews along with analysis and commentary found nowhere else in MHVille.
MHARR is apparently quite aware that most of the industry’s trade media are generally in the MHI orbit. That said, here is what MHARR’s Mark Weiss, J.D., President and CEO had to say.
Put differently, manufactured housing’s trade media is a bit like mainstream media in this respect. It isn’t that what they say is necessarily ‘all wrong.’ What is often more accurate is that what they say routinely fits, and/or fails to upbraid, MHI for their specific failures as a trade advocate.
By contrast, there are sources beyond the industry’s internal sources that have criticized MHI by name or by inference.
Trump 2.0 is underway. There are early, and hopeful, signs that corruption in the federal government is being exposed. That is the first step to uprooting the weeds that have swept over the federal government. It should be obvious that much of the federal government is not only bloated but is also failing at their various stated missions.
Speaking of sources and depth of coverage, MHProNews plans to have a report on a hot manufactured housing industry firm in a topic that will likely not be found anywhere else in MHVille on Monday morning. Don’t miss it.
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Our son has grown quite a bit since this 12.2019 photo. All on Capitol Hill were welcoming and interested in our manufactured housing industry related concerns. But Congressman Al Green’s office was tremendous in their hospitality. Our son’s hand is on a package that included the Constitution of the United States, bottled water, and other goodies.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
