As Townhall covered last week, Mike Rowe had the perfect response to a fan's question about why he hadn't publicly urged people to get vaccinated. It was humble, it was self-aware, it was reasonable. So, of course, the clowns over at The Bulwark hated it.
The Bulwark clown car crew hated it so much that their own Johnny Last launched a lazy hit piece against Rowe calling his sincere response "either an example of despicable dishonesty or breathtaking stupidity." Perhaps Last was looking in the mirror as he drafted the screed?
The Bulwark's attempted takedown goes line by line through Rowe's "lies," as Last calls them, but conveniently leaves out several lines from Rowe's initial answer that apparently proved inconvenient to the Bulwark's concocted narrative.
“Mike Rowe—the famous real man, dirty-jobbing, tough guy—is trying to pioneer a new lane in political discourse: anti-anti-anti-vaxx.” https://t.co/0pW6jfjxp2
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) August 7, 2021
Thankfully, the Dirty Jobs host is used to shoveling literal bull sh*t, and Rowe has responded with his own line-by-line takedown of the Bulwark's hit job, in which he shows no mercy.
"Here’s a delightful headline, followed by a charming article, written by a guy named Jonathan V. Last. I don’t think he likes me," Rowe says in his Facebook post before offering some editorial feedback. "Strap in. It's a doozy."
Hi JonathanAlong with “despicable dishonesty and breathtaking stupidity,” I’d like to offer a few additional options for you readers to consider. How about, “a refreshingly honest take on a controversial issue,” or “a thoughtful series of observations wrapped in a patina of common sense,” or maybe, “a brilliant blending of facts and inconvenient truths that leave the skeptical reader with much to consider.”As you surely know, tens of millions of Americans are not even remotely persuaded by our current cadre of elected officials and health care experts. Obviously, the same was true when Trump was in office. Can you imagine the resistance to a vaccine today, if Donald Trump told Americans to simply “get the jab and trust the science?” It seems to me, if you want to persuade the unvaccinated to reconsider their hesitancy, you must first put yourself in their shoes, and acknowledge a few of the reasons for their skepticism.
"The point I was trying to make, is that half the country has lost faith in our most important institutions," Rowe explained. "We have a massive credibility problem, exacerbated by powerful people who not only moved the goalposts time and time again, but championed the same restrictions they chose to ignore. In my view, this steady drip of hypocrisy helped foster a deep level of mistrust among millions of unvaccinated Americans. If you really need specific examples, just google 'COVID-political-hypocrites.' Those are the people to whom I refer, and they are legion."
...Fauci is not going to be part of the solution. His credibility is shot, and nothing he says will convince the skeptics to rethink their skepticism. (Earlier today, he slammed the Sturgis Bike Rally as a potential super-spreader event, while saying nothing about Obama’s birthday bash, and Lollapalooza. That’s the real problem. His slip is showing, and that’s made him unpersuasive to millions.
Donald Trump, as you may have noticed, is no longer the president. And those now skeptical of the vaccine, are not limited to his former supporters. Far from it. Vaccine hesitancy is alive in well in every major city, particularly among minority populations.
In response to The Bulwark's accusation that Rowe was "reprehensible," he turned the table.
What’s reprehensible, and cowardly, is your attempt to mischaracterize what I wrote, and deliberately misinform your readers. If I really wanted to discourage people from getting vaccinated, why would I admit to getting vaccinated myself? And why would I write the passage you deliberately omitted? Here it is again, lest your readers forget it. “Vaccines have saved more lives than any other advancement in the long history of medicine, and to your point, I got the shots the minute I was eligible. – Mike Rowe.
I’m happy to let the readers make up their own minds about who’s telling the truth. But let’s be clear about what you’ve done with your little slice of the Internet. You have ignored the point of my original post, omitted key passages regarding my actual position on vaccines, written a damning and fallacious headline, and picked a fight with a guy who just reminded six million people that the overwhelming majority of Americans currently hospitalized with COVID have not been vaccinated. Oh yeah, AND told them that he got the shot as soon as he was able. That was the point of my post, Jonathan.What was the point of yours?
You can read Rowe's full 3,800-word takedown of the Bulwark's smear here.
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