Is withholding material facts “fake news”?

Why didn’t they mention the Breast Cancer charity?

After seeing the infamous billboard that said “Real Men provide, Real women appreciate it,” I followed it up with a billboard of my own to promote the launch of my two new humor books, “Real Men Don’t Use Coupons” and “My Head My Heart My Hooha,” The purpose of the billboard is to raise money for a breast cancer charity. A few hours after it was installed, I was interviewed extensively by a reporter from the Winston-Salem Journal. During the interview, I said -5 times - (I took notes) that I was donating one dollar per book sold to help raise money for a great charity in Florida that pays for breast reconstruction surgery for uninsured and under insured breast cancer survivors (my hopechest.org).

A few hours later, the article came out and although the quotes were accurate, the context was not. The story was slanted to make me out to be against women’s rights (which I am not) and never once mentioned the charity, which is a very important component in order for the reader to be able to judge the story in context. It made me wonder if the editor of the Journal would consider it false reporting if perhaps he was reported to have been speeding and driving recklessly in a school zone without the story mentioning the fact that he was on the way to the hospital with his wife in labor. In the article, I was called out by a charming, but misguided, local activist as oppressive and was labeled “dangerous” by a Wake Forest University Gender Studies professor - because I don’t think real men should use coupons.

A few days later I was interviewed by Spectrum News and was asked multiple questions about the charity angle and willingly opened up to try and right the false coverage.  I am sad to say that Spectrum News also chose to sandbag me. There were zero mentions of the Charity even though the interviewer asked me directly “What would you like to say to our viewers” and my response was, “Please go to myhopechest.org and help these breast cancer survivors rebuild their lives.” I am hoping perhaps Spectrum has done me a favor by giving me even more evidence to expose false reporting (Fake news?).

In The Journal article, Wake Forest Professor Wanda Balzano said that by implying that real men don’t use coupons, I was making people who do use coupons invisible and subjecting them to violence. This shows me how shallow the thought pool has become. She obviously never went to the web site and simply made assumptions about my motivations that fit her narrative - and apparently the narrative of the papers editors. That is fine, I don’t get rattled by a little criticism. I would however, like to lay out some actual facts that may provide some clarity, and perhaps show why in this day and age it has become difficult for us count on the press to look out for us with honesty and integrity.

I have owned a Mercedes Benz repair shop for thirty years just outside of Washington DC where I have a very diverse customer base. In addition to the politicians, celebrities, widows and single moms who appreciate my honesty and integrity, my customer list also includes women who have broken through the glass ceiling when it was still a foot thick; blacks who suffered through unforgivable oppression and succeeded despite the obstacles and are now vice presidents of multi BILLION dollar corporations, Doctors, Lawyers, and even Army Generals. I have a gay clientele, many who moved to DC in the 1980s because it was either here or San Francisco if they wanted to get ahead in the corporate world (and they did), and LEGAL immigrants who came here and drove cabs while they went to Howard University and are now proud doctors with thriving families.

The one thing they all have in common is that they were unwilling to let any form of oppression get in their way. They did what was needed to be done and succeeded where others failed. I am quite sure that they all had moments where they didn’t know if it was worth the effort, but they persevered regardless and it paid off. The point that I think many people don’t realize is that most people do not succeed like these folks did.

Most people don’t have what it takes to go the distance. That’s okay, the road to success is often exceptionally hard, which is why the rewards are often great. Modern day feminists and the politically correct crowd, however, don’t want to accept this. They believe everyone should be able to do what these folks did as if the only thing between female college graduates and becoming the CEO of Apple is men standing in their way.

Eighty percent of all businesses fail in the first eighteen months (reference Forbes). Feminists believe that skills and abilities could not possibly have anything to do with it because they have been told their entire life that we are all equal. The Left would have you believe that racism and sexism are the reasons for their failures and dismiss the important fact - that succeeding in business is a lot harder than most people think. Having to deal with oversensitive miseducated, “I took out the trash where is my trophy?” employees only makes it worse.

I said, essentially, the same thing to both reporters, and promoted the charity in both interviews extensively but they didn’t use any of it. So does that make their controlling of the narrative fake news? Did they report it or manipulate it? Are they guilty of using “alternative facts”? My opinion is that by leaving the charity angle out, their actions were a malicious and intentional attack on my credibility – and, sadly, evidence of how powerful the press has become in controlling the national conversation rather than reflecting it. The worst part is they had an opportunity to give exposure to a great cause and chose to deny it in order to push their politcally correct agenda. Please read the articles and decide for yourself.

I would also like to explain the books.

“Real Men Don’t Use Coupons”

It is not an attack on women at all, but a commentary on how weak men have become in America. The cover explains it well. A man and a woman sitting in a restaurant with some hipster using a two for one coupon on a date, with the girl rolling her eyes. The reason real men don’t use coupons is because we know that restaurants give away coupons to entice new customers to try them out, and hopefully become a loyal full price diner. Not real men who use coupons rarely go back unless they actually have a coupon, which just makes them willing to abuse a real man (or woman) who sacrificed everything to open a restaurant by making them give away repeated free meals. People need to realize how far we have come. Fifty years ago the adage was “buyer beware” and now we have grown men convincing the government to sue companies because their coupons were misleading (Beck V Harbor Freight Tools). It should be embarrassing for a man to even consider complaining to the government about a misleading ad for a toolbox in the first place. Don’t shop there and tell your friends. We have more important things to do than waste taxpayer money on things like this.

Being a real man is in our DNA. From the time I was five I was a protectorate. It was in my nature to help out whenever there was work to be done. I put 100% into whatever project I did, whether it was building a tree fort or little league football.

My younger brothers were the same. That doesn’t mean we didn’t screw up or have growing pains, but it does mean we knew we were destined to be providers and we have been. Just like you cannot tell a gay person they are not gay, you cannot convince a real man he is not a real man. It feels as natural as the rain. Parents trying to nurture this out of their sons is a crime, and is bad for society.

In my book, I have sayings like “Real men are not bullies, real men fix bullies,” and Real men advice on date rape: “Son if you ever date rape a girl I will kill you with my bare hands.” Think about how we have poisoned our future real men. We very rightfully teach our young daughters that if they are ever assaulted, to fight back with every ounce of strength they have and never surrender, (we even teach classes for them) and then we tell our sons if they get bullied to run like the wind and tell somebody so they can do nothing.

They tell us that one out of four homeless people in America is now female, which means the three out of four homeless people are male, but that we should concentrate on ending female homelessness first, because women are homeless because of male oppression. The opposite is more likely. I absolutely want women to be helped first, but maybe there are more homeless women because we are emasculating real men instead of fostering them to provide and be responsible.

How many of those women are homeless because their husbands left instead of providing? How many would welcome being rescued by a real man who will step up to the plate and love and honor them? Has the adage “there are no good men left” ever been more true? Women are more vulnerable than men, not less valuable, and because of their generally inherent weaker body strength, and the fact that they can be preyed upon by yes, evil men, we all need to look out for them including real men.

Bad things happen when good men do nothing. Real men are good men. This is not an implication that women are weak. Vulnerable and weak are two different things. Rosie the riveter was as tough or tougher than any man, but her odds of being homeless were slim, and the odds of her bellyaching about how men oppressed her were slimmer still. I would imagine that she also looked up to the men who went to war to keep America safe.

“My head My heart, My Hooha”

My other book makes fun of both sexes by pointing out that while men think with their head and their penis, which explains yachts, hundred thousand dollar sports cars, and Bill Clinton, women are more complicated and throw their heart onto the mix, which calls for some interesting situations. One such cartoon depicts a man and woman cuddling on a couch, the woman’s head thinks, “no more wine, we need to drive home,” her heart responds “How about one more and we take a cab?” and the hooha chimes in “how about a couple of Manhattans and we spend the night” If that isn’t funny to you then that is fine, don’t buy the book, but that is most certainly no reason to keep readers from hearing about a worthwhile charity that's sole purpose for existing is to help women feel whole again.

Real men come in all shapes, colors, size, and even genders. Mark Bingham, the undeniable hero who helped force crash the jet into the field in Pennsylvania that was destined for the White house on 9/11 was 100% a real man. He was also gay. Susan B. Anthony, certainly the most famous of all woman’s rights activists possessed psychologically and spiritually everything that makes a real man real.

She spent her entire life trying to provide women equal opportunity for success, but even she is known to have become upset when her employees became pregnant and less dedicated to the job. I find it ironic that the feminists scream for generous family leave for pregnant women, no matter the burden on the employer, but also treat motherhood as a speed bump in a career path, giving it second place in almost all instances.

I am not asking women to step aside and let real men run the world. I am asking real men to stop being conned by the progressive left into surrendering the protective nature that you were born with. You know who you are. Take a stand, raise your sons and daughters to realize that it is okay to rely on real men when necessary, and to count on them to keep the playing field level so that women, gays, minorities, disabled, and yes, real men, can thrive.

The world will become fairer faster if we stop appeasing whiny people who believe their path to success is to emasculate the very men that are responsible for their freedoms, opportunities, and modern conveniences, ( including Dr Earl Haas inventor of the modern day tampon that feminists hate paying sales tax on.)

I am not offended by the press, or the comments, I am actually grateful for the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy. I hope to spark a conversation that raises the charity a lot of money regardless of which side of the debate you’re on, and causes at least a few real men to step up to the plate and follow their instincts before it is too late, and we end up with yet another generation of unrealized real men who will not be there to protect, nurture, love, and honor women.

I have no ill will towards either reporter or the activist and purposely did not use their names. I am an employer and accept responsibility for every car that leaves my shop. The Editors are to blame here and they need to step up and do the same The activist obviously has a kind heart and I have never walked a mile in her shoes. I also think perhaps the reporters were not as honest with her as they should have been, but that is a question for the readers to ask.

As for the Gender Studies professor at Wake Forest University her name is Wanda Balzano and she does need to accept responsibility, because a tenured professor has too much power and influence over our young adults to be allowed to contaminate their minds with nonsense. She should never have been hoodwinked by a reporter and regardless of that, her statements were way more dangerous than my cartoon books.

I have two challenges that I would like to propose:

First, I challenge both News agencies to make an acknowledgement to their readers that “mistakes were made” and that they will promise to do better in the future. None of us can turn back time, and real men don’t seek a pound of flesh when an ounce will do. Secondly, I challenge them both to wait a short time until this blows over, and to each do a generous feature article on the charity and its great work.

If they choose to not accept my two challenges then my next challenge would be for Spectrum News to release the full unedited recording of the interview between their reporter and myself to see who is telling the truth and who is not.

Lastly, I would ask that everyone who reads this to please go to myhopechest.org, read about their fine work, and give them a donation, no matter how small. Regardless of whether you agree with me or not, they are worthy of the resources they need to continue their mission.

They didn’t ask for this fight. They just want to turn their waiting list for funds into a waiting list for operating room availability, so they can help these breast cancer survivors lead normal lives again.

Thank you. Mitch Carr

This letter may be reprinted and considered in the public domain.