In response to attacks for his narration of a recent Walmart commercial, “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe took to Facebook with 1,500 words of pure annihilation, calling out specific journalists by name in defense of the ad.
“I’m back,” Rowe wrote on Facebook this week. “Three days of press, five hours of sleep, four bottles of wine, a speech, a job offer, 5,000 form letters, and a couple of good-natured death threats. All because of a commercial that I narrated about American manufacturing paid for by Walmart. Press tours are fun!”
First, Rowe called out Matt Hardigree of Jalopnik for his article titled “Ford Drops Shill-For-The-Oppressors Mike Rowe From Truck Ads.”
“’Shill for the Oppressors!’ Is that not fantastic? I should make new business cards,” Rowe responded. “I’m sure Matt’s a swell guy, but unfortunately, he’s so eager to report on a story that doesn’t exist he’s resorted to a career in fiction.”
Rowe went on to say that he parted ways with Ford for reasons unrelated to Walmart. Rowe took the ad with Walmart because he wanted his work to reflect his beliefs, he wrote, and “a $250 billion investment in US manufacturing is worth talking about, and very much in keeping with the goals of [his] own foundation.”
Next, Rowe cracked jokes about the photo used in a CBS News article about him. Those familiar with Rowe know that suits and ties aren’t his thing — he hosts a show called Dirty Jobs. But according to him, CBS chose to make him look like “an ambitious vacuum cleaner salesman at the annual Hoover convention,” instead.
In addition to his comments on photo choice, he commented on the author, Aimee Picchi’s, choice of words used to describe him. Rowe clarified that he is not a spokesperson hired to speak for Walmart in an official capacity. Rather, he chose to do the commercial to encourage other corporations to follow in Walmart’s footsteps and “make similar investments in American manufacturing.” Rowe contested Picchi’s claim that he didn’t return a request for comment on the article, saying that he has no record of a phone call.
“My office has no record of a call from you or anyone at CBS. I’ve checked three times. Nothing,” he wrote. “Of course, if you sent an email to my Foundation, it may very well be buried in the mountain of form letters currently straining the resources of mikeroweWORKS.”
In that spirit, Rowe used his Facebook post to respond to a spokesperson for the group “Jobs with Justice,” who criticized him in the article and whose group, Rowe said, has sent more than 5,000 form letters to his office. He wrote that the organization’s tactics “have had the same effect as a flood of telemarketing calls during my dinner, or a bag of dog crap set ablaze on my front porch” — but eventually added that it and his cause are fighting different battles for the same people.
“You’re trying to wring out a modest increase for people who feel unappreciated by their employer and unhappy in their work. I’m trying to get those same people excited about possibilities and opportunities that go beyond their current positions. Frankly – and I say this with all due respect – I don’t believe that your strategy is in the long-term interest of your members, or for that matter, anyone who wants to improve their lives in a meaningful way.”
Rowe’s foundation offers high school seniors scholarship opportunities to learn a trade.
