There are some things you simply can’t make up, but which others voluntarily provide. The headline above is based upon the article found herein via the affable Kurt Kelley’s most recent quarterly issue of Manufactured Housing Review (MHR) (Q1.2022). When doing something as important as “Announcing!” a purportedly new national trade group that says it will represent manufactured home community owners, every word should matter. So, one might think that an apparently professional author and whomever his allies in manufactured housing are would get the headline for their announcement finely honed. Or perhaps that headline is a type of Freudian slip? “Announcing!” said “The Manufactured Community Owners’ Association of America” who say they are “Finally Bringing Fight to the Manufactured Home Community Sector of the Industry.” Should that latter be phrased as “Fight to,” as MHR published, or better yet “Fight for” or “Fight on Behalf of” “the Manufactured Home Community Sector of the Industry”?!?
That seems like an oddly phrased announcement and introduction indeed, as this fact-check and analysis will unpack.
Quoting at length from the “MCOAA” should not be misunderstood as an endorsement in any sense. That said, their own words will be presented to industry pros so they can experience “We Provide, You Decide” © reports and analysis in action.
Part of the featured image includes the name of the person who will supposedly be the public face of this organization. “Benjamin Ivry, the voice of MCOAA” says the caption under his photo.
That photo is associated with an author who has written on a range of issues that for the most part have little or nothing to do with manufactured housing. Who is Benjamin Ivry? What connections does he have with manufactured housing in general, or manufactured home land-lease communities in particular? Further below, evidence of that will be examined. Ivry, and Kurt Kelly have been directly contacted to seek answers to those inquiries. So too has Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds, which will be part of what follows.
Let’s present the balance of what “the voice of MCOAA” had to say via MHR, before exploring the obvious questions that manufactured housing professionals and media ought to be asking.
But note that the very premise of Ivry’s pitch implies that the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) is not defending the industry from outside attacks. MCOAA says it will “immediately” bring “fight” to defend the industry against problematic reporting.
From MHR’s article following the image collage above is the following copy. The MHProNews fisking or analysis of that will follow.
Per Ivry via MHR:
“The manufactured home community industry is finally garnering the respect it has always deserved – except in one key area: there are limited industry Rebuttals to an endless sea of negative narratives in the media and city, state and federal government. The concept of “turn the other cheek” sounds good, but the reality is that it just gets you struck on the other side of your face.
MHC owners have had to suffer through a hostile political landscape long enough without any opposing views being expressed. How many disgusting articles have we all read or watched – from John Oliver to the New Yorker – yet the industry remains silent? And how many more will come our way from our lack energy in this regard? In an attempt to fill this simple but important void, the Manufactured Community Owners’ Association of America (MCOAA) has been formed. Our mission is simple:
- Effective immediately, we will fight back against any negative article, speech, or newscast by publishing opposing viewpoints and working to link these with conservative publications that appreciate the role of business and are not afraid to point out the anti‐affordable housing crowd in most American media.
But how can we accomplish this? How can we actually battle MHAction and publications that support the concept that landlords are evil, and that capitalism is a sin? Here’s our plan:
- As soon as any negative piece on the mobile home park industry is identified, we will immediately call on a number of prominent industry professionals to write articles or produce videos that offer the opposing viewpoint.
- We will use every available technique to then get these counterpoints to the top of Google through search engine optimization. The goal will be for our articles to rank just as high – or higher – than the negative piece.
- Meanwhile, we will be working hard with outreach to pro‐business publications to produce positive media reviews of our important niche within the affordable housing industry.
- We are also pleased to announce that we have purchased the domain MHAction.com, and will be providing counterpoints to all of their initiatives on this website, so that a fair and balanced opinion can be found on what is currently an unreasonable and non‐productive narrative.
- Effective with our next issue, the Manufactured Housing Review magazine will become the official publication of the MCOAA.
So, what can you do to support this effort? It will cost money to enact this agenda – not much but a little. We have priced our memberships at $120 per year. We are hoping to initially get 100 mobile home park owners to join, which will generate around $1,000 per month in revenue, all of which will be used to promote our media agenda. As our membership grows, we will simply ramp up our media blitz efforts.
Benjamin Ivry, the voice of MCOAA staff@manufacturedhousingreview.com ##
That copy was followed by a sign-up form in MHReview for possible new members to this ‘trade association.’
Unpacking the Claims from Research and Known Facts
In no particular order of importance are the following points to consider.
- It should be noted that Kurt Kelley and staff@manufacturedhousingreview.com were contacted on 3.18.2022 with questions about the above. As of 1.23 PM ET on 3.19.2022, there was no response.
- The oddly named MCOAA said it has reserved the MHAction.com website address to rebut that organization’s claims about manufactured housing. Here is what the MHAction.com website revealed on the date and time shown.
- An image search using Google reveals this photo of Ivry, which is seemingly the same as was used by MHR.
- Ivry appears to be an author, which is not a problem. But where is his expertise or experience in manufactured housing in general? Or manufactured homes in particular? The only other item that a Google search of Ivry’s name on the date/time shown below that is connected to manufactured housing was a press release by Ivry that was apparently republished by Kelley’s MHR. See that in today’s postscript, because it has yet another interesting set of curious revelations.
- Beyond question, the MCOAA’s claim of ‘bringing the fight to’ manufactured home communities is at a minimum a slam against the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI). How so? They imply that fight is not currently being presented very often: “there are limited industry Rebuttals to an endless sea of negative narratives in the media and city, state and federal government.” What Ivry doesn’t say is that most genuine “rebuttals” that exist are mostly found on MHProNews.com and MHLivingNews.com. But “rebuttals” published by our platforms still hold industry professionals to account while calling into question disconnects between MHAction, which is seemingly funded via dark money channels by the Warren Buffett funded NoVo Foundation, George Soros and others who routinely back specific RINOs, numbers of Democrats, or the political left.
- As some of the headlines below reveal, there is an ongoing stream of commentary and reports by various sources that are problematic for manufactured housing. Ivry said they will start “immediately” to fight those reports and that they will seek page 1 Google results in that effort. Curiously, MCOAA isn’t even found on Google, much less any rebuttal by MCOAA of any negative news about manufactured housing or manufactured home communities.
- As the postscript today should further evidence, there is every reason to believe that this so-called ‘trade group’ is a false flag operation. Wikipedia defines a false flag as follows: “A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term “false flag” originated in the 16th century as a purely figurative expression to mean “a deliberate misrepresentation of someone’s affiliation or motives”.”
Don’t miss today’s fact- and insight-packed postscript. All true blue MHI cheerleaders and members should particularly find it of interest.
With no further adieu, here are the headlines for the MHVille reports and analysis for the week that was between 3.13 to 3.20.2022.
What’s New on MHLivingNews
What’s New from Washington, D.C. From MHARR
What’s New on the Masthead
What’s New on the Words of Wisdom
What’s New on the Daily Business News on MHProNews
Saturday 3.19.2022
Friday 3.18.2022
Thursday 3.17.2022
Wednesday 3.16.2022
Tuesday 3.15.2022
Monday 3.14.2022
Sunday 3.13.2022
Postscript
Before diving into the wrap up on the so-called trade association that has been dubbed the MCOAA – Manufactured Community Owners’ Association of America – let’s run through some facts as of 6.14 PM ET and later on 3.19.2022.
- 1) There is no evidence of a website online with the name “Manufactured Community Owners Association of America.”
- 2) Even presuming author Benjamin Ivry is a nice fellow, there doesn’t seem to be any apparent evidence of his having experience in manufactured home communities, or manufactured housing more generally.
- 3) Given an opportunity for clarity and transparency on this issue, neither Kurt Kelley, who published and is thus promoting this ‘association,’ nor Ivry have replied to emails sent on 3.18 and a follow up email hours earlier on 3.19.
- 4) Let’s see what those emails said to see if that may have influenced why there was no reply.
| from: | L. A. Tony Kovach for MHProNews |
| to: | Benjamin Ivry via Gmail.com and Benjamin Ivry @ sbcglobal.net |
| date: | Mar 19, 2022, 12:27 PM |
| subject: | Benjamin Ivry, media outreach about your announced manufactured home community trade group |
Ben,
Benjamin Ivry is an American writer on the arts, broadcaster and translator.
Ivry is author of biographies of Francis Poulenc, Arthur Rimbaud, and Maurice Ravel, as well as a poetry collection, Paradise for the Portuguese Queen. The latter contains poems that first appeared in, among other places, The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, The Spectator, Ambit Magazine, and The New Republic.
He has also translated books from the French by authors such as André Gide, Jules Verne, Witold Gombrowicz, and Balthus. Ivry has written about the arts for a variety of periodicals including The New York Observer, The New York Sun, New England Review, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, New Statesman, The New York Times, Bloomberg.com, and The Washington Post.
Then, kindly confirm or clarify if the press release below is yours?
The website posted in that press release above doesn’t appear to have an active webpage.
This site can’t be reached
Check if there is a typo in www.rvhmanagement.com
- 5) Kurt Kelley, no reply on questions via email on 3.18.2022 regarding Ivry or this new so-called trade group.
- 6) There are reasons to suspect that Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds may be involved in this so-called trade group. So, the following email was sent. The email below was followed up by a text message to Rolfe to make sure he saw it and replied in a timely fashion.
| from: | L. A. Tony Kovach for MHProNews |
| to: | Dave Reynolds via mhpfunds.com Frank Rolfe via @gmail.com |
| date: | Mar 19, 2022, 12:51 PM |
| subject: | Dave and Frank, Media request for comments, clarity and transparency “Benjamin Ivry, the voice of MCOAA” |
“And how many more [John Oliver/Mobile Homes to New Yorker “disgusting articles” “while the industry remains silent?”] will come our way from our lack energy in this regard? In an attempt to fill this simple but important void, the Manufactured Community Owners’ Association of America (MCOAA) has been formed.
The duo has also created a ‘nonprofit’ that appears to exist for the purpose of burnishing their flaccid image with consumers.
• 7) Those pointed noted, and there could be several more raised, at the foundation of this laughably bizarre “Announcing!” rollout of this ‘trade group’ a clearly implied criticism of MHI. One should keep in mind that Rolfe, and Reynolds, have done so repeatedly. Some examples are shown.
This isn’t the first time that Kelley’s MHR has published items that de facto ripped MHI, though they may not have intended them to do so. One of those reports ripped MHI, but also raised concerns via Senator Elizabeth Warren’s claims and questions about Rolfe and Reynolds backers.
• 8) The bottom line appears to be that several MHI members have publicly laid into MHI for its failure to defend the industry and its image. But perhaps as or more important is the fact that it is often a cast of ‘usual suspects’ that happen to be MHI members who are involved in these behaviors. MHI’s promises to have a meaningful “Code of Ethical Conduct’ or a public relations person that actually does something measurably positive is lacking.
The apparent duplicity involving MHI and several MHI members has been carefully documented by MHProNews and our sister site for years. MHProNews will monitor this problematic at best, perhaps corrupt effort for a new national manufactured housing community organization. There is more, but for now: our advice? Hold onto your wallet if asked to join this and have to pay for this mostly invisible and apparently opaque MCOAA. ##
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
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.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
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