By Chuck Woodbury
PUBLISHER
A headline got my attention last week. It was titled “The Top 15 Amenities You’ll Find in a Luxury RV.” It’s written by a woman named Jennifer (I will not use her last name). My guess is that Jennifer doesn’t know a damn thing about RVs. She’s a content creator, which means, of course, that she creates content. In the old days this person might be called a writer.
It also means she creates content for one basic reason (other than to earn some money): to get the articles, no matter how worthless, ranked high on Google, so more people click to read it, which means more $$$ for the publisher. It’s the new “journalism.” Or, as I would prefer, “journalism gone wrong!”
I will skip the top 13 reasons why Jennifer writes that RVs are so great. Her reasons, I believe, are just a bunch of hot air akin to the fumes in a cattle stockyard on a sizzling summer day near Yuma, Arizona. I will skip to reasons 14 and 15:
JENNIFER WRITES:
REASON 14: “Luxury trailers can have a TV. TV and nature, what could be better?”
ME:
Ah, TVs and nature! Yeah, nothing much better than that, right? Geez. And, Wow — “most luxury RVs have a TV?” Sorry, Jennifer, but the cheapest, ugliest, crappiest RV on the market has a TV. Most any RV that is tall enough for someone to stand up in has at least two TVs. Thousands of models have three, four or five TVs! But, so sad, Jen, there is only one “nature”!
JENNIFER:
REASON 15: “Perhaps the most important part about luxury travel trailers is that they are made with sustainable parts. The best companies will make their trailers out of material that will last, trees that grow back fast, and utilize companies that share their vision of a healthier environment.”
ME:
Huh? They use trees that grow back fast? You mean, like bamboo? And the RV manufacturers do business with companies that share their vision of a “healthier environment?” No, they do business with companies that give them the cheapest price! And, you write that RVs are made of “sustainable parts.” Well, Jen, that’s a 100-foot-high pile of of piggy poopie!
JENNIFER CONCLUDES:
“The bottom line is that luxury travel trailers are amazing. They have amenities that are useful, luxurious, and great for the environment.”
ME:
Well, Jen, my high school English teacher might award you a D+ for this exercise in filling space. You avoided an “F” because you got paid (we assume), and — to end on a positive note — there is something to be said for that.
##RVT1049
I’m not defending Jennifer but there’s not much difference in her journalism and other journalists who look at a sales brochure of any item and sit down and hit the keyboard fabricating a story without researching the facts. Then their publisher pays and prints their article because he/she doesn’t know any more than the journalist about the subject. If I were a journalist I would do my research first to keep the ugly comments from coming after my article was published. Then again maybe I’m unusual and maybe the general readership is just as dumb as the journalist who wrote the lies.
Maybe Jennifer is a member of the growing number of conspiracy journalists, making money by publishing outlandish articles to make money and increase their profile.
Now there is a unique concept!
“Money that’s what I want give me money”
One vlogger I know gets free stuff from manufacturers and it’s always the greatest thing since sliced bread. It have learned to always skip his product reviews
It’s definitely the trendy thing to do…call yourself a “journalist” and then make it all up based on your own opinions about the 1 bit of information you have. Sounds exactly like one of those debate class assignments. Argue the merits of something while your opponent argued against your points.
Too many new people are jumping on the RV bandwagon without a clue beyond “I can go anywhere and park anywhere and live in an RV” – does anyone research anything anymore?
Sounds like the current caliber of “news” reporting. Say what they want, or will pay for.
Walter Cronkite, Edward R Murrow, Daniel Shore, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Chuck Woodbury were/are “journalists”. Today there are still some out there in print journalism. TV News is a diversified cluster of perfect hair, a nice face and lots of cleavage. Their journalistic skills are about equal to the pile of poop mentioned in the fact filled story above.
In today’s world, just saying something is “Green” or “Sustainable” is society code words for “good intentions” toward the environment. Like any sales hype, there probably is no or very little scientific basis for the claim, but you should feel better because you thought about the environmental impacts for a split second! I believe many things we consider more “green” today because they feel “greener” will turn out in the long term to be no better or slightly worse than the old tech on the environment.
This “writer” probably has the same proof that the actual manufacturers have…none, just saying what people want to hear.
You are correct, without fail someone has to wander off the subject and get political. Happens every week.
Gosh, I just luv to read Chuck Woodbury! I just had to read a couple excerpts from this article to my spouse, but alas, I was laughing so hard that all I could do was point and say “read this”. Chuck is always enlightening and a joy to read! Thank you for continuing to contribute to RV Travel.
A lot of this stuff on the internet. Would not call them journalists, I don’t think they would call themselves journalists. Content provider sounds good. I especially run into them looking for reviews for products. Whether video or text your don’t have to get very far into them before realizing the are providing little information. The best of them say nothing in an articulate manner. The worst can be just painful.
“oh dear, tell us how you really feel?
If any of these so called “content providers” have a comment section below their articles, we need to call them out on their ignorance. I’ve done so several times in the past & will continue to.
Then you are just adding more views to their site.
Yep, found the article online and it’s from a site named “Intelligent Living”. LOL!
But are the “Luxury Travel Trailers” organic?
Organic? Yes because of what they are made of and the content of this article. Can everyone guess what I am thinking?
I just took about three minutes and read Jennifer’s article on the “Intelligent Living” website. Wow! Not only does she not have a clue about RVs and the RV industry she is IMHO only marginally literate. Her grammar, spelling and sentence structure are abysmal. The article is however a great demonstration of the results of our education system and the sad state of what passes for journalism today. Thanks Chuck.
Quite possibly “Jennifer” is from another country and English isn’t her first language. Content creators are from all over the world. My guess is this person is just generating a lot of content to make some money; veracity of the content isn’t even in the equation.
Great rant Chuck!!! Dennis Miller would be proud of you! Too many of them fools out there on the IOT…”Things” being the key word!
I agree Chuck. A total load of crap! So typical today.
There’s so much crap out there. And a reason they call these types of article headings “clickbait”.
I have seen a lot of articles like this recently. To be honest, some appear on this site. Just my opinion, not trying to start a fight.
Case in point: I this issue, the article about dash lights says that the fog light icon indicates there is a problem with the fog lights; when the icon simply means the fog lights are on. Also the writer has omitted a LOT of icons that appear on my dash.
Nice article. It seems that the trend to just write articles, making stuff up, to get hits, and thus revenue, are just now, becoming another blah, blah, blah non event.
I’ve been telling you guys its going to turn. Latest, Disney lost a 600 million dollar (per year mind you) special tax exemption. The House is expected to flip up to 100 seats in Nov ’22.
We have been fed this Pile of S___ for too long.
Wait till the 11th Circuit solidifies that the CDC HAS NO LEGAL AUTHORITY, to try and police the populous. Read the constitution, it’s CONGRESS. It’s about time ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.
Amen!
Your entire comment is not appropriate for this RV newsletter. Maybe Truth Social would like to hear from you, if they ever get it to work. But since you brought it up, stay tuned. Disney is not going to roll over for a Putin/Trump wannabe. They will throw their colossus of money and influence to replace that individual next election. And there are nine people who decide who has legal authority to do what–and you’re not one of them.
Thank you for the education and the term “content providers.” I am a fiddler, and although I don’t spend a lot of time reading general articles on the computer, I do look up information on fiddling. A few times I have come across poorly written articles on fiddling with a lot of incorrect information. They were always fairly long, with repetitive bad information, and paragraphs didn’t flow. I was always left in a state of bewilderment. Now I understand what was happening! Thank you!
If it seems too good to be true- Guess what. Buyer beware. Old saying’s stick around because they are VALID and TRUE.
Content creator is a polite euphemism for what they are, Chuck. I’ve come across puzzling articles like this and wondered wtf? Often the word choice and phrasing shows that this `journalism’ is outsourced, possibly to a planet unfamiliar with humans and their odd ways. My rule of thumb is that if one sees an obscure online- only publisher, be very suspicious of the standards practiced. It’s realistically more in the realm of advertising or propaganda thinly disguised as news. Either that or it’s satire…..the sustainability was pretty comical.
Hah ha ha. Love your replies to her writing.
Jennifer – what a bunch of ambiguous nonsense. She should pay back any money she got.
Avoid any article that starts with “10 best/worst” or any other number. All opinion and usually unfounded in fact.
Some of these kinds of articles are written by specialized ‘bot’ software that, once seeded with a topic, pull information from elsewhere on the net and then write the article. Why pay a human to do it when software can produce clickbait for free? Search results are usually loaded with these machine-written pieces of garbage.
Spot on!
I had a very good high-school teacher that had a saying.
“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull shit”!
Seems like we are seeing more of the latter these days.
I’ve read so many of these that I have to laugh when I read one. If a “content creator” can get paid to state the obvious I have missed my calling. As an example, did you know, ” the wall studs in Luxury RV’s, are attached at the top AND at the bottom”? I am available if you need me. 🙂
There is no shame attached to stealing while harvesting content for pay. I was milked while working for a reputable horticulture magazine that hired a new internet editor who shamelessly borrowed ‘copy’ to regurgitate under her own byline. It’s the price we pay for our new interconnected ‘community’.
This hussy probably is using a pseudonym.
My grandfather, who was Copy Editor of the Baltimore Evening Sun for many years, and founded the School of Journalism at the University of New Mexico has been spinning in his grave since 1990. What passes for journalism these days is a travesty.
It’s the same when you Google “10 best (insert item you are researching) for 2022”, you will get many articles written with the sole intent of you clicking on the items and buying them, most are written by people are not even familiar with the product. To be fair there are also plenty where the writer or writers actually did purchase and review each item but you have to be wary and know the difference, and sidestep the useless crap.
I’m a retired Navy Journalist (started as a Torpedoman, so I joke I blew stuff up, then wrote about it) and I learned early on that there is a fine line between actual Journalism and Marketing. I see way, way too many news pieces crossing the line (those packages demonstrating products like emergency flashlights or car jump starters on the news at noon).
Personally, I am appalled how ‘opinion’ has crossed over to become ‘news’. Back in the days of Walter Cronkite, ‘Point/Counter-Point’ or Andy Rooney there was a distinct line between the news hour, and opinion at the end of the show. Thanks to cable TV and evening opinion shows, that line has been blown away. Some stations expect you to know the difference (MSNBC and CNN) while others simply pretend there is no difference. The more they can ‘wind up the audience’ the better it is for their advertisers. These people are the worst version of the ‘clueless content creator’.
Chuck. I see this right here on RV Travel. An article is published and then one of your “writers” publishes another article by-hashing the comments from the first article.
Instead of talking about tv’s she should have written about the luxury toilets in rv’s. Some even having warm water bidet’s. Now that’s luxury in these high class sustainable quality rv’s. And I’m sure the rain forest appreciates the rapid growing replacement trees.:):)
Concerning Jennifer’s comment about TVs and your response. Our travel trailer has no TV. When we were still shopping for a travel trailer we saw very few new travel trailers (or motorhomes) with a TV. Sure, some display RVs had a TV or two, But those RVs also had beds with bedding, tables with free standing flower vases WITH flowers in them, etc. We saw NONE that had a TV included in the base price – none. Almost all did have a place or two or three marked as locations where a TV mount could be installed – because almost no other locations had the strength of construction necessary to mount a TV. So add my name to a list of Jennifer supporters.
Sam Crabtree, I do not believe for minute that you found any RV’s without a TV.
When looking at new rvs & noticing the areas marked for TVs I asked if any TVs came in the price & was told yes, but they are not installed until sold due to theft. You have to ask questions in order to get answers.
What you may want to ask your sales rep: ” Does this unit come with a TV”? You see, the TVs are secure..locked away. It is big business to hit a lot and steal the big flat screens. I have been full time 15 years, a lot of RV shows. I have never seen a unit that did not come with a TV. FYI
Okay, so very few new RVs for sale come with TVs included in the price. The same thing could be said for houses and condos. That doesn’t mean nearly every house and condo doesn’t have a TV once the new owners move in.
I did a search and found the article. You can’t equate journalists with content creators. She will never be a journalist.
You site a typical example of what today is considered journalism. There used to be a time when Journalist had some level of integrity. Today, it’s mainly opinion based on opinions.
p.s. I just recently saw a article about RV and WiFi. It must have been green journalism, as it had been recycled out of the compost heap. The equipment being praised was obsolete and had since been replaced by at least a generation + of newer product.
Opinion being represented as fact.
She didn’t say “color” TV’s! Can’t believe Ms. Bilge Water Crap Writer missed that detail.
really
Jennifer says her lux RV is equipped with a large, flat-screen TV of Color.
Her RV is sustainable, inclusive, recyclable, organic and renewable.
She does not use that nasty propane, gasoline or diesel- only, pure, clean electricity
which, of course, emits no carbon whatsoever to cause sea level rise and reef bleaching,
and global famine. Her RV is not a Class A, B, C, or B+. Its undefined.
Jennifer says that her RV’s graphics are multi-of-color, like a rainbow.
Her RV will fit nicely in spaces that are systemically under served. Plus, she will
park it anywhere she wants, in any neighborhood, for free.
As a social media influencer, Jennifer has a huge following. You will find them
in #vanlife…living the good life, since she does not have to go to any actual workplace, has these cool checks coming in from the government and her student loan debt has been forgiven.
Right (write) on Chuck!
Thank you for introducing a new term to our lexicon – being a “Jennifer” (or should I say “Don’t be a Jennifer”). A good description for the brainless bimbos who fill the social media departments of every corporation and organization these days. What they lack in worldly intelligence they make up for with buzzwords like “sustainability” and “social justice”.
And, its the same for today’s rapcraphiphop poop; written by unaccomplished children for the same reasons as Jennifer writes.