On Monday, I wrote about a YouTube channel that drove through Tyler and gave us some very wrong information about the city and didn't make much sense as he was giving us the "tour." Well, we got a response from the channel with this rebuttal video.

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Um, okay. I figured I'd respond with a Mad Lib, since that's what the above video sounds like:

If you give Southern Life YouTube Channel a Slice of Mr. Gatti's Pizza, they are going to ask for a Wikipedia Page About Tyler. When you give the Wikipedia Page About Tyler to Southern Life YouTube Channel, they will drive around giving their facts. When they are finished, they will attend Tyler's annual tamale festival (Which sounds really good. Can we make this happen for real?).

Then Southern Life YouTube Channel will drive and drive to the Nike store on Loop 323. Since it's not there, they will go back to Mr. Gatti's pizza. On the way, we'll stop at Jucy's Hamburgers and then tell them about Brunos Pizza on Vine. When we're done, we'll have to take Southern Life YouTube Channel to the real downtown Tyler and walk the square and surrounding area showing them the many local businesses there.

When It's A Southern Life YouTube Channel makes it home, they'll realize their game of Tyler Wikipedia fact or fiction was fiction. Then they will ask to come back to Tyler and we will happily give them a real tour of the city with real facts so their viewers can get a real sense of our great city.

The only thing I take real offense to in his rebuttal video is his final statement saying that all the information he got came from us emailing him. He doesn't have an email address listed so there is no way we could have sent him anything.

---Original Story---

On a whim, I typed in "tyler texas" in the search bar on YouTube. One of the first videos to show up was Exploring: Tyler Texas 👌💯 2021 TOUR from a YouTube channel I had never heard of, Southern Life. This couple should have asked a real local to assist them in their trip around the city because they got so much information wrong to be considering themselves "a channel to help people moving to the South."

There is not much information to find about who or what this channel is. Their "About" tab on YouTube states:

This channel is to HELP people MOVING to the SOUTH. To offer REAL information free from the flattering and sugar coated talk of realtors. Honest Talk about PLACES, TOWNS. Formally "Southern Hood Vlogs" - Formally "Florida Hood Vlogs" This channel keeps evolving and redefining what it is to adapt to the needs of our subscribers.

 

I would really like to know what they are using to get their information. They start their video in the French Quarter Shopping Center across from the Broadway Square Mall. Not far into the thirty minute video they mention Tyler's population of 109,000. They then mention Longview and say their population is 180,000.

Where in the stupid Google are y'all searching? A simple search shows Tyler's 2020 Census count as 107,441. Longview's Census count is 81,631. From that gaffe, we move to the next gaffe, Bergfeld Center in Downtown Tyler. When Tyler was in it's infancy in the late 1800's, yes. In 2021, no. You've got a couple more miles North to go on Broadway to reach downtown.

They did speak the truth when turning into a neighborhood about how beautiful it is. Most of our neighborhoods are very pretty.

Apparently, Loop 323 is full of malls and Nike stores. Huh? We're also six hours from Plano. Hey, look, have a YouTube channel, nothing wrong with that, but get your information right. They claim to help people who are moving to the South. However, your stats need some serious improving.

Oh, AND WHY ARE YOU YAWNING ON VIDEO!? Do some editing and take that out. The video is thirty minutes long and the misinformation killed their credibility in the first five minutes. They should have brought in a true local or a city council member or someone with true knowledge of the area to help them out instead of quick searches on Google.

They have other videos of East Texas towns on their channel about Marshall, Pittsburg, Chandler, Gladewater, Mt. Pleasant, Flint, Gilmer and Carthage. I didn't even watch those because I'm afraid how much they have wrong in those videos.

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