InsiderNJ’s Fred Snowflack Flacks for Mendacious Michael Gottesman and His NJEA-Funded Coalition. Why the Bias, Mr. Snowflack?

InsiderNJ’s Fred Snowflack is back with his biased take on the culture wars in NJ school districts. The title of his recent piece “Hitting the Books, or Just Banning Them,” makes Snowflack’s bias plain for all to see.  It’s all about a “loud minority” banning books, not legitimate parental concerns about inappropriate content in their school libraries.  Snowflack once again flacks for Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman and his NJEA-funded NJ Public Education Coalition (NJPEC) — despite the fact that Gottesman is a proven liar.  Apparently so long as he takes positions that Snowflack agrees with, it’s all good.  Why the bias, Mr. Snowflack?

In his piece, Snowflack presents a controversial book being challenged in the North Hunterdon-Voorhees (NHV) school district in the most benign light, as depicted by the book’s supporters. There are no quotes from NHV parents explaining why they don’t think it’s appropriate for their school libraries.

Snowflack’s then cites a Rutgers-Eagleton poll that shows that NJ citizens care more about the banning of books than inappropriate content in libraries.  But Snowflack conveniently neglects to mention that 50% of 35-49 year-olds (which constitutes a majority of that group) care more about inappropriate content.  That would seem to reflect the views of parents, who are voicing their legitimate concern about what their kids are exposed to at school.

This parental sentiment happens to align with a 2023 Monmouth poll that showed overwhelming support — particularly among parents — across NJ for “conservative” stances in the culture wars.  That poll was covered by InsiderNJ, but Snowflack simply ignores it.  It doesn’t fit the NJPEC/Snowflack narrative about a “loud minority.”

Tellingly, Snowflack also casts the parents’ rights side as political in nature, claiming it was seen as “a good issue by conservative Republicans.” So it’s just political opportunism, not legitimate moral and educational concerns from NHV parents.  He sees no such political connection on the Democratic side despite the political-campaign-style tactics employed by NJPEC in the NHV school district, in which several notable NJ Democratic pols participated.  Here is NJPEC’s Gottesman as faithfully quoted by Snowflack:

[T]he loud minority ruled the day for two election cycles. However, now that the majority is becoming mobilized, we are sending a message to our legislators that right wing extreme views are rejected. [Emphasis added].

NJPEC is clear about its political orientation, but Snowflack is blind to it.

Nor is this the first time Snowflack flacked for NJPEC. A previous piece described “lies by the parent’s rights lobby,” with Snowflack lifting this characterization directly from a deeply deceptive NJPEC ad based on a flawed poll conducted by … NJPEC.  Again, all uncritically swallowed and amplified by Snowflack.

Finally, back to Snowflack’s prime source, Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman. Gottesman is a proven liar.  He publicly claimed that NJPEC was not funded by the NJEA: that was a lie. He stated to the Star-Ledger that outside conservative groups were funneling “hundreds of millions” of dollars to parents groups in NJ: that was also an obvious lie.  But Snowflack is all too happy to flack for Gottesman. 

Snowflack has no questions about the NJEA’s funding of NJPEC or Gottesman’s mendacious denial thereof.  How much NJEA money is behind NJPEC?  The NJEA Secretary-Treasurer attended the NHV rally, how else is the NJEA involved with NJPEC?  Is it the proper role of a teachers union to be fighting parents in various school districts?

Why the bias, Mr. Snowflack?