Mendacious Michael Gottesman Doesn’t Like Being Called “Mendacious:” We Challenge Him to Refute These Examples. What Say You, Mr. Gottesman?

Well, well, well, it looks like we got under Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman’s skin. After failing to mention the Supreme Court’s Mirabelli decision anywhere in his recent “Media Alerts” to the New Jersey press corps, Gottesman now devotes hundreds of words to it in his piece attacking Sunlight for pointing that out. It is simply a fact that in his alerts to the press about the Kinnelon school board’s parental notification policies on gender transitioning at school, Gottesman did not mention Mirabelli at all. As his own words now make abundantly clear, Gottesman knew very well the import of Mirabelli, and yet he deliberately excluded it from his extensive analysis of Kinnelon’s policy. That’s mendacious. His habitual mendacity also shines through in his misleading arguments about New Jersey state law. Gottesman complains about Sunlight’s characterization of him as “mendacious,” but we provide two irrefutable examples of outright lies by Gottesman. We’re sure Gottesman will read this and we challenge him to refute our two examples. Unless and until he does so — or retracts his false statements — we will keep calling him Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman. He’s earned it.

Here are a few (of many more) examples of Gottesman’s mendacity:

1. The fact stands: Gottesman did not mention Mirabelli in his “Media Alerts.” Sunlight’s main point was that Gottesman wrote many hundreds of words in his “Media Alerts” to the press about the Kinnelon school board’s deliberations over its parental notification policies and yet never even mentioned the Supreme Court decision in those alerts. Gottesman, himself, acknowledges that Mirabelli was a “significant development” favoring parental rights that “strongly suggests” that schools cannot exclude parents from decisions regarding their child’s gender transition. Gottesman says “nearly four months ago” he addressed Mirabelli, but that makes Sunlight’s point for us: that Gottesman did not mention Mirabelli in his “Media Alerts,” that he knew full well about the import of that decision, and that deliberately leaving it out was mendacious.
2. Mirabelli was not a decision on the merits but it will almost certainly become the supreme law of the land. Gottesman makes a big issue out of the fact that Mirabelli was not a decision on the merits but rather a permanent injunction that kicked the case back to the Ninth Circuit. But Sunlight never asserted that Mirabelli was a decision on the merits. We made very clear that the Ninth Circuit would still have to decide. But we noted that the Supreme Court found that the parents were “likely to prevail” on the merits and that the strong wording of the ruling made it almost certain that the Ninth Circuit would rule in favor of the parents. There is simply no question that a majority of the Supreme Court found that parents have both First Amendment and Due Process rights to be notified of their child’s gender transition. If the Ninth Circuit does not rule in accord with the Supreme Court’s findings, the Supreme Court will almost certainly overturn that ruling. Sunlight said nothing more than that. Gottesman manufactured a false argument.
3. Deliberately misleading argument about New Jersey law.. Gottesman also goes to great pains to try to distinguish New Jersey law from California law. He states that former-AG Matt Platkin’s lawsuits against four school districts over their parental notification policies are based on those policies singling out gender transitioners for parental notification, which is discriminatory. But that is thoroughly misleading. Mirabelli makes clear that parents have a constitutional right to be notified about their child’s gender transition, and that ruling will almost certainly become the supreme law of the land. The State of New Jersey will not be able to invalidate a school board policy that recognizes that right regardless of whether it is deemed discriminatory according to state law. And in any event, the school board policy could be broadened in ways to obviate the discrimination claim while still preserving parents’ constitutional right to be notified. Again, Gottesman knows all this. It’s a deliberately misleading argument.
4. Two irrefutable examples of Gottesman’s mendacity. Finally, Gottesman complains that Sunlight calls him “mendacious.” He states that mendacious means “intentionally untruthful.” That’s precisely what we mean. We will provide two (of many more) examples. 1) We added the moniker “Hundreds of Millions” to Gottesman’s name because he claimed to the Star-Ledger that “The other side has hundreds of millions of dollars being donated to them in the state of New Jersey” — the “other side” being parents groups like Moms for Liberty and the New Jersey Project. That is demonstrably and verifiably false. We have challenged Gottesman many times about that blatantly false claim, but he has never retracted it. 2) Gottesman stated to NJEdReport: “SO LET ME BE CLEAR, NJPEC has never received any funds from the NJEA, NEA or any teachers union. Nor has any entity that provides funding for our projects and programs.” That was a lie. Sunlight has irrefutable evidence of $105,000 flowing from the NJEA’s Super PAC, Garden State Forward, to Education Truth Project (ETP) ($5,000 on November 1, 2023 and $100,000 on May 29, 2024). Below is a screenshot of Gottesman’s New Jersey Public Education Coalition’s website (which has curiously been scrubbed of the ETP attribution). It clearly states: “PAID FOR BY EDUCATION TRUTH PROJECT.” Likewise, NJSpotlight News stated unequivocally in 2023: ETP “funds some New Jersey Public Education Coalition projects.”

Sunlight challenges Mr. Gottesman to refute these two examples. We believe both of those examples are quite obviously “intentionally untruthful.” We ask Mr. Gottesman: can you refute these two examples? If not, will you retract your false statements? Gottesman appears to pay a great deal of attention to what Sunlight writes, so we are quite sure he will read this. What say you, Mr. Gottesman? We’re waiting …..

In the meantime, Gottesman remains Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman. He’s earned it.