Ray McNulty’s Worst Nightmare
The cold reality that nobody might believe you.
On Wednesday, April 24th, on WTTB’s Local News Magazine, Vero Beach Mayor, John Cotugno, was speaking to host, Bob Soos, about an upcoming special call meeting. It was scheduled to discuss complaints filed against Chief Currey’s leadership of the Vero Beach Police Department. In his comments, Mayor Cotugno said, “There will be a pretty extensive article about it in 32963 any day now.” The Mayor added a few more comments, and then, Mr. Soos replied with a nervous chuckle, “Hopefully, that article won’t be written by Ray McNulty.”
It was a sentiment spoken over the airwaves that may represent a majority of Indian River County residents.
In the July 25th issue of 32963, he gets the upper left column “above the fold,” which is normally for important news, to present his latest concerning the school district. In it, Mr. McNulty is again losing his mind over what he has previously described as “a minority fringe group,” the “Moms,” or, the “hard right fringe group [that] gets little traction in our community.”
Moms for Liberty & Other Plaintiffs Defeat US Dept. of Ed. in Title IX Legal Battle.
Mamma Liberty’s victory
Moms for Liberty - Indian River, Florida has seen membership in the chapter grow by nearly 1000 moms and dads in the past month. Those new sign-ups came through their national website. The interest was created because Moms for Liberty won their federal court case challenging the Biden Administration’s new Title IX rules on gender identity. Parents who join Moms for Liberty will receive protection for their child’s school under the injunction ordered by US District judge in the state of Kansas, John W Broomes. Local Moms’ chairwoman, Jennifer Pippin, noted at the school board meeting on Monday that every public and charter school in the district, plus, Indian River State College, is represented with Moms for Liberty members, and therefore, protected by the awarded injunction. Reached for comment, Pippin stated, “With people joining because of the importance of the Title IX issue, our membership and email list is just shy of 5000 locally.”
In an Indian River County local school board primary, that’s 15% to 20% of the total vote depending on turnout.
In his article, Mr. McNulty blames that result on what he describes as “one lie” being perpetrated by the Moms and their endorsed candidates, Rob MacCallum and Kevin McDonald. It is in the presentation of Dr. Peggy Jones voting against the Title IX Resolution in May. MacCallum and McDonald sent an email to absentee voters sharing the difference between themselves and the Dr. Jones / David Dyer ticket. The message contained very stark imagery of a boy standing in the dark shadowy background of a locker room with a frightened girl in the foreground. The written message was a 3-point comparison of the candidates. Since March, at his first fundraiser when Mr. Dyer endorsed Dr. Jones, the two of them have joined forces on the campaign trail. As of this writing, Peggy Jones has endorsed Mr. Dyer in an email blast to absentee voters.
Mr. McNulty accuses the candidates and the local Moms for Liberty of violating election law with malicious intent, claiming that it tells the “one lie” when it refers to Dr. Jones and Mr. Dyer not protecting girls in sports. However, his rage against the Moms has him glaringly contradicting himself. In describing his specific charges against the local candidates’ and Moms’ messaging, Mr. McNulty writes, “They want you to believe Jones supports proposed transgender-related changes to federal Title IX rules that would allow boys to compete in girls’ sports.”
In the next paragraph, Mr. McNulty says the resolution states the opposition to the Biden rules clearly. His vitriol has overtaken any sense of editorial judgement. He continued, “You can find this lie posted on the local Moms’ Facebook page no less than 15 times since that May board meeting at which Jones voted against Rosario’s premature and meaningless resolution opposing the proposed changes.”
In reality, Mr. McNulty admits the truth of the MacCallum / McDonald claim that through her vote, Dr. Jones, and by extension through his full endorsement, Mr. Dyer stand with the Biden Administration. Before finalizing the 4-1 vote, even board chairwoman, Teri Barenborg, attempted to convince Dr. Jones to change her vote. Instead, Dr. Jones doubled-down against the resolution. Reached for comment, Mr. MacCallum said, “Ray asked me for a comment concerning his opinion piece. I texted him, ‘As an elected official, you are accountable for your votes on action items.’ He never mentioned it.”
Furthermore, what drives Mr. McNulty even crazier is that the resolution was introduced by Jackie Rosario. Lately, Mr. McNulty regularly refers to Ms. Rosario with the disrespectful descriptive, “the Moms’ puppet on the dais.”
Three years before there were any Moms for Liberty chapters, Ms. Rosario was a seated school board member. For the past 4 years, Mr. McNulty has attempted to politically malign her, often at the request and with the aide of Brian Barefoot. He has repeatedly cast aspersions on her character and professionalism. In December, Mr. McNulty wrote about how Ms. Rosario, a minority woman, a single mother with 3 master degrees, and over 30 years as a public education professional, should never get the board chairmanship. Asked about why Mr. McNulty often refers to her as a puppet, Ms. Rosario said, “I have no idea. Ray McNulty’s childhood name calling and bullying tactics are not new. It is unfortunate that he does this type of low balling all of the time, to try to elicit emotion in his readers. My education, record and accomplishments speak for themselves.”
The former sports writer’s weekly column, My Take, always presents a loose take on the facts. When school board member, Dr. Gene Posca, called for the resignation of Vero Beach Vice Mayor, Linda Moore, after she requested “used sex toys” to be brought to her restaurant for an art project, Mr. McNulty dismissed the medical doctor’s concerns.
At the April 22nd school board meeting, Dr. Posca said he was “pretty shocked and surprised” reading in The Sunshine Journal how Vice Mayor Moore requested “used and dirty dildos be delivered to her private restaurant that she owns called The Kilted Mermaid,” adding, “My surprise is that this is obviously a gross health and public safety violation.”
Two weeks later on May 6th, Mr. McNulty wrote in his column that asking for the vice mayor’s resignation was Dr. Posca “going completely off the rails” for an “innocent and lighthearted Facebook post.” To Mr. McNulty, the unmentioned health concern was “far less repulsive” than Dr. Posca’s post on X of the Babylon Bee’s satire on Democrats and the KKK.
The column was his second example in a month on what Mr. McNulty views as Moms for Liberty dominating and directing school board policy. Governor DeSantis appointed Kevin McDonald on April 2nd after Mr. Barefoot vacated the District 5 seat in February. On April 11th, Mr. McNulty determined without evidence Moms for Liberty controls the governor like a puppeteer. Matter of fact, all but one of his columns on the school board since the appointment of Mr. McDonald are diatribes against Moms for Liberty. The lone column was concerning Dr. Posca’s remarks about teachers not standing for the flag. In it, Mr. McNulty referred to him as “the attack dog for the local Moms for Liberty group.”
As a central theme, will Mr. McNulty ever speak about the SDIRC’s pressing education issues? Dr. Moore has been championing innovative school choice initiatives, developing an in house non-profit foundation and other fundamentally advanced ideas that deserve public discussion and debate on their merits.
Not in this election season. Mr. McNulty is too busy running a political press office for his preferred candidates and their friends.
Ms. Rosario remarked, “If people see through his tactics, good for them. These readers should be outraged. I hope they write to the paper’s editor and demand change. Otherwise, they will loose more readership to trustworthy outlets such as The Sunshine Journal.”
As Ray McNutty continues to sully 32963, readers are left wondering why the publisher allows his unhinged rants to appear in their weekly. One reads 32963 despite McNutty, not because of him. Like a deep pothole, it is best to avoid his vacuous columns.
I smell popcorn!