Time for John Nagy to TOUGHEN UP (and sign his name to his *work*)
It’s soooooooo *brave* to take shots at people and institutions when you don’t have to attach your name to them. We’re in our 15th year of operation, and every one of our published items has an author’s name attached to it. EVERY. LAST. ONE.
Pravda-on-Pennsylvania – our barely readable / tolerable local paper run by the folks who brought you the Raleigh N&O — has long had a practice of running an unsigned editorial on its op/ed page. A lot of bigger papers have, as well. Though, at those big papers, there is typically an actual editorial board voting on the topic / position and blessing the content before it is published.
Papers the size of Pravda aren’t big enough / can’t afford that kind of formality. Our inside sources tell us the unsigned editorials at Pravda are usually the sole work of the managing editor — formerly Steve Bouser and now John Nagy. I am told there is nothing even close to an editorial board functioning over at Pravda HQ over on West Pennsylvania Avenue. Why not just tell us all the truth about that long op-ed: It IS the handiwork of John Nagy.
The author of those long unsigned editorials is by far not the biggest secret the management at Pravda has kept from its readers. For a long time, the paper gave us little to no coverage of the goings-on at Sandhills Community College. That drought period included a time Pravda publisher David Woronoff‘s wife had a salaried position at the college and David himself served on one of the college’s big administrative boards. Readers of Pravda were never – to our knowledge — informed of any of this.
There is no longer a Woronoff on the college payroll. Likely frustrated over being scooped about goings-on at the college like a tax lien and John Dempsey’s Marxist DEI hijinks, Pravda decided to start giving us some coverage.
The board of trustees at Sandhills still insists recordings of their meetings are not public record — a clear violation of state Open Meetings laws. They’re begging to get sued. Yet, Pravda — allegedly a champion of the people’s right to know — can’t be bothered to fuss about that.
A bigger snafu by Pravda’s newsroom has been happening over Moore County Public Schools. Pravda has — to our knowledge — never divulged to its readers that Catherine Nagy – wife of managing editor John Nagy — was the long time minister of propaganda at the public schools central office. In other words, we weren’t told that the wife of Pravda’s managing editor was deciding what the public would hear about the inner workings of the local public schools.
We posted about this a while back.
I never saw her quoted in the pages of Pravda as a spokesman for the school system. I found out thanks to the reporting of out-of-county media outlets like this one:
Catherine Nagy left her role with Moore County Schools effective Jan. 9, 2023. She is now apparently the public information officer for State Auditor Beth Wood, who has faced controversy after being charged with leaving the scene of an accident that involved her state-issued car last December. Wood pled guilty to a hit-and-run charge in March.
It is unknown why Nagy made the move, however, emails obtained through a records request show some tension between Nagy and at least one board member, David Hensley, on two occasions in the fall of 2022.
Nagy was questioned about sending a cease-and-desist-style letter about filming on Moore Schools’ property that she sent to Pauline Bruno, who at the time was a candidate for the Moore County School Board.
Hensley responded to Nagy’s letter asking if other candidates received the same treatment and included a file showing images of then-school board candidate Rollie Sampson and former Board Chair Pam Thompson campaigning on district property.
The other incident involved North State Journal’s pursuit of a story about a Moore County middle school.
An email request for comment and information that was placed with Nagy related to violent incidents and student fights occurring at Crain’s Creek Middle School ended up being forwarded to the entire Moore County School Board.
The email forwarded to the board also included Nagy’s responses to the inquiry that prompted a reply from Hensley.
Hensley responded by asking if the board received notices for all other media inquiries, formal or informal, from all other media publications, including the local paper The Pilot. He added that if they do not receive such notices, “why not?”
While Hensley did not mention it in his email to Nagy, the editor of The Pilot is Nagy’s husband, John.
Hensley went on to criticize Nagy’s response regarding claims made by parents contained in North State Journal’s inquiry and reporting.
“Also, I do not appreciate MCS, through Ms. Nagy calling the parent a liar. Calling the parent of a child assault a liar is how one gets sued,” wrote Hensley. “If the parent correctly related what the SRO told her, it is an accurate statement. Also, what the SRO said was true. He is not the one who decides.
“Unless MCS can prove the parent to be lying, I believe Ms. Nagy and MCS owes the parent, the NSJ and the SRO an apology for questing their integrity. Or, to the contrary, Ms. Nagy can explain to the BOE exactly what she meant by that terse statement.”
Hensley went on to write that there was another issue with Nagy’s response.
“Ms. Nagy’s response is not appropriate in either approach or tone. It is almost like Ms. Nagy is adversarial to the victim and family,” wrote Hensley. “How about starting with ‘Our hearts / sympathy are with the student, the young substitute teacher, and their families for the horrible incident which occurred.’”
The email records received by North State Journal do not contain a response by Nagy to Hensley’s questions and comments.
THAT is all very interesting. Pravda — as far as we can tell — never quotes Mrs. Nagy in its writing about the schools. After she has left the central office, the tenor and tone of the op-ed page become dramatically harsher toward board member David Hensley and his supporters. Has Pravda’s unsigned op-ed become a form of retribution against Mrs. Nagy’s perceived political / professional foes?
If professional ethics are in play -at all — in that newsroom on Pennsylvania Avenue, there needs to be quite a bit more openness and truth telling between Pravda and its (dwindling) readership. People deserve to know the full story so they properly evaluate what they are reading.
If you are trying to pass yourself off as a protector of the people’s right-to-know , and serious deliverer of the facts and the news, bend over backwards to prove that’s what you are doing.
