Lake County Gazette

Former Republican state House candidate Tom McCullagh just wants to set the record straight after being one of the targets of what he described as a “hit piece” published in a Plainfield High School newspaper.

"At Plainfield South, this girl wrote an article that tore into Raj Pillai, Richard Todd, members of the Parents for Choice running for the Plainfield District 202 board,” McCullagh told the Will County Gazette. “It mentioned me as a QAnon guy and I’ve never been a follower. It’s all lies and propaganda and the article seems like it was written by someone at the post-graduate college level instead of in high school.”

McCullagh said soon after the article was published, the student writer’s Facebook page was being flooded with congratulations about the great job she did, including from state Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel, whom he registered 44 percent of the vote against in his run in the 49th District last November. He also went on to congratulate her himself in the Facebook comment section.

The incident stemmed from a photo of McCullagh at a rally where he was seen with a QAnon flag. The article also stated that he was at a Back the Blue rally, where signs with “Save our children” (a QAnon phrase) were seen held up by the protestors. 

McCullagh noted that he contacted the piece’s author. 

“I even sent her a message asking her for a correction because I have never been QAnon,” he said. 

McCullagh strongly pleaded for the retraction or correction of the article, lest his legal team be “moving forward with actions geared towards the falsehoods that appear in your writing.” 

“I don’t mind articles against me, as long as most of the criticisms are true. McCullagh said in an email to the reporter. “That being said I have always been very strongly against the Q movement and very publicly. During the rally you mentioned with the save the children stuff and the flag I had asked the gentlemen to leave as their extreme views were not in line with the vast majority of the people there and their language was even more so un-called for. The photo of me with that in the back was a well placed picture by the paper photographer and I knew it would be that way.” 

On the other hand, the article’s author attended a campaign event with the adverse candidates. 

In an email to McCullagh, Tom Hernandez, Plainfield Community’s Director of Community Relations, reiterated that student journalists have the same responsibilities and protections as their adult counterparts. 

“You are right, it is indeed biased, in that it expresses the writer’s opinion,” Hernandez said in response to McCullagh. 

Hernandez defended the student's right to pursue bias in her reporting.

“This kind of situation is often confusing and frustrating for us as adults because we think of our students as children, and of course they are (or, at least, young adults.),” Hernandez said in the email. “But in the eyes of the law they are also practicing journalists. They have every right and legal protection to express their views and write about difficult, uncomfortable and even controversial topics and issues, subject to the same responsibilities for factual accuracy and journalistic standards.”

For any further concerns, Hernandez said complainanants should write a letter to the school’s editor. 

"We do indeed want to teach our students how to be the best journalists they can be," Hernandez said. "That includes teaching them how to take responsibility for mistakes, and how to address the inevitable criticism their journalism may bring. Trust me, if I had a nickel for every time someone got mad at me for one of my columns or stories, I would have been able to retire a long time ago. Delaney is learning that valuable lesson right now."

Meanwhile, McCullagh said he is backing the Parents for Choice slate in the April 6 election and is in complete agreement with them about their push to have students return to school for in-person learning on a full-time basis.

In addition, McCullagh said the slate is committed to reducing tax burdens, holding unions and union members more accountable and trying to get better curriculums instituted. 

The slate also encouraged living within the means of the annual budgets, setting tax levy rates below max allowance, and freezing elected official salaries at 2009 level as means to be “good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” a local neighborhood letter stated.

In his run against Loughran Cappel, McCullagh ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and no more tax hikes for residents.