August 28, 2008

KGO’s Bernie Ward: Seven Years for Child Porn

This makes me sick — not the sentence (AFAIC, anybody who mixes sex with children, on the ‘Net or IRL, should be locked up, perhaps forever, as this sort of addiction seems to defy rehabilitation), but that a quick-smart, funny, genuine lefty I really used to like, respect, and admire turned out to be a such a sick bastard. Guess one just never knows…

Bernie Ward sentenced to seven-plus years
for child-porn conviction

Bernie Ward, one of the Bay Area’s most prominent radio talk show hosts for 15 years, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison by a federal judge today for distributing child pornography on the Internet.

Ward, 57, pleaded guilty to the felony charge in May and admitted sending between 15 and 150 pornographic images by e-mail, which he maintained were for a research project. …

Noting Ward’s background as a former Roman Catholic priest who discussed child molestation in the church on his radio programs, the judge said he was troubled that Ward didn’t “seek treatment, seek help” when he “encountered his own predilection” for child pornography. …

Ward spent 24 years with KGO-AM in San Francisco, first as a reporter and later as the host of a talk show on news and politics that ran three hours every weeknight. A former Roman Catholic priest, he also hosted “God Talk,” a Sunday morning program that discussed religious issues.

The station, which nicknamed him “the lion of the left” for his outspoken manner and liberal views, fired him in December after his federal grand jury indictment was unsealed.

Ward was charged after a woman in Oakdale (Stanislaus County) contacted police in 2005 and said an ex-priest, later identified as Ward, had been having sex chats with her by e-mail and had sent her a photo showing child pornography. …

Ward has said he downloaded the images as part of his research for a proposed book on hypocrisy among Americans who preach morality. …

Sorry, Bernie, but that’s not how you expose the hypocrisy of the morality police; this is.

Ward holds a master’s degree in theology and spent two years in the priesthood before leaving to get married. He worked for three years as a legislative assistant for then-Rep. Barbara Boxer, D-San Francisco, before joining KGO in 1985. He became a talk show host in 1992.

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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