Liberal radio host indicted on child porn charges....

[Postman]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/06/BAFHTPMQD.DTL

Bernie Ward, a popular liberal San Francisco radio talk show host and former Catholic priest, has been indicted on federal child pornography charges, authorities said today.

Ward's attorney said today that the charges are based on incidents that occurred more than four years ago and were part of research for a book.

"They investigated and they never found any involvement in child pornography other than this period that he accessed these images," Weinberg said. "The government knows that Bernie was doing this for an investigation he was doing for a book. But the government believes he violated the letter of the law and they have gone ahead and prosecuted him."

[Rex]

1. Wow.

[aikoaiko]

2. The Pete Townsend defense.

:eyes:

[NashVegas]

11. You Disbelieved Townshend?

Why?

[NMDemDist2]

3. maybe we'll get Stephanie Miller back on Sirius now nt/

[truedelphi]

4. For those of you who don't access San Francisco Radio, Bernie Ward

is one of the most ardently anti-Bush, anti-neocon voices out there.

He also appears to be a devout Catholic and a well grounded human being.

Ya really gotta wonder how it is that they can go after him, rather than the jailbait gay preachers in the Evangelical movement.

But we all know this Federal government of ours - they and their posse are hypocrites.

[Postman]

5. Maybe he would have been better off if he had been doctor shopping

for oxycontin...

or maybe he should have taken more whore-mongering vacations to Central America carrying his own viagra....

[liberalnurse]

8. I could see why Bernie Ward would be asked to reseach

this topic, due to his inner connections with the priest community, being a journalist and so fourth. I sense a set-up.

[riverdeep]

6. What the hell?

Something sounds suspicious here. I don't know what to make of this yet, but IF what his attorney is saying is true, this is pretty ridiculous. He downloaded child porn for a book, and the feds found out about it. Supposedly never did anything directly to a child.

I'm sure a con's head would explode over this. On one hand, he's a San Francisco liberal; on the other, he's a man of God, or was. What to do, what to do?

[Bennyboy]

7. Not to mention the rights violation thing........

If you believe Bernie' story to be true (and I do, I have known him, heard him etc for a long time) why was the Gov't spying on Bernie's computer? How exactly was the evidence gathered? I would really like to know this...

[riverdeep]

18. Well, I'm guessing here.

I think they find out by infiltrating child porn chat rooms and by grabbing IP addresses of people who visit child porn websites and following through. Maybe they also set up fake sites as a honey trap. I read about some sting in England where they had infiltrated a chat room, so I'm guessing they do it everywhere.

My views on what should be done to child predators is 180 degrees from NAMBLA's version, it would probably make people wonder how much of a progressive I am, but for godsakes, there are real pervs out there, this guy isn't one of them, assuming his story pans out.

[tech3149]

17. Anyone who's listened to Bernie over the years would laugh

My best impression of what kind of guy Bernie is was when his daughter was on the show around her HS graduation. I've had to deal with teens over the past few decades and she was the most intelligent and grounded that I've heard in years. That doesn't happen without significant parental influence and guidance.

[Union Thug]

9. Wasn't Scott Ritter accused of possessing child porn when the

whitehouse wanted to shut him up? Just saying.

[DS1]

12. they grabbed him when he went to meet up with a teenage girl

at a fast food joint, I think

[NashVegas]

13. I Don't Believe So

He was accused of trying to pick up an under-age girl online.

[Union Thug]

16. aha.. thanks for the refresher...

But it still makes me wonder...

Hard keeping all these weird ass American sexual transgressions in order...

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. Is the U. S. Attorney there a Repuke?

Seems to be a rather zealous undertaking.

[Postman]

14. Yes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_California

[HCE SuiGeneris]

19. Man, that was a lucky guess!

:hippie:

[madrchsod]

15. bullshit charge

bullshit persecution