Ohio Politician Shows Students Porn, Media Omit Party Affiliation

October 17th, 2007 10:40 AM

It's time for yet another edition of Name That Party! According to NBC station WKYC, Ohio State Representative Matt Barrett was giving a lecture to some high school students when he inserted a memory stick and showed them a nude picture. Guess which party he belongs to? Supplementary credit will be given for guessing if the story included that affiliation anywhere. Regarding the actual incident, the Associated Press* reported that:

The school's technology director looked at the memory stick and determined that it had a directory of nude images. Barrett tells Channel 3 News that he reported the incident to the school principal as well as the Superintendent. Norwalk Police were called to the scene as well and eventually the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Barrett says the stick was a gift and he has no idea where the images came from but hopefully the Norwalk Police or OSP will have some answers for him within a few days as to what caused the glitch and where the image originated.

However, nowhere in the story is Barrett's party affiliation identified. I was able to find Barrett's party affiliation (he's a Democrat) by performing a Google search. Keep in mind that when Republican elected representatives engage in any kind of unbecoming conduct, it is splashed all over the front pages with their party prominently included, yet incidents like this one seem to receive entirely different treatment. Media bias? Oh, THAT media bias. Hat tip to NewsBusters reader David Anasco. Cross-posted on StoneHeads.

*Clarification (Ken Shepherd | Nov. 6): The story was accessed on WKYC's Web site and was originally attributed by the author of this blog post to the station. Copyrights for the Web page are held by WKYC and the AP, but the AP wire is credited in the dateline for the story.