Liberal Talk Host Sentenced to 7 Years for Kiddie Porn

Bernard "Bernie" Ward, 57, a San Francisco resident who worked as a radio talk show host and was a frequent Fox News Channel and CNN guest representing the liberal-left viewpoint, was sentenced on Thursday to serve 7 years in federal prison.

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The sentence includes a lifetime of supervision once he's released, according to Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division. On May 8, 2008, Ward pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography through the Internet. According to the plea documents, Ward admitted that in December 2004, he used an online screen name to engage in an Internet chat conversation with an unknown individual also using a screen name. During that conversation, Ward admitted that he sent an image of child pornography depicting nude children engaged in sexually explicit conduct via his e-mail account. Ward also admitted that he used the same e-mail account to distribute 15 to 150 images of child pornography to other individuals. These images involved prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, some with sadistic, masochistic or violent conduct. The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys Steve Grocki, Jennifer Leonardo and Michael Yoon of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and investigated by the FBI. Bernie Ward was a former talk host with KGO 810 AM in San Francisco and was billed by KGO as "The Lion of the Left," was the host of both The Bernie Ward Show, a nightly news/talk show that ran weekdays 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. and the three-hour GodTalk on Sunday mornings. In December 2007, Ward was dismissed from KGO following the federal grand jury indictment charging him the distribution of child pornography. He subsequently admitted to one of the felony charges in a plea bargain with federal prosecutors and on August 28, 2008, Bernie Ward was sentenced. Ward is a former Catholic priest and later worked as a high school teacher. His interest in Liberal politics came about when he worked for then-Representative Barbara Boxer. Ironically, Ward received the Scripps Howard Award for journalism as a result of his ten-part series, Heaven Help Us, which explored allegations of financial and sexual misconduct of the Catholic Church in San Francisco.