Update below
***
WorldNetDaily has the story which other news outlets haven't yet covered (and maybe never will). WND's headline:
ACLU exec busted for child porn in court today
Former Virginia chapter president accused of downloading graphic assault videos
The news story begins:
A former American Civil Liberties Union executive, who once argued that Internet filters in libraries that limited children's access to pornography would interfere with their ability to learn and communicate, is facing a federal court hearing today on charges he possessed child pornography.
The preliminary hearing is scheduled in court in the Eastern District of Virginia for Charles Rust-Tierney, 51, of Arlington, Va., who has been held in custody in the case since his arrest. According to report on the case, Rust-Tierney admitted to investigators he had downloaded videos and images from child pornography websites onto CD-ROMS, which reportedly depicted graphic forcible assaults on young girls.
Rust-Tierney, who served as president of the Virginia ACLU chapter for several years, was the lawyer who argued against Internet filters in libraries in the early 2000s when the ACLU was opposing the Children's Internet Protection Act, which later was approved by Congress.
What's particularly interesting about this case is the lack of widespread news coverage so far. As WND says:
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly called it a "horrifying" case. And he noted that the two "biggest left-wing outfits in the country – the New York Times and NBC News – ignored the story entirely." CBS News, CNN and most of the big city liberal newspapers also failed to cover the Rust-Tierney arrest, Fox said.
"Now the failure of most media outlets to cover this colossal embarrassment to the ACLU contrasts vividly with the coverage of preacher Ted Haggard, which embarrassed conservative Christians. You remember when Haggard was accused of immorality by a male prostitute, the story was all over the place."
Read that last paragraph again. Let's see if the press picks up the story. Don't count on it since the accused is one of their own. Read the whole story.
Update 3/7/07 - Joseph Farah, in an article lambasting the AP for its activism and bias, notes:
Why is it so significant that AP did not "pick up the story"? Because AP is the major disseminator of news throughout our country and our world. Even with the Internet, if it doesn't make the AP wire, a story is going to have limited readership. Someone in AP's Washington bureau made a conscious decision to "spike" the ACLU kiddie porn connection.
AP has many activists on its 30,000-member staff. They don't call themselves activists. They call themselves journalists. But activism is their real calling. It's where their hearts are.