NBC News hides party affiliation of disgraced Democratic Nashville Mayor Megan Barry

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Media bias? NBC fails to report party of disgraced Democratic mayor

NBC “Nightly News with Lester Holt” failed to mention disgraced Democratic Nashville mayor, Megan Barry’s party affiliation. Barry resigned because of an extramarital affair with her former head of security. The segment lasted for over two minute without a single mention that she was a Democrat.

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry pleaded guilty to felony theft and resigned in disgrace Tuesday, but “NBC Nightly News” left out one key detail — the one-time rising Democratic star's party affiliation.

“In Nashville tonight, a bitter public farewell from the city's now-former mayor after an extramarital affair with her bodyguard led to a swift fall from grace. Megan Barry resigning from office hours after pleading guilty in court to theft of property, accused of taking city funds,” anchor Lester Holt said before tossing it to correspondent Kerry Sanders.

Sanders never mentioned the fact that Barry is a Democrat, but did point out that she smiled in her mug shot and was “once popular.”

Barry’s political demise came more than a month after she admitted to having an affair with Sgt. Rob Forrest, the former head of her security detail. Forrest, who was also married, resigned in January. As first reported by the Media Research Center, Barry’s party affiliation wasn’t mentioned in the “Nightly News” segment that lasted over two minutes.

Reliably liberal news outlets like NBC have a habit of leaving out the party affiliation when a Democrat is under fire, and inserting it prominently when the troubles involve a Republican.

“After going through a timeline of Barry’s affair and the things both she and Forrest spent taxpayer funds on, Sanders appeared to make an attempt at getting viewers to sympathize with her by noting the death of her son last summer,” MRC analyst Nicholas Fondacaro wrote.

The MRC pointed out that Holt mentioned the party affiliation of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens during a scandal earlier this year, referring to him as a “GOP rising star.”

“It’s just another example of a liberal news outlet defending the Democratic Party brand from blemishes,” Fondacaro wrote.

Barry pleaded guilty March 6 to felony theft of property over $10,000. She was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to reimburse the city.

In court, District Attorney General Glenn Funk said had the case gone to trial, witnesses would have testified that between March 2016 and February 2018 Barry caused as much as $60,000 of Metro Nashville city funds to be expended unlawfully.

Metro Nashville Police records show Forrest's overtime more than doubled in the budget year after Barry was elected in September 2015. Barry said the affair began in spring 2016, according to an affidavit.

CBS and ABC both reported that Barry is a Democrat when covering the story on their newscasts.

NBC News did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Fox News’ Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report