“Wesley Dingus, the mayor of Butler, Ohio, was arraigned on Thursday after he allegedly sniffed the underwear of a teenage girl, who, according to a police report, is a ‘minor relative’ in the care of Dingus,” wrote Mediaite in a Thursday night article headlined “Mayor Wesley Dingus Charged After Allegedly Sniffing Teen Relative’s Underwear” that goes on for 237 words but not a single one of them “Republican,” the dingus’s affiliation. No “GOP,” “MAGA,” or “conservative” either.

It was on the site’s Disqus commenters to point out the VERY readily available information on the small central Buckeye State town mayor’s political party and yes, this is partially National Zero’s butthurt over the much more-trafficked outlet having gotten first to a story on this site’s beat.

Still, what the fuck? Sure, it wasn’t in the article they linked from local site RichlandSource.com and not everyone’s emotionally polluted enough to know by heart which states have readily searchable public voter records on party registration, but simply googling “Wesley Dingus party affiliation” will get you “Wesley Dingus is a Republican. He serves as the mayor of the village of Butler, Ohio, in Richland County, and won re-election to the position in November 2023” in the “AI overview” at the very top of the result page. You don’t even need to click on any of the sites returning it. Which leaves really only two options: (A) Laziness, which is possible, or (B) Mediaite was afraid of offending the MAGA trolls by accurately reporting that the fucking freak who would sniff a “minor relative” teenage girl’s panties is an elected official from their party. Either way, you’d think that a site that covers, you know, media might be able to anticipate how their audience would react to the omission of certain information. Quite a milestone on the long trail of suckery on their own terms.