Family asks Republicans to remove ad using crash victims' photos
Grieving relatives say their tragedy is not political 'raw material' after ad blames candidate for fatal crash.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Family asks Republicans to remove ad using crash victims' photos
Photograph: HuffPost (embedded from source)
What this story says
- A family has asked Republicans to remove a TV advertisement that uses images of their deceased relatives.
- The ad supports Republican Senator Jon Husted and blames his Democratic opponent, Sherrod Brown, for a fatal car crash.
- The family stated they were not asked for permission to use the names and faces of the crash victims.
- The immigrant charged in relation to the crash arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s, according to FactCheck.org.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 13 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 14 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
42/100
Craft
61/100
Hype
41/100
14 sources · methodology
Thin on the right so far
None of the 13 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
A family has requested that Republicans remove a television advertisement that blames a Democratic Senate candidate for a fatal car crash. The ad, which supports the reelection campaign of Senator Jon Husted (R-Ohio), claims his opponent, Sherrod Brown, "opened our borders to dangerous illegals." The crash resulted in the deaths of Ohio parents Luke and Lynnea Soposki and their one-year-old child.
Lynnea Soposki’s brother, Jesse Mallen, stated that the family had not given permission for the names and faces of the deceased to be used in the advertisement. He told HuffPost that the family had privately asked Husted’s campaign to remove the ad but received no response. Mallen described the situation as "shocking" and stressed that the family did not want to be political, stating, "Our grief is not raw material for a campaign, and their images are not public property to repurpose for anyone’s advantage."
Disagreement on immigration policy link
HuffPost reported that the immigrant charged in relation to the crash came to the U.S. in the 1990s, a fact also noted by FactCheck.org. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which paid for the ad, stated that "radical leftist Sherrod Brown backed open border policies that cost Ohioans their lives, without ever apologizing." The NRSC spokesman did not mention the Soposki family. HuffPost also noted that the National Republican Senatorial Committee pointed to a vote Brown took as a House member against an immigration enforcement bill in 1996, although he later voted in favor of its final passage as part of a larger bill.
What the coverage left out
None of the left or centre-rated reports mention the specific number of views the ad had on YouTube, although HuffPost stated it had more than 5 million views and The Independent noted over 5.6 million views. No right-rated outlet ran this story.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 29 Aug 2026, 00:45, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
8 rated outlets
- Left-rated reports led on the family’s request for the ad to be removed and their statement that their grief was not "raw material" for political campaigns. These reports highlighted that the family was not consulted before their relatives' images were used. Several left-rated outlets, including HuffPost and Raw Story, noted that the immigrant charged in the crash arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s, questioning the ad's premise. HuffPost quoted Jesse Mallen saying, "The lack of empathy for a grieving family is pretty shocking," and that "Our grief is not raw material for a campaign."
Centre
5 rated outlets
- Centre-rated reports focused on the family's request for the ad's removal and the use of their photo without permission. The Hill reported that Republicans were facing backlash over the ad. WCPO Cincinnati stated the family was asking the Husted campaign to "pull the ad using their photo." Cleveland.com reported that the GOP used the crash victims' photos "without permission."
Right
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Family asks Republicans to remove ad using crash victims' photos?
- Of the 13 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 62% are rated left, 38% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 14. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Family asks Republicans to remove ad using crash victims' photos left or right?
- Neither side dominates it. Of the 13 rated outlets on this story, 62% are rated left, 38% are rated centre, 0% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
- Is the coverage of Family asks Republicans to remove ad using crash victims' photos biased?
- Family asks Republicans to remove ad using crash victims' photos is one event reported by 14 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Family asks Republicans to remove ad using crash victims' photos?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Family asks Republicans to remove ad using crash victims' photos?
- 14 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- Why is the Soposki family asking for the ad to be removed?
- The family of Luke and Lynnea Soposki, who died in a car crash with their infant child, have asked Republicans to remove a TV ad. They stated they were not asked for permission to use the names and faces of the deceased in the advertisement, calling their grief "raw material" for a campaign.
- What does the Republican ad claim?
- The ad supports the reelection campaign of Senator Jon Husted (R-Ohio) and claims his opponent, Sherrod Brown, "opened our borders to dangerous illegals." The ad links these policies to the fatal car crash that killed the Soposki family.
- What is the background of the immigrant charged in the crash?
- According to FactCheck.org and HuffPost, the immigrant charged in relation to the crash came to the United States in the 1990s. This information is used to question the ad's assertion that current immigration policies, influenced by Sherrod Brown, led to the crash.
Read it at the source
14 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
8- Family asks National Republican Senatorial Committee to remove pro-Husted ad showing deadly crash (opens tiffinohio.net in a new tab)
tiffinohio.net — is tiffinohio.net biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Family asks National Republican Senatorial Committee to remove pro-Husted ad showing deadly crash (opens Ohio Capital Journal in a new tab)
Ohio Capital Journal — is Ohio Capital Journal biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Relatives of Ohio family killed in crash ask Republican to take down attack ad (opens The Independent (US) in a new tab)
The Independent (US) — is The Independent (US) biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Relatives of Ohio family killed in crash ask Republican to take down attack ad (opens The Independent in a new tab)
The Independent — is The Independent biased? Our profile of this outlet
- 'Classless' GOP senator walloped by grieving family over 'raw material' in attack ad (opens Raw Story in a new tab)
- GOP Senator Ignores Family’s Pleas To Take Down Ad Depicting Couple Killed By “Illegal Immigrant” Driver (opens Joe.My.God. in a new tab)
Joe.My.God. — is Joe.My.God. biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Grieving Family Asks Republicans To Take Down Ad Blaming Sherrod Brown For Fatal Car Wreck (opens HuffPost in a new tab)
- 'Our grief is not raw material' for Husted Senate ad, family says in call for removal (opens The Repository in a new tab)
The Repository — is The Repository biased? Our profile of this outlet
Centre
5- Loved ones of family killed in Ohio I-71 crash call for removal of political ad (opens WKYC in a new tab)
- Ohio family decries use of photo in Republican Senate ad (opens The Hill in a new tab)
- Family of I-71 crash victims asks Jon Husted campaign to pull ad using their photo (opens WCPO Cincinnati in a new tab)
WCPO Cincinnati — is WCPO Cincinnati biased? Our profile of this outlet
- GOP used Ohio crash victims' photos in Senate ad without permission (opens Cleveland in a new tab)
- 'Our grief is not raw material' for Husted Senate ad, family says in call for removal (opens Cincinnati Enquirer in a new tab)
Cincinnati Enquirer — is Cincinnati Enquirer biased? Our profile of this outlet
Right
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Not rated
1How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
