Philly Journalist Charged in Child Pornography Case
And it's not the first time he's been charged with crimes against kids.
Left: Philadelphia writer and journalist Michael Hochman in a provided photo. Right: Michael Hochman in his most recent Pennsylvania Megan’s Law registry photo.
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Philly Journalist Michael Hochman Charged in Child Pornography Case
Michael Hochman has been involved in the media industry both here and beyond for many years. According to his LinkedIn bio, he’s currently a writer for Visit Philly, where he’s contributed to recent articles such as “Cheesesteaks in Philly: Your 2025 Guide,” “What Is America’s Semiquincentennial?” and “The Essential Rocky & Creed Tour of Philadelphia.” He’s written for the Inquirer as well.
Prior to his life behind the keyboard, his resume indicates that he worked as a production assistant at 6ABC before eventually becoming program director for a Fox affiliate and then another TV station in Kansas (Kansas becoming an important part to this story momentarily). And now, he finds himself at the wrong end of the law, a position with which he is familiar.
The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania just charged Hochman with receipt of child pornography. Details are slim at this point and the U.S. Attorney’s office did not respond to a request for further information on this case. But what we do know is that prosecutors allege that Hochman “knowing received visual depictions… which involved the use of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.” Investigators are in the process of seizing various electronic devices from him.
And this is not the first time that authorities have charged Hochman with crimes against children. In 2001, when he was a 28-year-old program director for a Wichita television station, police arrested Hochman and charged him with two counts of “aggravated indecent liberties with a child,” one count of criminal sodomy, and four counts of sexual exploitation of a child. According to reports from 2001, court records alleged that Hochman had sex with a 14-year-old girl on more than one occasion and possessed “computer pictures of children in sexually explicit conduct.”
According to Pennsylvania’s Megan Law database, where Hochman has been on the registry since 2005, he was convicted at least on the charge of aggravated indecent liberties with a child in that 2001 case.
“He’s a liar and sick.” That’s how one Philadelphia woman characterized Hochman when I asked her about him. She worked with Hochman in recent years before learning about, as she put it, his “nefarious and horrifying life.”
Hochman did not respond to a request for comment.
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