CNN Omits Democratic Affiliation of Congressman Charged With Assault

Update with YouTube video below.

When is it unimportant to the MSM to inform viewers of a congressman's party affiliation?

At 3:51 P.M. EDT today, CNN aired a "Just In" report on filing of assault and battery charges against California Congressman Bob Filner. Anchor Kyra Phillips said the CNN report was in turn based on a report from its Arlington, VA affiliate, WJLA-TV.

According to the WJLA report:

[T]he Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority have charged Representative Robert Filner of California with assault and battery following an incident at Dulles International Airport Sunday night.

Police say they were called to the baggage claim area around 6 p.m. when a passenger attempted to enter an area authorized for airline employees only.

ABC 7 spoke with several witnesses who say they saw Filner push aside an United Airlines employee and refused to leave the office.

When officers arrived on scene, they found Filner waiting outside the office and informed him the airline employee would be pursuing charges.

Phillips read most of the WJLA report on air. But neither she nor the original WJLA report mentioned that Filner is a Democrat. Update: later WJLA reports do mention Filner's Dem party affiliation.

CNN might argue that this was breaking news. But as I watched the CNN story on Filner, I popped "Rep. Filner" into my Google search engine. As you'll note in the upper-right hand corner of the results page, it took less than 1/4-second to find Filner's party affiliation. Why do I suspect that had Filner been a Republican, CNN would have found time to determine and mention that fact?

Update (Ken Shepherd, managing editor): Thanks to TownHallVideos for the video.