As if to insist that the broadcast networks shouldn't corner the market on "Name That Party" fun, CNN this morning joined in the fun when reporting on yesterday's conviction of former Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) on 11 corruption charges.
Yet when reporting the story shortly after 9:30 a.m. EDT today, "CNN Newsroom" anchor Heidi Collins neglected to mention Jefferson's Democratic Party affiliation.
What's more, ten minutes earlier, neither Collins nor CNN producer Mike Ahlers mentioned the party affiliation of another ethically compromised Democrat, admitted adulterer John Edwards. The former one-term senator is under investigation for payments made by his political action committee to a former mistress.
Ahlers appeared by telephone from Raleigh, N.C., breaking news regarding the arrival of Rielle Hunter -- Edwards's former mistress -- at a federal courthouse to deliver testimony to a grand jury.
Later on in the program, when noting the Hunter development at the top of the 10 a.m. hour, Collins worked in a reference to Edwards's party affiliation at the end of a news blurb:
We are also following this developing story now out of North Carolina. The former mistress of ex-North Carolina senator John Edwards is in federal court in Raleigh this hour. No immediate word on why Rielle Hunter is there. Edwards has acknowledged he is under federal investigation over payments to Hunter's production company, but he denies any wrongdoing. Edwards has admitted having an affair with Hunter when he was running for the Democratic nomination for president.
