The arrest of a Democratic public official in Las Vegas for allegedly murdering a journalist shocked the nation, but news networks went out of their way to bury his party affiliation.
Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the death of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German, who was fatally stabbed in front of his home on Saturday.
German's reporting had exposed scandals that plagued Telles, including a hostile work environment and an extramarital affair with a staffer, which was followed by his re-election defeat during a Democratic primary held in June.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said they found Telles' DNA at the scene of the crime, and his car matched the description of a vehicle seen on surveillance footage taken near German's home.
While the liberal networks covered German's horrific murder, they strangely omitted to tell viewers that Telles is a Democrat during Wednesday and Thursday's coverage.
ABC's "Good Morning America" introduced Telles as a "local politician" and later described him as a "Las Vegas county official."
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"Telles is an elected official who lost a primary earlier this year," ABC News correspondent Alex Presha told viewers on Thursday, bizarrely leaving out which primary Telles competed.
ABC News similarly neglected to acknowledge Telles' party affiliation on Wednesday's "World News Tonight" while reporting on a search warrant that was executed prior to his arrest. The network also skipped any party mention in a report written on its website.
"CBS Mornings" co-host Tony Dokoupil teased about the "elected official" who was swept up in the murder investigation.
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann went on to describe Clark County's public administrator as "a man named Robert Telles" and said police executed a search warrant "at the elected official's home."
Strassmann later told viewers that Telles "appeared poised to lose his re-election bid" in June when referring to his social media attacks towards German.
An article published on CBS News' website labeled Telles a Democrat in its second paragraph.
Similarly, NBC News correspondent Erin McLaughlin referred to Telles as simply a "local government official" who "lost a primary race in June" during an on-air report on "Today."
Buried in the 34th paragraph of NBC News' online article is the admission that Telles "was narrowly edged out in the Democratic primary." It was also the second to last paragraph of the report.
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," co-host Willie Geist reported on the "public official" and how police "arrested a man named Robert Telles."
Additionally, three out of four CNN programs that covered Telles' arrest early Thursday morning avoided his party affiliation. Only "New Day" acknowledged that the suspected murderer is a "Democratic politician" before the network went wall-to-wall covering the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
CNN previously acknowledged on Wednesday's "The Lead" that Telles lost his Democratic primary while reporting on the prior search warrant against him.
