Disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was released shortly after midnight this morning, having served a 99-day jail term. Reporting the story, the Associated Press noted the pol's Democratic Party affiliation in the fourth paragraph of its story, after noting that he "looked thinner and his beard was fuller" than when he was admitted to jail.

Yet in a 43-second AP video narrated by Brian Thomas, the Democratic affiliation went unmentioned but his weight loss figure was more precisely pinned down.

Transcript follows:

**UPDATE** CNN Removes Palin From Criminals List

Showing they have no sense of morality, no grasp of corruption and no understanding of what defines a criminal, CNN gives us another one of those ubiquitous year in review stories, this one titled "Politicians who fell from grace in 2008." In this one, CNN has decided to reveal for us their top eight politicians that found 2008 to be a "career-buster" because of their "crimes and misdemeanors" or their outrageous controversies.

CNN features corruption mired Rod Blagojevich, the sex crazed Elliot Spitzer and John Edwards, and the criminal bribe taker Ted Stevens among four others. Each of these men in the CNN list have either been convicted of criminal actions, are indicted for corruption, lost their positions, been drummed out of their party, or are soon to face jail time. Among these eight criminals, however, is a name that doesn't belong among this class of serial abuser of the public trust. It won't be shocking to note that among the worst sex criminals, bribe takers, liars and thieves in politics for 2008, CNN ridiculously included the name of Governor Sarah Palin.

Palin, however, has done nothing remotely like what these other political ner-do-wells have done. She did not take bribes, she did not indulge in sexual dalliances with co-workers or call girls, she did not get booted from her party or lose her job as Governor. She is not under indictment nor does she face jail time, yet CNN includes her in a list with Rob Blagojevich, John Edwards, Kwame Kilpatrick, Larry Langford, Tim Maloney, Elliot Spitzer and Ted Stevens.

In "Kilpatrick Out, a Boost for Obama?", Time's Amy Sullivan explores the question of whether the resignation of the Democratic Detroit mayor will help the Obama ticket's chances in the swing state of Michigan. Sullivan relays that the Obama camp is "thrilled" by the end of the Kilpatrick saga, which had "damaged an already weakened Democratic brand in Michigan."

Yet as NewsBusters has docmented time and again, the national media has largely ignored the Kilpatrick scandal, and often omitted his Democratic party affiliation and Democratic superdelegate status when it has.

Indeed, even local papers with undoubtedly great familiarity with Kilpatrick's Democratic Party credentials have ignored his party label in news reporting. From my colleague Jacob Lybbert's blog entry earlier today:

Earlier today I noted how Associated Press reporter Ed White noted that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) will not be able to leave Michigan to travel to the Democratic Convention in Denver later this month. Kilpatrick, White also noted, is a superdelegate.

But White returned to AP form later on August 15 with a story published shortly before 5 p.m. EDT entitled "Detroit mayor to stand trial on assault charges." In that article, neither the words "Democrat" nor "superdelegate" appear even once, nor did any mention of yesterday's legal back-and-forth about the terms of the mayor's release on bond. An excerpt:

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's party registration as a Democrat is hardly a state secret, yet rarely does the Associated Press mention the indicted politician's party affiliation.

The AP continued its tradition of shielding Democratic pols in trouble with the law in its August 12 article, "Detroit Mayor Wins Round in Court."(excerpt below):

(AP) A judge ruled Tuesday that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick didn't violate conditions of his bail in an assault case by visiting his sister, listed as a witness in the case.