This was one of those truly horrible stories you may or may not have heard about thus far, depending on which news sources you follow. But it’s worth bringing to light despite the scant number of headlines or features on cable news shows that we’ve seen. The story centers on the stabbing death of Jeff German (pronounced GEHR’-man), an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and formerly for the Las Vegas Sun. It took place last week and police quickly identified a suspect in the murder which took place right in front of German’s home. The suspect was Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, a local political official whom German had been investigating over accusations of bullying, favoritism, and inappropriate relationships with a female employee. Plenty of evidence quickly emerged. CNN covered the story last week, as did the Associated Press. However, as we’ll discuss in a moment, one or two pertinent details seemed to be missing or noticeably underplayed. (AP)

German, who worked for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, had written about bullying and favoritism in the public administrator’s office and an inappropriate relationship by Telles with a female subordinate.

Authorities say German’s initial investigation and follow-up stories were the motivation for Telles to fatally stab German last week at the reporter’s home. DNA at the scene linked Telles to the killing as did shoes and a distinctive straw hat found at his home that matched those worn by a suspect caught on video, investigators said Thursday.

Police arrested Telles on Wednesday after a brief standoff at his home. Telles was hospitalized for what Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo described as non-life-threatening, self-inflicted wounds.

We still have to technically refer to Telles as “allegedly” having stabbed German to death for the time being. But as you can see above, he not only had the motive to kill the reporter but left plenty of physical evidence and video records to support the charge. All of German’s colleagues are obviously devastated.

As I mentioned above, CNN ran a lengthy article on the murder which you can still find here. They provide a solid summary of the known details and plenty of background on both German and Robert Telles. But as to the accused murderer, there’s one detail that’s never mentioned anywhere in the article. Tellis is (or was) a politician, but there is no reference made to his political affiliation. That’s generally a default detail to include in news coverage when any political figures get in trouble and you could imagine that when a fellow journalist has been murdered specifically because they were doing their job, that would be an important data point, right? In case you are still wondering, Telles is a Democrat.

To their credit – at least somewhat – the Associated Press article I linked to does mention Telles’ political party. But you have to read down through literally twenty paragraphs of background information before the single mention of the word “Democrat” appears.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But even recognizing the fact that Jeff German was a “local beat” reporter covering Nevada news with a focus on Las Vegas, he was doing the important sort of journalistic work that should be held up as an example for all. He not only investigated and exposed corrupt politicians but took on organized crime as well. He had received death threats from mob figures in the past but kept on doggedly doing his work. Wouldn’t you expect the levels of outrage from the larger newspapers and cable news outlets to be a bit more magnified?

Recall what happened when Jamal Khashoggi died from a far more serious collection of “multiple sharp force injuries” (the description used to describe German’s cause of death by the coroner) at the hands of the goons working for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia… allegedly. American journalists were rightly outraged over that and they rapidly ramped up the volume when Donald Trump praised the Prince without mentioning Khashoggi. The level of angst over the situation seemed to be considerably lower when Joe Biden was fist-bumping the Crown Prince and it was unclear if he ever really did bring up Khashoggi’s murder, though it was at least mentioned.

I will confess that I’d never heard of Jeff German before the news of his death came out, but then I don’t live in Vegas. By the same token, I couldn’t recall hearing of Jamal Khashoggi until he was murdered either. But both men should have been equally worthy of the same amount of attention after they were murdered because of the work they were doing. So put a pin in Jeff German’s obituary in the (hopefully very unlikely) event that another journalist is similarly dispatched.