CNN has not yet reported Ronnie Earle’s failure to produce a document central to his indictment of Tom DeLay — a major development in the story — but The Situation Room today hyped a report that a Texas court had issued an arrest warrant for DeLay — a routine procedural event that doesn’t really help explain the investigation to the public but builds the impression that DeLay is guilty.

Wolf Blitzer eagerly asked correspondent Joe Johns if DeLay would be fingerprinted and photographed, and Johns speculated about whether DeLay would do a perp walk. They pondered the ramifications of DeLay’s decision to be processed in his home county of Fort Bend rather than Travis County — a decision that will have no impact on the case at all, other than to indicate that DeLay wishes to avoid the circus-like atmosphere that would await him in Austin. So once again, insignificant developments like this are given major air time while missing evidence and prosecutorial misconduct are ignored. Just another day in the Media v. Tom DeLay.

Video here.