Denver NBC affiliate KUSA 9News failed to inform its viewers about the results of a SurveyUSA report showing that Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard (R) has the lowest approval rating of any U.S. senator -- even though 9News is the polling firm's “media sponsor” for Colorado.

On July 25, SurveyUSA published on its website and released to news media clients -- including KUSA -- its monthly comparison of “approval ratings for all 100 U.S. senators.” As noted by the website Colorado Confidential, the Survey USA poll found that Allard's 36 percent approval rating was the lowest in the Senate. In addition, SurveyUSA found that Allard's “net” approval rating of -12 percent (his 36 percent approval rating minus his 48 percent disapproval rating) was the second lowest in the Senate.

The same SurveyUSA poll found that Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar (D) had an approval rating of 53 percent and a disapproval rating of 37 percent.

According to SurveyUSA, “600 adults age 18+ in each of the 50 states were interviewed by SurveyUSA 7/14/06 to 7/16/06.”

Despite the fact that SurveyUSA's website lists KUSA as the poll's Colorado “media sponsor,” a Colorado Media
Matters review of all 9News broadcasts beginning the morning of July 25 and continuing through the July 26 broadcast of 9News at 6 p.m. MT revealed that 9News never mentioned SurveyUSA's finding that Allard has the lowest approval rating in the country.

Colorado Media Matters monitored the following 9News broadcasts:

• July 25: 9News at 5 a.m., 9News at 6 a.m., 9News at noon, 4 O'Clock at 9News, 9News at 5 p.m., 9News at 6 p.m., 9News at 10 p.m.

• July 26: 9News at 5 a.m., 9News at 6 a.m., 9News at noon, 4 O'Clock at 9News, 9News at 5 p.m., 9News at 6 p.m.

UPDATE: On July 27, KUSA 9News responded to Colorado Media Matters with an email stating that it was not a “sponsor” of the SurveyUSA poll and did not consider the poll's findings newsworthy. A new item containing this response can be found here.