Rachel Maddow cleverly implies former Iowa state senator took $25,000 bribe but doesn't tell her viewers that the check was never cashed

Yesterday, Rachel Maddow focused some needed attention on Jesse Benton, in charge of the Ron Paul campaign while it was paying Michele Bachmann's Iowa campaign director, Kent Sorenson, $73,000 to switch sides. The Machiavellian Benton now works for Mitch McConnell (of course!)
     But then Maddow's narrative took a strange detour: instead of zeroing in on the $73,000 in payments which got Sorensen indicted when he lied about them, Maddow flashed an image of a $25,000 check given to him in the bathroom of an Altoona, IA restaurant by Ron Paul's Deputy campaign manager in December of 2011. Said Maddow:

...This was when Kent Sorenson was telling NBC news that he NEVER TOOK A DIME from the Ron Paul campaign for his endorsement. He said that literally while standing next to the guy from the Ron Paul campaign who just two days earlier had handed him a check for $25,000 for his endorsement.

     One thing was verrrry interesting about Maddow's report: she never named the $25,000 "bagman" (now also employed by Mitch McConnell) though she flashed a picture of him standing next to Sorenson.
     Perhaps that is because of another very interesting fact reported by the Des Moines Register this week in its reportage about the 566-page report on Sorenson by an independent investigator working on behalf of the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee:

It also found that Sorenson received a $25,000 check from a senior official in Paul's presidential campaign, which he did not cash, and $73,000 in wire transfers.

      WTF? Why would Rachel Maddow extravagantly play up a $25,000 political bribe to Kent Sorenson and then FAIL TO TELL HER VIEWERS THAT HE NEVER CASHED THE CHECK?
     Here's Maddow's report: