diff --git a/siesta/__init__.py b/siesta/__init__.py
index c655f85..04f353b 100644
--- a/siesta/__init__.py
+++ b/siesta/__init__.py
@@ -220,8 +220,8 @@ def _getresponse(self, method, url, body={}, headers={}, meta={}):
             resource = Resource(uri=urlparse(location).path, api=self.api).get()
             return resource
         #logging.info("resp.getheader(): %s" % resp.getheader('content-type'))
-        m = re.match('^([^;]*)(?:;\s*charset=(.*))?$',
-                     resp.getheader('content-type'))
+        type = resp.getheader('content-type', '')
+        m = re.match('^([^;]*)(?:;\s*charset=(.*))?$', type)
         #logging.info("response: %s" % resp)
         
         if m == None: