L.A. Mayor's Girlfriend Suspended From Job
A Los Angeles television anchor who reported on the mayor's marital problems without telling viewers she was "the other woman" has been suspended by her Spanish-language network.
However, Mirthala Salinas has only been suspended for two months without pay, and not fired, reports KCBS-TV.
Salinas, 35, was having the relationship with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when she announced the news of his separation from his wife of 20 years on the local Telemundo station.
The suspension follows a three-week internal investigation reviewed by executives at Telemundo and parent company NBC Universal. Three Telemundo employees also were disciplined. Findings were reported on the network's national newscast Thursday night and announced by executives.
"We have determined that, while the content and accuracy of (local affiliate) KVEA's newscasts were not compromised, our news policy standards with respect to conflict of interest were clearly violated," Telemundo network president Don Browne said in a statement.
"Her reading of copy during newscasts ... regarding the mayor's separation from his wife was a flagrant violation of these guidelines," Browne wrote in a separate memo to employees.
A message left with Salinas' representative Thursday was not returned.
"Now that Telemundo's internal review has reached a conclusion, it is my hope that we can all move forward," Villaraigosa said in a statement.
In its newscast, Telemundo reported others disciplined included KVEA news director Al Corral, who was suspended without pay for two months, and the station's general manager, Manuel Abud, who was removed from his post and will be transferred to a new position still undetermined. Ibra Morales, president of Telemundo stations, will be reprimanded.
In late 2006 Salinas, then the station's political reporter, and station management agreed that she should be reassigned to a different beat that would not involve reporting on the mayor or city politics, Browne said.
"That decision, consistent with our guidelines, was made on the basis of a friendship that had developed" between Salinas and Villaraigosa, Browne wrote.
A later decision, to move Salinas into a temporary anchor position where she read lead-ins about the mayor and city politics, "conflicted with our guidelines and with management's prior decision," wrote Browne.
"The failure to respond appropriately in the following weeks further compounded these errors," he added.
Salinas was placed on leave July 5 while her employer investigated whether her romantic relationship with Villaraigosa breached journalistic ethics.
The long-rumored affair was acknowledged by Villaraigosa on July 3 after a newspaper story revealed details of the relationship.
Corina Villaraigosa filed for divorce June 12, a day after the mayor told reporters in a City Hall news conference that he took the blame for his crumbling marriage.
Salinas reported the news of Villaraigosa's separation on the June 8 newscast of Telemundo's local station.
"The rumors were true," is how Salinas led into the story.
"I regret that decisions I have made in my personal life have been a distraction for the city," the mayor's statement said Thursday.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. However, Mirthala Salinas has only been suspended for two months without pay, and not fired, reports KCBS-TV.
Salinas, 35, was having the relationship with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when she announced the news of his separation from his wife of 20 years on the local Telemundo station.
The suspension follows a three-week internal investigation reviewed by executives at Telemundo and parent company NBC Universal. Three Telemundo employees also were disciplined. Findings were reported on the network's national newscast Thursday night and announced by executives.
"We have determined that, while the content and accuracy of (local affiliate) KVEA's newscasts were not compromised, our news policy standards with respect to conflict of interest were clearly violated," Telemundo network president Don Browne said in a statement.
"Her reading of copy during newscasts ... regarding the mayor's separation from his wife was a flagrant violation of these guidelines," Browne wrote in a separate memo to employees.
A message left with Salinas' representative Thursday was not returned.
"Now that Telemundo's internal review has reached a conclusion, it is my hope that we can all move forward," Villaraigosa said in a statement.
In its newscast, Telemundo reported others disciplined included KVEA news director Al Corral, who was suspended without pay for two months, and the station's general manager, Manuel Abud, who was removed from his post and will be transferred to a new position still undetermined. Ibra Morales, president of Telemundo stations, will be reprimanded.
In late 2006 Salinas, then the station's political reporter, and station management agreed that she should be reassigned to a different beat that would not involve reporting on the mayor or city politics, Browne said.
"That decision, consistent with our guidelines, was made on the basis of a friendship that had developed" between Salinas and Villaraigosa, Browne wrote.
A later decision, to move Salinas into a temporary anchor position where she read lead-ins about the mayor and city politics, "conflicted with our guidelines and with management's prior decision," wrote Browne.
"The failure to respond appropriately in the following weeks further compounded these errors," he added.
Salinas was placed on leave July 5 while her employer investigated whether her romantic relationship with Villaraigosa breached journalistic ethics.
The long-rumored affair was acknowledged by Villaraigosa on July 3 after a newspaper story revealed details of the relationship.
Corina Villaraigosa filed for divorce June 12, a day after the mayor told reporters in a City Hall news conference that he took the blame for his crumbling marriage.
Salinas reported the news of Villaraigosa's separation on the June 8 newscast of Telemundo's local station.
"The rumors were true," is how Salinas led into the story.
"I regret that decisions I have made in my personal life have been a distraction for the city," the mayor's statement said Thursday.
To begin with, not only is Villaraigosa totally unqualified, morally, ethically or otherwise to be mayor of one of America's greatest cities, he has always been a cheerleader for the ILLEGAL Aliens.
And a pervert besides. Before "affirmative action" and a sympathetic liberal teacher got his career of pandering and likes in speed, he had already knocked up another little bimbo from the barrio whom he never married.
Telemundo probably shouldn't even exist, but thank goodness someone there had the brains to realize that liberalism and Si Si Puedes aside, this bimbo needed to be let go.
Now, if only the libs and the Mechista crowd would finally figure out that their golden boy is really nothing more than another phoney into Latino versions of Lewinsky.
Posted by bigmacmcc at 01:53 PM : Aug 03, 2007
What does that have to do with this story?
She was suspended for violating the company conflict-of-interest policy, not for fu king the Mayor.
How stupid ........Since when ,whom you date is grounds to be fired-suspended or anything else.
Posted by FARTKNOCKER2 at 03:54 PM : Aug 03, 2007
this may be a fine point to try to explain but here goes. She got in trouble NOT because she was fvcking (not dating) the mayor or because she was an adultress--but because she was a liar.
Basically acting a lie or deceiving people is the same as uttering a lie. When she appeared on tv and reported on the rumours of the separation and then on the pending divorce as if she was just a reporter and had no real knowledge--she was basically acting like a liar. News organizations are only as good as their own credibility and the acceptance and belief their communities have of that credibility.
She undermined that credibility by pretending to just be reporting on a story that she helped to create and knew to be not rumour but fact--by doing that, people may wonder what other stories are lied about, manipulated or 'handled'. Frankly, she should not have been suspended but fired for compromising the integrity of her position as anchor and the newspapers. More's the pity.