UPDATE:
EXCLUSIVE
NEW PHOTOS AND VIDEO

"A FRIENDSHIP THAT EVOLVED OVER TIME" REPORTER SALINAS AND THE MAYOR OF LA:
Crossing paths professionally and personally since 2005.

(July 9th, 2007 3:55PM PST)

BY ERIC LONGABARDI

The past week brought confirmation, revelation and media madness in the still evolving story of on going "personal relationship" between anchor/political reporter, Mirthala Salinas and the Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa.

With that in mind, ERSNews decided to try and piece together and document, as much as possible, just how much "together time" and opportunity to get to know each other Salinas, the now suspended anchor/reporter from Telemundo station KVEA-TV52 in Los Angeles has had with Mayor Villaragosia.

We decided to start looking at the point when the Mayor took office in July of 2005. What we found shows a criss-crossing of professional, social and personal contacts over the past year and half. We also found that Salinas would also sometimes run into an old boyfriend on occasion as well, State Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez, who she dated in 2003/04.

ERSNews has obtained new photos of the Mayor and Salinas together at various Los Angeles public and social events in 2005 and 2006.

The "story’ in pictures and word begins on July 1st 2005, the day Villaraigosa was sworn in as Los Angeles’s 41st Mayor.

Antonio Villaraigosa is sworn in as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles.
His wife Corina is at his side.
(July 1, 2005)

 

Mayor Villaragosia and Mirthala Salinas both attend the (SVREP)
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project Latino Vote 2005 Banquet
in Los Angeles. Salina’s former boyfriend California's Speaker of the
Assembly Fabian Nunez is also in attendance.
(July 15th, 2005)

 

The TRPI 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner. Mayor Villaraigosa and Speaker of
the California Assembly Fabian Nunez are in attendance. Mirthala
Salinas is there as well.
(May 18th 2006)

 

The Mayor is in Sacramento pushing for his takeover the LA Unified
School District. Salinas is there to cover him for her station
Telemundo. The Los Angeles Times captures Salinas interviewing the
Mayor on the steps of the State Capital.
(June 19, 2006)

EXCLUSIVE NEW PHOTOS

The Mayor and Salinas participate on a panel discussion about Latino politics.
Salinas is there in her official capacity as a reporter for Telemundo.
20th Annual William Velazquez Conference
(November 12, 2006)

 

Mayor Villaraigosa attends conference of Mayors in New York and Salinas
is there to report on it for Telemundo.
(May 16th, 2007)

 

Mayor holds press conference in LA to announce he and his wife Corina
are separating.
(June 11, 2007)

 

Mayor Villaraigosa confirms a "personal friendship" with Mirthala
Salinas to the media.
"I have had a relationship with Ms. Salinas over time. It has evolved,
and today I have acknowledged that relationship,"
(July 3, 2006)

 

 

UPDATE:

THE POLITICAL DATING GAME:
THE ANCHOR AND THE POLITICIANS
A Question of Ethics?

BY ERIC LONGABARDI

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(July 6th, 2007 8:30PM PST)

There’s a lot of talk in the media about  Mirthala Salinas and Telemundo’s ethics or lack thereof. Sources inside NBC Telemundo tell ERSNews.com that on three separate occasions she was asked by management if she was having an affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and that on all three occasions Salinas denied there was anything more than a friendship.  Eventually this relationship “grew” to something more and Salinas told management and they took her off the political beat.  The only thing surprising here is she ended up reading on the air the Mayor’s story about his separation and pending divorce. There is nothing, however, that indicates that the two of them did anything wrong except the Mayor (according to the LA Times) may have shown up at Mirthala’s place on November 2nd, 2005 around 9pm with some take-out food and a bottle of wine.   Later that same evening (early morning) the Mayor left Los Angeles at the last minute via a private jet loaned to him by his pals at Ameriquest to attend the funeral of Rosa Parks in Detroit, where he spoke the next day.  However none of us will really know when this relationship escalated to a point where it became a “conflict of interest.” For the sake of argument how about ten months ago when she reported this relationship to the management of Telemundo?

The real questions of ethics is not the relationship with the Mayor, rather it’s the two previous relationships, the one reported by LA Weekly with Alex Padilla, now President of the State Senate, and the relationship reported exclusively by ERSNews.com with the Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nunez.  ERSNews.com cannot speak to the Padilla relationship but sources both inside and outside of NBC Telemundo tell ERSNews.com that everyone in the newsroom “including management” knew of the relationship with Nunez at the time in 2003 and 2004 and “choose to do nothing.” Salinas at the time was the political reporter and having a romantic relationship  with the second most powerful politician in California (Nunez) is certainly a breach of ethics and a violation of Telemundo/GE Ethics policy. That policy states employees “are to avoid actions or relationships that might conflict with their job responsibility.”  The policy goes on to say that employees are to watch out for “romantic” or other personal relationships that may create a conflict of interest. ERSNews.com would like to understand how a romantic relationship with a former City Councilman and President of the current Senate (Padilla) or the Speaker of the Assembly (Nunez) isn’t just such a relationship?. The rest of the Los Angeles media seems to ignore this glaring example of “conflict of interest.’ The only question the Los Angeles Times and others have asked is “who knew what and when,” with regard to the Mayor and Salinas.  In fact the only original reporting the LA Times has done on this story is tracking down an alleged witness who says she saw the Mayor with the take-out and wine at the then condo of Salinas.

And while the Mayor says Salinas enjoyed “no reporting advantage because of their relationship.” There is the trip back from Sacramento as reported exclusively by ERSNews.com where Salinas, in full view of other journalists and the Mayor’s staff, was sitting next to the Mayor on the plane having what was described to ERSNews.com as a “special relationship,” including extended access up close and personal with Villaraigosa.