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.