ERS NEWS. The Enterprise Report

THE PHOTO

THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES

DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE

ERSNews.com has exclusively obtained a photo of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issuing then Telemundo General Manager Manual Abud KVEA-TV52 in Los Angeles an official City proclamation honoring the Telemundo station on November 9th, 2005.

Abud was removed from his position as General Manager just last week. At the same time Mirthala Salinas was suspended for 2 month without pay, along with other Telemundo employees who were “disciplined” for violating the NBC/Universal (owners of the station) Standards and Practices in relation to Salinas’ affair and coverage of Mayor Villariagosa from late 2005 through June of 2006.

Mayor Villaraigosa was on hand in 2005 for the Telemundo proclamation ceremony. According to a published report at the time Mayor Villaraigosa “thanked KVEA for its dedication and accurate reporting of local, national and world news, which is worthy of public appreciation and recognition”.

Just days before this proclamation, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Mayor was seen visiting Salinas at her then Sherman Oaks, CA residence around 9pm with a bottle of wine and some takeout food. The Mayor could only stay a few hours that night and would later leave his girlfriend and jet off on a late night private jet, provided by campaign supporter “Ameriquest”. The Mayor trip that night was to participate in the funeral of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in Detroit. MI the next day.

ERS has been attempting to obtain the original photo since late last week. A Los Angeles City Council’s official photographer took the original photo. But the Major’s office has refused to return calls seeking the release of the photo, which was previously released in 2005 and used in promoting the Telemundo’s Los Angeles affiliate.

When contacted by ERS earlier today, Los Angeles City Council president Eric Garcetti’s spokesman told ERS that he would look into the situation and get back it us. ERS sought assistance in having the previously publicly released photo, released again. At press time ERSnews was still waiting for a response from Garcetti’s City Council spokesman regarding the release of the 2005 photo from the councils own photo department.

When contacted by ERS late last week seeking the circumstances of the issuance of the proclamation by the Mayors office and the release of the original publicly available photo to ‘The Enterprise Report”, Villaraigosa press spokesman Matt Szabo had “no comment” and claimed he’d being getting back to ERS. After numerous calls to the Mayor’s press office, last week, Saturday and today neither Szabo nor the Mayor’s chief spokesman Deputy Mayor for Communications and Strategy Sean Cleeg returned the calls and could not be reached for comment prior to publication of this story.