Mayor’s Girlfriend Placed on Leave

Telemundo to Conduct “Internal Review” of Events

Telemundo anchor Mirthala Salinas, partner in an affair with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, is being placed on unpaid leave while her employer conducts “an internal review of the decision and events that led to where we are today,” Telemundo spokesman Alfredo Richard told Journal-isms on Thursday.

He said he had no idea how long the Los Angeles anchor would be on leave.

Telemundo’s announcement followed disapproval of Salinas’ conduct by experts in journalism ethics, even though, as Los Angeles news outlets pointed out on Thursday, the public might be inured to public officials’ extramarital relationships.

As reported Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times quoted Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.: “There really is no question that this is unacceptable. You can’t sleep with your sources. This one sort of transcends the boundaries in any ethical newsroom.”

“It’s not being a prude to think it’s dishonorable (for a politician in the public eye) to carry on an illicit affair with anyone, let alone a journalist who covers you, said Michael Josephson, president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles, in the Los Angeles Daily News.

Moreover, Salinas, addressing her Telemundo viewers on June 8, opened the show with this bombshell: “The rumors are true . . . Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa confirmed today that he is separating from this wife, Corina, after more than 20 years of marriage.” She did not disclose her own involvement.

Richard said Telemundo would have no comment on a report on the Web site ERSNews.com that said:

“Sources tell ERSNews.com that on three separate occasions Telemundo management asked Salinas if she was having an affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and all three times she denied the relationship over the past year. Telemundo management also feels ‘blindsided’ about Salinasâ?? statement released yesterday to the LA Times and CNN. Apparently she did not run the statement through Telemundo management and she released that statement without their approval or vetting. Salinas, according to sources has hired a PR firm to help her deal with the fallout of her affair with the Mayor.”

The statement late Thursday from Manuel Abud, general manager of KVEA-TV, the Telemundo station in Los Angeles, said:

“As we have stated, we are committed to journalistic excellence. Given the seriousness of the allegations that have been made, we have decided to conduct an internal review of the decisions and events that led us to where we are today. In the meantime, Mirthala Salinas has been placed on a leave of absence from her duties pending this review.

“We will conduct this investigation with the utmost respect to personal privacy and journalistic standards.”

“The mayor’s office had no comment, Villaraigosa spokesman Sean Clegg said,” according to an Associated Press story, which continued:

“Since confirming his romantic relationship with Salinas at a news conference on Tuesday, Villaraigosa, the mayor known for being everywhere, has disappeared from sight.

“Salinas said in a statement that she would cooperate with the investigation.

“‘I welcome Telemundo’s decision to conduct a comprehensive review of the matter and respect their desire that I allow the review to be completed before returning to work,’ Salinas said.

“‘I am confident that when all the facts are analyzed it will be clear that I conducted myself in an appropriate way.'”

The public appeared not to be shocked by disclosure of the affair.

“The news Tuesday that the recently separated Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — considered a Democratic star and a likely 2010 gubernatorial candidate — has admitted an affair with a popular anchor at the Spanish-language giant Telemundo hardly seems to be the shocking stuff of soap operas anymore,” Carla Marinucci wrote Wednesday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Maybe that’s because Villaraigosa has joined the increasingly crowded club of big city mayors — San Francisco’s Gavin Newsom, San Francisco’s Willie Brown, San Jose’s Ron Gonzales and New York’s Rudy Giuliani — who have faced headlines and heat regarding their private affairs while in public office.”

Tony Castro wrote Thursday in the Los Angeles Daily News, “In a hotly contested presidential race, three Republicans — Giuliani, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee— all have publicly weathered divorces. In the cases of McCain and Giuliani, they’ve also weathered extramarital scandal.”

But among journalists, the partnerships with public figures have for the most part not been scandalous, though they have often altered the journalist’s career:

• In 1986, Maria Shriver, daughter of Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver and co-anchor of the “CBS Morning News,” married Arnold Schwarzenegger, described in the New York Times as an “actor and bodybuilder.”
• In the mid-1990s, Atlanta TV anchor Marion Brooks had a secret four-year affair with Bill Campbell while he was Atlanta’s mayor, she testified last year. Prosecutors alleged that Brooks often went on trips with the mayor, including to Paris.
• In 1997, Andrea Mitchell of NBC News married Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. She was then White House correspondent; now she is chief foreign affairs correspondent.
• In 1999, Michelle Miller, a reporter and weekend anchor at New Orleans’ WWL-TV, married Mayor Marc Morial, previously the city’s most eligible bachelor.
• In 2001, Renee Chennault, an anchor at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, married Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa.
• In 2004, Connie Schultz, Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist, married then-Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
• In 2006, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle and KTVT-TV City Hall reporter Sarah Dodd married in December, he for the fifth time. He divorced from wife No. 4 that October. She remains at the station.

Shriver reluctantly left her job at NBC News, where she was a reporter for ”Dateline,” after Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California in 2003.

Brooks, now at Chicago’s WMAQ-TV, moved to that city in late 1997 and married someone other than Campbell in 2005, the Chicago Tribune reported. Campbell was sentenced last year to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined $6,300 for tax evasion.

Mitchell and Greenspan “began dating in 1984 when Mr. Greenspan headed the National Commission on Social Security Reform and became steady companions in 1987, when Mr. Greenspan was named Fed Chairman. Mr. Greenspan proposed to Ms. Mitchell last year, on Christmas Day,” the New York Times wrote when they married. “The couple are both divorced.” Greenspan recently stepped down from the Fed.

Miller went to her general manager in 1995 and told him the New Orleans mayor had approached her socially, she told Journal-isms then. “He said, ‘if and when it becomes an issue,” we’ll deal with it, Miller said. After they married, they left New Orleans. Morial leads the National Urban League and Miller was working for BET and CBS News in New York.

Chennault was 43 and Fattah was 45 when they married. They “met momentarily in 1992 at the Democratic National Convention in New York. He was a state senator then and a convention delegate. News anchor Larry Kane did the intros,” Dianna Marder wrote at the time in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“When Fattah’s second marriage (this is his third) ended in September 1997, after a multiyear separation, he ‘decided to pursue this matter,’ he said, referring to romance,” Marder wrote.

Fattah unsuccessfully ran for mayor, and Chennault-Fattah told the Inquirer’s Gail Shister last November that to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, her 11 p.m. coanchor, Tim Lake, would handle any stories involving the mayoral race or City Hall.

Schultz took a leave of absence from the Plain Dealer and actively campaigned for her husband across Ohio. He won a Senate term in November. “It was her compassionate writing in The Plain Dealer that emboldened the then seven-term congressman from Mansfield to send Schultz an admiring e-mail back in November 2002 (“. . . You are a breath of fresh air; your writing reminds me of that of Barbara Kingsolver, one of my favorite living writers,” he wrote) and sparked a correspondence between the divorced, single parents that culminated in their first date on New Year’s Day 2003. They were engaged just 10 months later and married in April 2004,” Jennifer Haliburton wrote in Ohio magazine.

Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize winner, returned to the Plain Dealer in January.

There were signs that Salinas might be treated differently, however. “Her career is toast,” blogger Luke Ford wrote on Tuesday.

He also took the occasion to strike out at the city’s dominant newspaper.

“Anybody who knows anything about L.A.’s mayor knows that he can’t restrict his romantic desires to one woman. He needs more affirmation than that,” wrote Ford. “But the Los Angeles Times has long regarded Villaraigosa as a rock star. Except they didn’t want to report that Tony also partied like a rock star.”

• Editorial, Los Angeles Daily News: Antonio’s woes: Mayor’s political career will survive, but character questions will linger
• Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: What Happens If A Private Affair Becomes Public Policy

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Philly Anchor Suspended Over “N-Word” Use

“FOX 29 anchor/reporter Tom Burlington has been suspended by the station following what sources describe as a ‘bizarre’ and ‘shocking’ sermon in which he insisted there’s nothing wrong with a word most commonly referred to as ‘the N-word,'” Dan Gross reported Thursday in the Philadelphia Daily News.

“Burlington, according to colleagues, used the word more than a dozen times as he argued that doing so was not such a big deal.

“The word wasn’t directed at anyone, so colleagues were hesitant to label his remarks as racist, instead pointing toward Burlington’s insensitivity and apparent lack of common sense.

“Sources tell us that Burlington, who joined Fox 29 in 2004 and previously worked at NBC-10, offended staffers of all races with his remarks, and didn’t know when to shut up, even after colleagues politely suggested he cool it. His comments took place in a news meeting after a discussion of a story about the NAACP Philadelphia Youth Council, which had held a mock funeral for the N-word at Dobbins High last Saturday.

“Burlington argued that it was irresponsible to report about the word without using the word itself. Both the Daily News and the Inqwaster used the word in their stories on the issue.

“A Fox 29 spokeswoman confirmed that Burlington had been suspended, but it would not comment on the reason for the suspension, or how long it would last. Burlington did not return messages we left on his work and cell phones Tuesday and yesterday.”

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Was Howard Debate Supposed to Be a Black Thing?

Two of the panelists in last week’s “All-American Presidential Forum” at Howard University are viewing the emphasis placed on African American issues in dramatically different ways.

Ruben Navarrette, columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, wrote on CNN.com on Tuesday, “there needed to be more truth in advertising. The event was marketed to viewers at home as a forum for ‘people of color,’ but those who tuned in — and listened to the questions— only caught a glimpse of one color.”

DeWayne Wickham, columnist for USA Today and Gannett News Service, wrote, “To be sure, this was a special time for African-Americans. . . . Thursday’s nationally televised forum was the first time the Democratic Party has given black voters this much attention since 1976, when it convened the Caucus of Black Democrats in Charlotte.”

Why the difference?

An April 4 news release from PBS, which sponsored the event, said, “The candidates will be asked about issues ranging from healthcare and housing to Katrina relief, the economy and the environment, among others outlined in the #1 The New York Times best-seller, ‘Covenant With Black America.'” The book, which topped the Times’ nonfiction paperback best-sellers list last year, was touted as the event began.

Yet Navarrette, a Latino who is not black, was included among the three panelists, and Tavis Smiley, editor of the “Covenant” and organizer of the forum, said in the release, “From the title to the format, the â??All-American Presidential Forumsâ?? was created to provide fresh perspectives and an unprecedented level of inclusion for all Americans in general, and people of color in particular.” An April 11 news release promoting Navarrette’s participation added “immigration reform” to the list of topics to be discussed.

It added, quoting Smiley, “Previous presidential debates have only scratched the surface of the many issues that are important to Hispanic voters. Ruben’s keen understanding of the Hispanic state of affairs will assure that their concerns are addressed and answered by the candidates.”

As previously noted, a Native American group also complained that its issues were ignored.

Although last week’s forum was promoted as “the first time that a panel exclusively comprised of journalists of color will question Presidential candidates in a live primetime national broadcast,” language widely picked up by those writing about it, on Jan. 11, 2004, MSNBC televised a two-hour presidential candidates debate organized by the Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum, its fifth such event. It was co-hosted in prime time by a panel of Lester Holt of MSNBC, who is African American, and Maria Celeste Arraras of Telemundo, who is Hispanic.

(The 2000 Brown and Black Presidential Forum was co-hosted by Smiley and Soledad O’Brien, but MSNBC broadcast it at 6 p.m. EST, not in prime time, and Smiley has said he does not consider himself a journalist.)

The 2004 forum was not promoted as heavily as the Howard event, but it made news when, after prompting from Al Sharpton, Howard Dean conceded grudgingly that he never named a black or Latino to his cabinet during nearly 12 years as governor of Vermont. It also was not organized to promote a book geared to one ethnic group, so there was little confusion about its purpose.

A second “All-American Presidential Forum” for Republican presidential candidates is scheduled for Sept. 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

• Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: Biden’s message tangled by sloppiness
• Editorial, Capital Times, Madison, Wis.: Clinton shines at Howard
• Hazel Trice Edney, National Newspaper Publishers Association: All-American” Debate Reveals Stratified Black Constituency
• Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Forum offered more reality than TV shows
• Askia Muhammad, Black Journalism Review: A marriage made at â??Mecca,â?? but no bride
• Ishmael Reed, Journal-isms message board: Ruben Navarrette Jr.
• William Reed, syndicated: Democratic Candidates Debate in Smiley’s Spotlight

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Spanish Media Carry Burden of Immigration Issue

“Hispanic media, which played a key role in mobilizing immigrants over the last two years â?? from encouraging millions to participate in national marches to letter writing and citizenship campaigns — now face a daunting task,” Elena Shore wrote from San Francisco on Thursday for New American Media.

“With federal immigration reform out of reach until 2009, and an increasing number of local ‘anti-immigrant’ laws across the country, Spanish-language media must help their communities navigate and keep hope alive amidst a climate of panic and fear,” the story continued.

“‘What’s going to happen is each state is going to enact its own laws against immigrants â?? it’s already happening in Georgia and Arizona, and they’re trying to pass something similar here in Alabama,’ says Jairo Vargas, director of the Spanish radio station Latino Mix 1480 AM and editor of the 10-year-old weekly newspaper Latino News in Alabama.

“Vargas’ media outlet has started a community service campaign to give immigrants a more positive image in Alabama, from collecting trash along the river to visiting a senior citizens’ home.

“In Georgia, where two laws recently went into effect that target undocumented immigrants, the community is suffering from ‘fear, uncertainty and disappointment,’ says Judith Martinez-Sadri, editor of the bilingual newspaper Atlanta Latino.

“Their radio show, Atlanta Latino Informer, was the first Spanish program in Georgia to give the news about the Senate’s vote, according to Martinez-Sadri.

“She says so many people called in that the lines were blocked. “Even after the show, the calls kept coming,” she says, from frightened listeners who wanted to know what would happen next.

“An attorney on the radio program had two messages for the community, Martinez says. They must learn from their mistakes: although immigrants and their supporters held marches and vigils across the country, there was no coordinated effort to call senators as there was among opponents of the bill. The attorney also stressed the necessity for Latinos to become acculturated and learn English.”

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Idea: Crips, Bloods as Guards for Leonard Pitts

“I know it’s a long shot, that it’ll probably never happen and that BlackAmericaWeb.com readers might think I’ve ingested a controlled dangerous substance. But bear with me,” Gregory Kane wrote on Thursday on BlackAmericaWeb.com.

“I think I might have found a way to put black street gangs — the Bloods and the Crips pop immediately to mind — to some good use. Why don’t we have them guard Leonard Pitts’ house?

“Pitts might not go for it, of course. But the brother just might need the protection. Pitts is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Miami Herald. He started receiving death threats after he wrote a column that said white Americans are not the victims of racial oppression.”

John K. Nesky, deputy chief of the Bowie, Md., police department, whose jurisdiction includes Pitts’ house, told Journal-isms, “I wouldn’t be at liberty to comment on that” idea.

“We’re monitoring the situation,” Nesky said. “We’re looking into what legal recourse we have” if the white supremacists follow through with suggestions that they have a rally near or on the property. Also, “all the officers are aware of the situation” and are patrolling the area, Nesky said.

A spokeswoman for the FBI, Michelle Crnkovich in the Baltimore office, said, “we’ve been made aware of the situation and we’re reviewing it.”

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Short Takes

• “The AAJA Governing Board recently passed a resolution urging UNITY: Journalists of Color to take a proactive approach to the cutbacks in newsrooms all over the country,” the Asian American Journalists Association announced on Monday. “‘Significant numbers of AAJA members as well as members of the other UNITY alliance partners have been seriously affected by the continued ‘bleeding’ in our industry,’ said AAJA executive director Rene Astudillo. ‘We are starting to see the impact of this situation in our membership rolls, convention attendance, and more significantly in the diversity of our newsrooms.'”
• Writing about the Dallas Morning News in the July/August issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, Craig Flournoy and Tracy Everbach report, “We surveyed almost half of the two hundred who left the Morning News as well as dozens who stayed, and the findings are surprising. Whether they jumped or were pushed, most of those who left are more satisfied today than before they left. More than half managed to stay in journalism. Those who remain, meanwhile, say the mood is uncertain at best.”
• DeMarco Morgan is

• joining Miami’s WTVJ-TV as the new anchor of the weekend edition of “Today In South Florida,” the FLTV Web site reports. It adds that Morgan also plans to report during the week for the evening and late news. “He’s currently at WISN, the ABC affiliate in Milwaukee also anchoring the weekend morning news and reporting,” the report said. Morgan is also the local spokesman for the United Negro College Fund.
• “KUNS Seattle, Fisher Communications’ Univision affiliate, will begin broadcasting Spanish-language regional newscasts Monday-Friday at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. beginning July 9,” TV Newsday reported on Tuesday. “‘Noticias Noroeste’ will be co-anchored by KUNS anchor/reporter Jaime Méndez in Seattle and anchor/reporter Roxy De La Torre at Fisher’s KUNP Portland, Ore.”
• Rod Carter will return to WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Ala., where he worked from 1996 to 2000, as co-anchor of the morning news, the Birmingham News reported on Wednesday. Carter is a reporter and fill-in anchor at NBC affiliate WFLA-TV in Tampa. “Meanwhile, Gina Redmond, who has been anchoring the morning and midday news at NBC 13, will move to evenings to co-host the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts with Mike Royer beginning Thursday,” the story said.
• “Last Monday, Oakland Tribune sports columnist Dave Del Grande used half of his weekly column, ‘A’s Whitewashed by Beane, Mets,’ to blast Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane for pink-slipping African-American player Milton Bradley because of his race,” the East Bay Express reported on Tuesday. “On Wednesday, the Trib published a letter from Beane, along with an editor’s note announcing that the original column had been removed from the newspaper’s Web site. In yesterday’s column, Del Grande begged for forgiveness. In response to ‘the near-unanimous tone of the feedback this newspaper received to last week’s column,’ the columnist admitted his mistakes.”
• Journalists from across Africa joined together last Friday to call on African Union leaders to release imprisoned media professionals and end the persecution of the press,” Lois Beckett reported Wednesday for the Accra Mail in Ghana. “We believe it is unacceptable that journalists will be jailed simply for exercising their profession,” Saidou Arji, coordinator of the Network of African Freedom of Expression Organization, said at a press conference sponsored by seven media and human rights organizations.
• In Gambia, Modou Lamin Jaiteh, Banjul correspondent for the Pan African News Agency, an African news wire service based in Senegal, and a former staff reporter of the Point newspaper, based in Banjul, has gone into hiding for fear of his life, according to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House, based in Toronto. “Jaiteh is the latest in the growing number of Gambian journalists fleeing the repression that has characterised the 13-year rule of President Yahya Jammeh.”