Antonio is always, always watching Mirthala’s back!

You have to give credit to the upper management at Telemundo. They needed to do something about the incredible ethical lapses at their station but they had a problem. The lapse involved their popular and rising star reporter and the most popular Latino politician in the state. Furthermore, said politician was making it pretty clear that he didn’t think said star had done anything wrong and would look unkindly at anything other than her being completely cleared by Telemundo.

Telemundo is part of NBC/Universal which is in the process of a multi-billion dollar master expansion of its real estate holdings in the city of Los Angeles. It’s an understatement to say that they need Villaraigosa’s help on that since they face strong opposition from savvy and politically connected residents who have been fighting with Universal Studios for decades.

Of course they could just have ignored the whole matter but that too is impossible since it has become a national story. Even your average viewer understands that sleeping with people you are covering is not acceptable.

That was their quandary and fortunately for them they have some very savvy crisis management experts working with them to craft the following:

Mirthala Salinas: Suspended without pay for 60 days but not fired.
3 of Mirthala’s superiors: Disciplined, suspended or reassigned.

Even the highest ranking executive, Ibra Morales, who oversees Telemundos 16 stations was reprimanded showing to the mayor that Mirthala was not singled out.

By punishing everyone, Telemundo comes out looking like it is taking a strong statement about ethics without losing their star reporter or pissing off her powerful boyfriend. In fact everyone was reprimanded except Villaraigosa but his wife Corina is taking responsibility for doing that.

It’s absolutely brilliant except for one minor detail. Telemundo experienced a significant and sustained breach of journalistic standards and not a single person was fired. Furthermore, the person at the center of that scandal was given nothing more than a slap on the wrist. 60 days without pay? She’ll get that back 10x in her next contract renegotiation. Heck, she’ll make a multiple of that in a book deal and has probably received at least that in jewelry and other gifts showered on her by her still married boyfriend. According to the Los Angeles Times account even employees at her station know that she is getting off easy.

What a summer it’s been. Reporters breaking up marriages and then covering the story, referees betting on games they are officiating, quarterbacks killing dogs. Not exactly the ‘Summer of Love’?

antonio villaraigosa

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Mirthala Salinas

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 8:05 am by Insider and is filed under California Schemin', Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.