BREAKING NEWS!! Mirthala Suspended two months without pay for Affair with Mayor
KCAL Channel 9 led off their 9:00 PM newscast with the breaking news that "TELEMUNDO" Channel 52 has suspended "MIRTHALA" two months without pay for her "AFFAIR" with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
I in the interest of time (family obligations), leave the commentary to the "BLOGGINSPHERE". Type away "DUMDUMS"!!
I in the interest of time (family obligations), leave the commentary to the "BLOGGINSPHERE". Type away "DUMDUMS"!!
Posted by Red Spot in CD 14 @ 8/02/2007 09:04:00 PM
69 Comments:
first!
Luke Ford as usual had the scoop.
But, Flap was second......
First your ass. The LAT and the DN already has the story on their websites. Don't pretend this blog is anything put a bunch of jerks picking up stories from other sites.
MEMO TO 9:23 "JERK",
I am only sharing the news as it takesplace on the T.V.
Red Spot
You guys are taking minutes here not hours.
Who really cares?
race card said...
WTF?
I'm waiting on the Mayor Sam take on the Mirthala 2 month suspension.
HELLO?!? Is this thing on?
August 02, 2007 9:17 PM
race card said...
Well, I think it's quite telling that they waited until we were in the wake of the bridge disaster.
Of course they couldn't predict such an occurance. They were likely going to wait until 9pm Friday or Saturday night to miss any real news cycles.
Now anyone making a big deal about this sounds like an ogre. It sickens me to think of our mayor gloating over dead bodies being recovered so that he might salvage his public image.
Furthermore, 2 months for someone of this stature is not called a suspension. It's called a vacation. I mean, media personalities are notorious for August vacations anyway. Unbelieveable.
We can add another reason to that AP story about there being 237 reasons to have sex. Celebrating a career saving kiss ass move by NBC/Telemundo execs is a great reason to get laid (even if it is with a marionette sized lizard.)
Expect some residual fallout from disenchanted journalists with morals and ethics to surface here and on other sites.
Don't get me wrong. I would definitely hit that. I'd hit it like Paris Hilton driving down Sunset. But I'm not the mayor.
August 02, 2007 9:26 PM
race card said...
*They = Telemundo management
August 02, 2007 9:27 PM
Sorry. I thought you were pretending to be a real reporter. Even Luke Ford picks the story up from the LAT. It's an archaic term, but flap wouldn't know a "scoop" if it bit him in the ass.
Does MS get credit for time off already.
So, 30 days more?
@BF
I was being facetious.
The term scoop is newsroom jargon reserved for those notable instances wherein a journalist, periodical or paper breaks a story.
Others may be working on the same story and may have gathered sufficient facts. But the "scoop" is designated by the act of putting your ass on the line in print.
Please don't make a mockery of blogging, citizen journalism and crowd sourcing by claiming to have "the scoop" when that story was run in the major press outlets.
Furthermore, the memo was released to those press outlets. It's a potentially libelous faux pas.
I REALLY like flapsblog. But that does not earn my lowered standards. In fact, the more I like you, the greater my expectations become.
You can not scoop something that has already gone to press. You run the risk of sounding like a rank amateur.
You are probably going to have your own scoops down the road. I intend to give due credit then and will chastize any journalist/blogger who tries to take credit for your story.
The scoop would have been if you predicted earlier today or yesterday that they would release the story on the heels of this tragedy.
Enough of my yadayada. You know I'm right.
"TIME SERVED" may be the apted discription. BTW, the "MOLDY GREEN SHEET" beat the "LA ANTONIA TIMES" again.
The term is not yet archaic, but certainly is becoming less relevant as electronic publishing becomes ubiquitous.
But investigative reporters and checkbook journalists still stand to break stories that would otherwise go unearthed.
RC
As I said.
I was being FACETIOUS.
Like in sloppy seconds......
geddit?
Big question here, who cut this deal ?? BTW, nice of the "OLD GREY HAG ON SPRING STREET" to let Scribe Duke "LITTLE DOOKIE" Helfand get the lead "BYLINE" with the truth in journalism, David Zahniser looking over his shoulder
The term "scoop" was archaic when I was still alive. The term "exclusive" is now more commonly used in newsrooms, indicating you're alone on a very good story.
a p/o to a mayor in s.e. 4 a n/c.
Where is Laura Chick going to audit Mayor's Office?
"Where?"
A hotel really close to City Hall.
I think the comment thing over at LAT has broken. At almost 2000 comments published so far, the latest comment they have let through is listed as 11:33 AM PDT, July 3, 2007! So much for trying to fly under the radar by delaying. Well, I certainly hope there IS an investigation into the whole Universal development deal/mayor thing. She should have been fired, but she is overused goods, she'll get hers ...
You guys are idiots. Mayor Sam had the Mirthala story six months before MSM.
Sorry.
I meant to ask: "When" is Laura Chick going to audit Mayor's Office?
Two months without pay? A slap on the hand. Villar will take up the slack with a bottle of wine in hand.
10:51 When is Laura Chick going to audit Mayor's Office?
Auditing Mayor's Office is necessary. We want to know if tax payer's money or city resources have been used to facilitate the affair.
A 6-month or more suspension might have appeared to be closer to some punishmnent.
More and more this whole thing looks to be set up to keep the mayor happy and continuing to work with the corporate goals, mainly the development with Universal.
Has anyone noticed that even news reporters don't bother to pronounce "Villaraigosa" correctly anymore? And this was something that many struggled with before, but now they just don't care about it. But that's fine with me- The Mayor should be the ex-mayor.
FYI: No one scooped anyone on this story since no one reported it until AFTER Telemundo announced it on THEIR nightly newscast.
Now a question: Does anyone know where they "reassigned" the General Manager Manuel Abud to?
Luke Ford as usual had the scoop.
But, Flap was second......
August 02, 2007 9:21 PM
Facetious or just unfunny?
Bill Farr said...
The term "scoop" was archaic when I was still alive. The term "exclusive" is now more commonly used in newsrooms, indicating you're alone on a very good story.
August 02, 2007 10:01 PM
When was the last time you were in a newsroom? Reporting on a council or school board meeting? How many clips do you have?
Because when I was reporting last year on a very heated campaign for a mid-size Gannett paper , my line editor couldn't shut up about the scoops we got, which made national press, including the Sunday news rounds.
Exclusives are often related to non-print media. Maybe you've been watching too much Anderson Cooper. His "exclusives" are often the fodder of ratings rival, Dan Abrams.
Incidentally, their is also an active usage of this term. One can be "scooped."
Newspapers are tragically slow to change. Hence, the catastrophic decline in sales. The old, staid culture is impossible to move without lots of people dying. Language is the last to change - just after the Windows 98 operating systems many newsrooms still employ.
Trust me, every newsroom from here to Bangladesh has more old codgers than young technophiles. Bend one of these guys' ears about his best scoop, and pull up a chair. You'll be there for a while.
Lots of places missed the breaking story,
network broke with it at 9:45pm ET/6:45pm ET.
took more than an hour for everyone else to catch on.
Stop!!! Who cares who reported first. This is the biggest slap to credible journalists or the few we have in this city. Look what Antonio has been involved in the media lately. A scandalous affair cheating on his wife and then publicily humiliating her. Being involved in helping his mistress buy a condo from a city hall lobbyist. No doubt being involved in having Laura Chick hired his buddy another lobbyist Marcus Allen to be paid by our tax dollars. And now 30 ethic violations as reported today in LA Slimes fines from his 2003 campaign. I hope the media is relentless and goes after him to keep him away from the cameras. WE need to all boycott the advertisers on NBC and Telemundo. Power of the consumers. This is bullshit and an insult.
I love this quote.
People will always remember her as the reporter who had an affair with the mayor, and that she got in trouble for that," said Judy Muller, a former ABC network news correspondent and current NPR commentator who now teaches journalism at USC.
"That damages her credibility, and I don't know where she goes from Telemundo," Muller added. "A reporter only has her credibility, and once that's sullied you have lost your value to your news organization."
Gee, who "scooped" the story or didn't, or whether or not "scoop" is a correct term, or whether anyone got an "exclusive" is more important than the story itself, I guess. Since the announcement was first broadcast from the Garden of Telemundo it appears they are the "scoopers", everyone else is in a contest as to who repeated it the earliest.
Watch AV claim that she has now been "vindicated."
Watch him try to spin that.
Dumb ass Ethic's Commission for lowering the damn find and only making Villaraigosa pay $5,200 from $150,000 fine. More corruption and bullshit. This mayor is getting back all his bad Karma. Its about time.
....Averting a public hearing over four-year-old ethics violations, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office said Thursday that he will pay a $5,200 fine to settle 30 accounting errors and filing delinquencies from his 2003 campaign for City Council.
Villaraigosa could have faced up to $150,000 in penalties, but Ethics Commission staffers recommended the lesser amount because the mayor cooperated with the investigation and had no prior penalties at the time of the violations.
The commission staff also agreed to withdraw the most serious charge against Villaraigosa - that he accepted $39,000 over the limit on contributions from corporations - after he was able to show that the donations were actually from individuals.
Add these to list of Antonio failures. All the women he appointed commissions and his relatives. What happened to cleaning up city hall.
WILL SOMEONE SHOW THIS IDIOT WHERE THE GANGS IN LA ARE? HE DOESN'T KNOW THE CITY. ANOTHER FAILURE ON ANTONIO'S PART HIRING THIS MORON!!!
He started his first day yesterday.
....Carr is a former chief operating officer of a liberal evangelical group based in Washington, D.C. He also headed the Bresee Foundation providing health care, job skills and other services in Southern parts of Los Angeles.
Carr said he is still learning his way around City Hall and the various social agencies and community groups in the city.
"I regret that decisions I have made in my personal life have been a distraction for the city, and I am deeply sorry that I have let so many people down, especially my family," he said in a statement.
How many times has Antonio repeated this same phrase throughout his life time? He thinks just because he is "man enough" to memorize a short mea culpa statement that everything will be allright again. I wonder if his first born's mom thinks everything is all right, or Maricela's mom or Priscilla's mom or Maria Elena or Martha or Helen or the lady cop or the appointed commisioner(s) or the willing staff - we now know that it is not allright with Corinna.
Antonio, shameless does not mean fearless.
CORINA! I KNOW ABOUT THE BEATINGS YOU ENDURED WHILE BEING MARRIED TO THE MIDGET MAYOR!
PLEASE WRITE THE BOOK ABOUT THIS WIFE BEATER!!
Of course, Villar gave the expected empty response ... these guys might as well just issue one single statement/response to everything:
"Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah! Blah blah blah, blah blah."
I believe the majority of people are NOT at all happy with this outcome, not to mention the overall situation. Do you think Villar thinks he has gotten past the worst of it now and expects it to move on or do they all understand that there are a lot of people who are simply left with MORE disappointment and MORE of a nasty taste in their mouths that they won't forget?
The only "scoops" that get the Mayor's attention nowadays are the two that create Mirthala's push-up bra.
How about giving MAV two months off without pay? That'd be two months less damage he could do.
Who cares who got the "scoop"? What about the story itself?
11:25 PM got it exactly right.
"When was the last time you were in a newsroom?"
Since I'm dead, it's been a while. But I'm not surprised the term is still used at Gannett.
Mirthala will not get the same response being a reporter now. Latina women who Telemundo caters to will always know she broke up a family and doesn't have any morals. When she goes out to cover a story she will get hell from the community.
Telemundo apparently limited the investigation to her relationship with the mayor. The bigger question is whether she covered other politicians (Fabian Nunez, Alex Padilla and unnamed others) when she was involved with them.
10:13 AM
Clearly an investigation is not what they wanted to do at all - they did the barest possible minimum they had to do to try to satisfy the public, which of course they did not do...
The Mayor's apologies never sound like he's sorry.
"When was the last time you were in a newsroom?"
Since I'm dead, it's been a while. But I'm not surprised the term is still used at Gannett.
Touché Turtle!
I'm glad you recognize the Gannett's lethargy.
But, the question was directed at your nom de plume's earthly presence.
BREAKING NEWS
At the Mayor's Press Conference this morning, LA Port Police did their best to keep the media away from him.
Their "best" included SHOVING Azteca America's reporter Alicia Unger into a steel container.
Per Channel 7's live report just now, complete with the shoving incident caught on camera, the media was instructed that they could go to an area where the Mayor would be. That's when an overzealous wanna be cop (Port Police) shoved the reporter.
This whole thing is out of control.
As is the Mayor's life.
11:16 AM
GASP!!!! Shoving MEXICAN MEDIA????
Oh No!!!! I know Villar is a slug and hiding out big time, but cutting off the "base"????
SHOVING anyone, regardless of their ethnicity, is wrong.
Raw video of the incident is on KNBC's site alerady at:
http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=139022
Was that the LAPD or the Gestapo???!!!1 What the hell is happening to Los Angeles. When has an L.A. city mayor ever acted like this!!
Parke, you just created another new story. These reporters were your friends for two years, now you shove them against steel containes? The story has just gotten bigger and the questions from reporters just got more detailed? And this before the divorce gets going, did you sede Corina, she is ot going to play ball anymore.
All because he couldn't think without his pants down!
With Mirthala at 52, 34 acting as a tool for Villar, and La Opinion's phony "Pregunta al Alcalde" lobbing softballs, 54 may be the only legitimate Spanish media in this city. And that's sad.
NO
BROADCAST
CREDIBILITY
None whatsoever and the ratings prove that.
http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=139092
This footage is shocking! Wonder if Polloraigosa has the cojones to apologize for how his port police smacked this woman face first into a cargo container.
There seems to be a pattern with regard to how the man treats women.
LA Port Police will blame the media but humor us with an internal investigation while the officer in question is "reassigned" or temporarily suspended.
Gee, where have I heard those two terms recently?
Anyway, the results of the investigation will come in about four years, on a Friday night around 7pm, on the day the Big One strikes LA.
Wellll ... some begin to wake up the the state of the controlled media???
MEMO TO "12:36 PM, Aug. 3",
For your information, the moniker "POLLORAIGOSA" has been retired out of respect to Corina. Please use the new moniker, "MAYOR POLLOVILLAR".
With Respects,
RED SPOT
12:18:
Right, but I don't think he thinks very well when they're down either!
The mayor is fighting with the press over his "love" life while the people in the harbor communities are left to "eat diesel and die" The people who are "eating diesel and dying" are overwhelmingly his "base."
11:16 said "This whole thing is out of control" Right again. Pollovillar cannot govern. The people pay the price.
Someone yesterday said something like "Welcome to the dying city". Alas, right yet again.
NBC/Universal/Telemundo has given Ms. Salinas a light pat on the wrist as a means of KISSING the Mayor's ass because Universal needs the Mayor's support of its 1500 house subdivision on the Universal property. The Mayor demanded NBC/Universal's cooperation via the press when he expressed confidence that Ms. Salinas would be exonerated as she "did nothing wrong." In my opinion, this was the Mayor's way to communicating his veiled threat to NBC/Universal: support me on this or your project is in trouble.
NBC/Universal has capitulated to the Mayor's threat. This was a Major Breach of journalism ethics. It merits a firing of Ms. Salinas. 63% of the respondents on the LA Times poll agrees: fire her. This is a backdoor "bribe" of the Mayor.
And if they refuse to fire her, then the activists who Salinas tries to cover from now on should NOT COOPERATE with her. Do not give her a story and she will become worthless to Telemundo as a reporter.
Boycott Telemundo and don't take your out of town guests to Universal City or Studios.
Good for David Z the first reporter to have the story on LA Slimes website. Best decision was for them to get David. Antonio now knows how bad the media can really be when you're on the other side.
Cop shielding Villaraigosa gets rough with reporter
Well, I looked at both videos and, sorry, the real beef is with the Mayor, not the cops or security.
The security only seem to be doing what they were instructed to do and keep the press away or at a distance - your argument is with Villar and his people on that one. When the press decided to make a run for the gate and the security or cop ran to prevent them from getting there, looks to me like he was doing his job.
Now, while I am sure it wasn't polite, that shove just did not look all that serious or threatening. She didn't even fall over, she also did not hit the side of that container all that hard either...sorry - once again, too much drama being made of too little. Weak, whiney little princesses (that would be the women AND the men) are becoming irritating ... she took her chances making a run for that gate when she knew the cops were there to keep them all away from it.
It looks to me like cops doing what they were told to do in keeping the press contained. If you don't like that or feel it is inappropriate, I really think you need to take it up with the people who gave the orders...
2:00 p.m.
Sgt.McCloskey looks like a hockey player doing a body check on that little reporter. I don't care what the Mayor's orders were. That was excessive.
The director of media relations for the Port of Los Angeles later issued a statement expressing ``regret that this incident occurred'' and saying the
matter ``is being investigated.''
Of course it's being investigated. yeah.
2:17 PM
Anything he would have done to stop her, as he was apparently told to do in keeping them away from the gated area, would have been called "excessive" by certain people - she chose to go for it, he basically bumped her out of the path to the gate and she happened to slam, none too hard, into the side of that container - no reasonable person would call any of that excessive. Some people act as though he grabbed her and beat her to a bloody pulp or pulled out a gun and shot her. Stop being ridiculous - go argue with Villar about hiding from his former media buddies and don't blame the cops for doing what they were told to do.
Calwatch you have it right. It is truly sad to see the very obcious shortcoming of ALL Spanish-language media as they have reported on this story.
Also, there is no question in my mind that Telemundo's review was cursory. It is obvious to many that any close relationship, friendship or that of a romantic nature, would almost undoubtedly cloud a journalist's judgment. Did she ask tough questions of the mayor, did she hold back on stories that could have been negative to the Mayor. Why the staffers at Telemundo got off so easy is incredible...but then there's the NBC/Universal deal at play.
For those who feel sorry for Mirthala, she can be the next Monica Lewinsky if the Mayor doesn't marry her or keep her around. But after seeing the press hordes persecuting the Mayor and ignoring the cops to get their taste of blood, I think she's had enough bashing and deserves to just be ignored. It's not like she killed someone, she's not O. J. or Phil Specter.
I hope that Corina tears are from laughter. Murthala will be hitting Tony Villar up for her lost pay and he'll be digging into his deep pockets or the weather report predicts a COLD FRONT hanging over her Studio City condo. Finally, she'll get paid for what she's really good for...
Someone should of been fired at the station. They have lost all credibility. She either went to her and told them the truth or she didn't. It was poor judgement on both management level and in her role. She never should have reported on the divorce.
Any other women would have been fired over the reason she was suspended over.
This is still is the station that allowed this to happen.
And MAV is still the man who has cheated on his wife more then once.
Dear Mayor Villar or whatever you call yourself today,
Please resign; you have made a laughing stock of our people.
You raised trash fees, raised sewer fees, and moved up the date for increased water rates.
You shamed us with your Machista attitude towards women.
You claim to know the law yet could never passed the bar exam.
Didn't anyone tell you that people graduating from the People's College of Law, like your mentor and friend Senator Gil Cedillo, are ridiculously undereducated?
You have allowed the police to abuse our people like nothing since the August 29th Moratorium.
You patronize us with your Pocho Spanish and white washed smile.
Whenever there is a chance to promote highly qualified in-house personnel for important positions in the various departments you pass them up for your mediocre friends and outsiders from other cities.
You are a shameless undesirable that needs to leave and give someone else a chance to make us proud.
And by the way please tell the rest of the Hispanic Clowns in City, County and State Governments that they can leave with you too.
Truly not yours,
A disappointed Hispanic Democratic Voter hopelessly waiting for a dignified representative.
Tee hee.
I'm surprised it wasn't a 9 month suspension.
You don't think they came public with the affair because they felt a twinge of conscience, do you?
I WOULDNT BE SURPRISED IF MIRTHALA HAD SLEPT WITH THE GENERAL NABAGER OF TELEMUNDO
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