Telemundo Reporter Confirmed as LA Mayor's Girlfriend

Telemundo, as well as other outlets, are confirming reports that Mirthala Salinas, a Telemundo on-air reporter, has been involved in an extended affair with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and that she has been placed on leave as the station, Telemundo52, conducts an investigation as to whether ethical stardards have been breached by the reporter. It would appear that the investigation will be fairly swift and the only real work will be in trying to figure out which ethical standards the on-air reporter did not break as she was assigned to the local Mayor's politial beat. Do ethical standards and personal virtue mean nothing at all anymore?

What is unclear is how this could have gone on as long as it did without being brought to light earlier. These two individuals surround themselves with perceptive and, supposedly ethical colleagues. Ms. Salinas' colleagues are nosey by nature - reporters; and Mayor Villaraigosa has advisers that should have known something was going sometime in the past year.

Update: It seems someone at Telemundo was asking questions after all. ERSNews.com is reporting that the station had asked Salinas about the relationship three times in the past year but denied it every time.

Telemundo management also feels "blindsided" about Salinas’ 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.

Not everyone was scooped on Salinas being the one whom Villaraigosa was having the affair with. LAist has an interview with blogger Luke Ford who had this story before anyone.

Independent Sources had a geat summary on the entire sordid story as does LAObservered.

Comments

[matt]

dude... are you alive?

[Insider]

Let's be real. The mayor's staff new all about it but they aren't going to cross their bread winner. He already knew the risks and probably had little interest in having staff members that didn't know their place.

This tragedy has two villains, Antonio and Mirthala, and what they did to Corina is simply inexcusable. If he cares about his political career he'll dump Mirthala. Voters are not going to be interested in seeing her as California's first lady or even the wife of the mayor.