OPINION

THE MAYOR AND THE SPURNED KNBC REPORTER: HELL HATH NO
FURY LIKE A "SPURNED" REPORTER

Mayor Villaraigosa and KNBC's Ana Garcia on friendlier terms

(August 13th, 2007 3:00PM PST)

by ERS NEWS

Ana Garcia, anchor, sometime "investigative reporter" and former communication director to Los Angeles District Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, is not happy with Mayor Villaraigosa. It seems the Mayor doesn't want to talk to her about how and when he goes shopping with his girlfriend Mirthala Salinas and a few other issues.

Last friday Garcia wanted to know about the Mayor's trip to a valley mall with his girlfriend Mirthala Salinas, the now suspended Telemundo anchor/reporter. The video of the shopping trip was posted by celebrity website TMZ.com. It was the first pictures of the happy couple together and out and about in LA since the scandal involving their relationship erupted onto the headlines back on July 3rd of this year. It was not the first reports of them being together on the town, ERS reported that long ago.

The Mayor responded to Garcia's questions saying basically he was just out buying some shoes and wasn't aware of much else! In this case, we have to side with the mayor, can't a man go buy a pair of shoes in peace. Then as a follow-up, Garcia asked Villaraigosa about some emails and schedules the Mayors office is refusing to release as public records to Garcia and KNBC. Garcia says they are public record, the Mayor's lawyers say they are not.

It seems Garcia is still a bit peeved that her Telemundo rival, Mirthala got some exclusive access to the Mayor in the past that Garcia felt she was entitled too. In her last story about the Mayor, Garcia complained she only a got a few minutes with the mayor one day and Mirthala got a lot more! The Mayor's office said his schedule was too busy. It all seems a bit personal to us her at ERSNews. It isn't personal when the mayor or his press office ignores us, we expect it and consider it a badge of journalistic honor. Journalism, as we see it doesn't go through press secretaries first. So we don't hold it against the Mayor's flaks, their job is not to tell us the truth, their job is to make their boss look good and get him reelected or at least not get tossed out of office for some reason.

When colleagues at KNBC, like Laurel Erickson ask tough questions to the mayor like "are you going to marry Mirthala" and "is she pregnant" and our personal favorite, which had to do with something like if Mayor Villaraigosa was like a cat with many lives, is it any wonder the Mayor is not interested in talking to Garcia or anyone from KNBC.

We here at ERSNews feel for you Anna, we just think if the Mayor is going to ignore a reporter, you should at least make him ignore you for the right reasons. Don't claim to take the high road when you are really playing in the gutter. After all KNBC was the station that led one day with the story about Brittany Spears shaving her head. Or as the old saying goes, don't cry about getting dirty when you roll around in the gutter.

That's the view from ERS and its new "Media Madness" report.