BREAKING NEWS

THE MAYOR AND MIRTHALA:
"THE SUMMER OF LOVE"
A FALL/WINTER ROMANCE?

NBC/TELEMUNDO DECIDES TO KEEP REPORTER SALINAS
DESPITE CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND ETHICAL VIOLATIONS
OTHERS AT TELEMUNDO ARE "DISCIPLINED"

NO INVESTIGATION OF SALINAS ACTIVITIES PRIOR TO LATE 2005

A "FATAL ATTRACTION" FOR ETHICAL CREDIBLE JOURNALISM

(August 2st, 2007 8:30PM PST)

BY ERIC LONGABARDI

The results of the internal investigation conducted by NBC/Telemundo of Mirthala Salinas are in. The actual investigation itself is not being made public.

The result; Mirthala Salina, reporter and sometime anchor at Los Angeles Telemundo station KVEA-TV52 and the current girlfriend of the Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa will keep her job. The network announced late tonight (Thursday 8/2/07) that Salinas would be get a two month unpaid suspension. As they say in the news business, End of story. Or is it?

A source familiar with the investigation at the network told ERS that "a clear violation of the standards and practices and conflict of interest provisions of NBC/Telemundo were committed" by Salinas and others. The appropriate punishment according to the network for Salinas is a two month unpaid suspension.

The internal high ranking Telemundo source also confirmed to ERS that the official investigation of NBC/Telemundo covered only the actions and issues occurring between late 2005 and July 5th 2006. When asked whether the investigation covered additional potential ethical and conflict of interest issues related to Salinas prior to her relationship with Mayor Villaraigosa, including other notable Los Angeles area politicians, such as California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, former Los Angeles City Councilman and now State Senator Alex Padilla and others, the source said, "it did not."

The source familiar with the investigation said the internal probe focused primarily on the issues of the June 8th reporting by Salinas of Mayor Villaraigosa announcement that he and his wife Corina were separating. And an additional report on June 11th in which Salinas also covered the Mayor was also scrutinized according to the source.

ERS can exclusively report that in addition the already named "relationships" of reporter Salinas, the list goes much longer, including another Los Angeles area politician and a former Assistant News Director at KNBC-TV as well as known Spanish language radio personality Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo who organized and played a crucial role in immigration rallies and protests that took place in Los Angeles.

Additional punishments were given to Telemundo executives. KVEA's news director Al Corral was given a 2 month unpaid suspension as well. Telemundo's station group president Ibra Morales was "officially reprimanded" and KVEA-TV General Manager Manual Abud is being reassigned to a different job within the network and will no longer oversee KVEA-TV Telemundo's affiliate in Los Angeles.

In addition ERS can report exclusively that two Telemundo producers will face "disciplinary action" still to be determined by the network.

A source familiar with the internal investigation conducted by the network confirmed to ERS that former KNBC-TV General Manager Paula Madison was the NBC executive responsible for removing Salinas from her role as a political reporter at Telemundo, as ERS first reported weeks ago. Her role in the scandal was not addressed, nor was she included in any punishment dealt out by the network. Madison is now the head of "diversity" at NBC Universal.

In an official statement on the investigation put out tonight by Telemundo the network reported it had consulted with the Poytner Institute, a well regarded organization that trains journalists and consults with media outlets on issues of ethics and integrity in journalism.

ERS spoke with Bob Steele at the Poynter Institute tonight who confirmed the institute had indeed been involved in advising Telemundo/NBC in relation to issues involved in its internal investigation of the Salinas matter.

Steele confirmed for ERS the he and another Poynter colleague Al Tompkins advised Telemundo/NBC on the issues surrounding this case. Steele was unable to comment on the specific issues and/or nature of the involvement due to confidentiality provisions that Poynter adheres to when asked to provide their expertise to media outlets. When asked by ERS if Telemundo's investigation included any issues outside of only the Mayor and Salinas relationship in 2005 and 2006 Steele again could not comment. Steele did tell ERS that although he could not comment on anything related to his and Poynter's involvement in the internal NBC/Telemmundo investigation, he did tell ERSNews that he was familiar with ERS's reporting and that of other media outlets related to a myriad of others ethics issues related to Salinas prior to her relationship with the Mayor.