Mirthala Salinas
Mirthala Salinas (born October 27, 1970) was an anchor and reporter for U.S. Spanish language television channel KVEA-TV in Los Angeles. In August of 2007, she was suspended from her job for two months due to a conflict of interest scandal as a result of sleeping with the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, while at the same time reporting on the mayor's activities.
Early life
Salinas was born and raised in the state of Sonora in northern Mexico. She attended Arizona State University.
Career
Salinas was a reporter for Univision 33 in Phoenix, Arizona, before moving to Los Angeles. She later became an anchor and reporter for the U.S. Spanish language television channel KVEA-TV (also known as Telemundo 52) in Los Angeles.
Scandal
In early June 2007, the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, separated from his wife of 20 years, Corina, who filed for divorce a couple of days later. Los Angeles blogger Luke Ford (lukeford.net) had already broken the story that the mayor was not wearing his wedding ring any longer and the mainstream media was given denials by the mayor. According to ERSNews.com "The Enterprise Report" Salinas was well known in the Telemundo newsroom and by senior NBC/Telemundo management for having romantic relationships notable politicians for years The Los Angeles Times, claimed based on sources that the relationship with Salinas went back more than 18 months - to the beginning of Villaraigosa's term in office. Coincidentally, she was the anchor who read the report of Villaraigosa's separation from his wife on the Telemundo 52 news broadcast.
Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa confirmed he was in a romantic relationship with Salinas in early July 2007. The story first broke on the LA based blog site Lukeford.net and then on July 3, 2007 when the Los Angeles Daily News reported on the affair. In a statement, Salinas asked for privacy for herself and the mayor, and that in the end they would conclude that she had conducted herself in an appropriate manner.
On July 5, 2007, she was placed on paid leave by her employer while they conducted an internal investigation into whether she breached journalistic ethics.
On August 3, 2007, Telemundo suspended Salinas from her job for two months for violating conflict-of-interest policies. Three immediate supervisors were also disciplined. Villaraigosa said, "I am deeply sorry that I have let so many people down, especially my family. Now that Telemundo's internal review has reached a conclusion, it is my hope that we can all move forward." After the suspension, Telemundo reassigned her as a reporter to their Riverside office, but she decided to resign from instead, effective October 1.
In November 2007, it was reported that her relationship with Villaragiosa had ended.
Personal life
Salinas also had romantic relationships with other well-known Los Angeles based California politicians, including Speaker of the California Assembly Fabian Nunez, a close friend and ally of LA's Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Former Los Angeles City Councilmember and State Senator Alex Padilla.
External links
- Mirthala Salinas Telemundo