The story is an update to a news story that broke in July. Reporter Mirthala Salinas had the political beat and was fill-in anchor at KVEA-TV in Los Angeles, which is the Spanish Language Telemundo affiliate. She was assigned to cover L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. During the time she was covering him, Salinas and Villaraigosa began having an intimate relationship. Salinas said she told her superiors at KVEA and Telemundo that she was in a relationship with Villaraigosa and asked to be reassigned. She said her bosses told her to continue covering him. Salinas even had to break the story that Villaraigosa and his wife were separating due to his extramarital affair. She did not mention on air that she was the one having a relationship with the mayor. That part of the story leaked out over the next few days. After an investigation by the company, she and her News Director were given two month suspensions and Salinas was to be transferred to another Telemundo affiliate. The president of Telemundo was also reprimanded. Salinas was suspended for a flagrant violation of the network's ethics guidelines. This follow-up says that rather than show-up to her new station this week, Salinas resigned.
Salinas has been linked to others she has covered in the past, including Speaker of the California State Assembly Fabian Nunez. Having personal, intimate relationships with important people she covers seems to be a habit for her. She has to know that this violates the ethics of almost every major news organization. Knowing that she is attracted to powerful politicos, at the very least she should make sure that she is not assigned to cover them. If she does have to report on them, then she should use self-restraint and not become involved with these men. In this case she did tell her superiors at KVEA and Telemundo and requested to be reassigned. Her bosses insisted she keep covering Villaraigosa. Did they think it would give them the inside track to Villaraigosa? It seems like it would be difficult to do the right thing as a reporter in that situation when company management is encouraging the unethical behavior. Their behavior is more reprehensible because instead of dealing with the issue correctly when they were informed of it, Salinas' bosses had her continue to cover the mayor. It seems as if the entire KVEA and Telemundo organization need a primer or refresher course on the ethics of journalism.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
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5 comments:
I definately agree that the reporter possibly has a problem with becoming attracted to the men she works around. She should possibly distance herself from such people or pick a new career. It's unethical for her to continue to enter situations in which the outcome is predictable. It was also unethical for her boss to request she continue coverage after she requested to be taken off the story. Great opinion on it.
*make sure to spellcheck your peice though there are a couple errors
In this situation, the reporter is a bit loose. However, she did request to be reassigned. Even though she was not excused her News Director was aware of the situation and made the decision to keep her on the same assignment. Hence, they were suspended as well.
I am not giving her an excuse or alibi. Salinas was wrong but she did try to find a diversion for her solution. Reporters have responsibilities beyond ethics and Salinas forgot about them and could jeopardize her career. Was it worth it?
I agree that Salinas was at fault in breaking codes of ethics. She had been working for the station for many years and should have fully understood the ethics rules of her place of work. She also violates the relationship between the news and a personal life. She was using her position as a public reporter to get her next date. KVEA was also at fault by not taking immediate precautions when Salinas admitted to her affair and her interviewing the mayor being a conflict of interest. The news also seemed to be misleading or only giving partial information when Salinas reported that the mayor and his wife were being separated and leaving out that she was the reason. This incident also puts the code of ethics into controversy for some of the people in charge at KVEA by allowing Salinas to have this affair without being punished and allowed to continue with her interview.
After reading this, I was easily able to see how this violates the ethics code of journalism.
She was having an affair with all the powerful men she was reporting. The reason I believe the boss did not let her resign, is because since she was on a personal level with the mayor, the boss probably thought more information would come out that way.
When you know someone on a personal level, you tend to get more information out and it seemed like the company wanted to be able to be ahead of other companies in terms of what information they knew.
It seems like the lady was too easily attracted to powerful men, or she was doing it to get a possible advantage over others in knowing the person personally.
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