Everyday Ethics

By Bob Steele
Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values

There are big-time fireworks in Los Angeles right now and they have nothing to do with the 4th of July celebration. This spectacle is about the mayor of L.A. and his very personal connections with a local television journalist.

The Los Angeles Daily News reports that "Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa acknowledged Monday that he is involved in a romantic relationship with television newswoman Mirthala Salinas."

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Last month Villaraigosa announced his separation from his wife of two decades, Corina Villaraigosa, and there had been speculation for weeks about whether another woman might be involved."

It’s the identity of this other woman that makes this case a topic for particular scrutiny in the arena of journalism ethics.

Mirthala Salinas is an anchor and reporter for the Los Angeles Telemundo station, Channel 52. She was part of the story about the mayor and she was involved in reporting it.

As the Times story recounts, "On June 8, Salinas opened Telemundo’s newscast with a report about Villaraigosa confirming that he and his wife were separating. 'The rumors were true,' Salinas said in Spanish. 'Mayor Villaraigosa confirmed today that he is separating from his wife, Corina, after more than 20 years of marriage.'"

It’s important to note that the Daily News story quotes a Telemundo spokesman as saying Salinas "moved off the political beat, which includes coverage of the mayor, about 11 months ago."

What’s not clear, of course, is when Salinas started her personal relationship with the mayor and whether it was going on while she was covering him as a journalist. If that was the case, there are serious concerns to be raised about her ethics and those of her station’s news managers if they were aware of the intersection of professional and personal connections.

And, even if Salinas left her political beat role and direct coverage of the mayor before she started the romantic relationship with him, what the heck was she doing reading stories as a newscast anchor that focused on his personal life?

The fireworks are exploding in L.A. on this one, and we’ll learn more as the smoke clears.

It’s a classic "warning bell" case for all journalists across the land.

The principle of independence is essential to the credibility of reporting on government officials. That independence is jeopardized when a journalist has a personal relationship with someone she or he covers. Competing loyalties, if not properly and ethically handled, can erode the integrity of the journalist and of the journalist’s news organization.