Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s love life is once again the focus of L.A. news. On Monday, NBC reported he is dating KTLA weekend anchor/reporter Lu Parker. Immediately, TV, print and online reports remembered his previous affair with former Telemundo anchor/reporter Mirthala Salinas and how the relationship affected her job.
The L.A. Times reports KTLA management is defending Lu’s journalism ethics – saying that now that they know about the romance, she would no longer be covering city politics. However, her situation is really no different than Mirthala’s 2 years ago. On Sunday, the KTLA anchor was seen hanging out with the mayor and later that evening, she read an on-air story about the possibility of Villaraigosa running for governor in 2010.
Without a doubt, there’s a question of ethics here. Two years ago, Mirthala lost her job for dating the mayor, not telling her bosses and then reporting and reading stories about him on the air. Is KTLA just going to leave it at that with their anchor?
