Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona was indicted "on federal corruption charges stemming from a lengthy investigation into allegations that he had misused his office for financial gain," the Los Angeles Times reported on October 30. Reporters Christine Hanley, H.G. Reza and Paul Pringle noted that Carona was once considered a "rising star" for the GOP.
It's a fair point to make note of Carona's party affiliation, but the Times unevenly applies party labels when it comes to elected officials' scandals.
As NewsBusters contributor Dave Pierre noted on September 11, Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's (D-Los Angeles) campaign violations and the corresponding punitive fine of $5,200 were buried on page B-4 of that day's Los Angeles Times. The same squib failed to disclose Villaraigosa's Democratic Party affiliation. (more follows after page break)
Two weeks later, Times reporters Duke Helfand and Meg James noted that Villaraigosa's mistress, a Spanish-language journalist, had been reassigned within the Telemundo's network, having completed an unpaid suspension for having an affair with the mayor while covering city politics. Once again Villaraigosa's party label was curiously absent.
Another curiosity is how Times writers used the "rising star" language to describe charismatic politicians. While Hanley, Pringle and Reza used the term to describe Carona's once bright prospective future in the GOP, conveying the tragedy of dashed hopes for the minority Republican party, "rising star" language was bandied about when Villaraigosa was inaugurated, but is not in vogue now.
Here's one such reference (as accessed via Nexis) from a July 2, 2005 article regarding Villaraigosa's inauguration festivities:
While some city workers hit the proceedings to score a free lunch, an array of national political figures -- including former Vice President Al Gore and the Rev. Jesse Jackson -- came to score a free moment in the spotlight with Villaraigosa, a Democratic rising star who overnight became the charismatic leader of an increasingly powerful Latino voting bloc.
The celestial metaphor seems of late to evade coverage of the L.A. Mayor, although it was applied to his former mistress in a September 25 article:
Television newscaster Mirthala Salinas, who was suspended without pay for two months in August after her affair with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa became public, is scheduled to return to work Monday. But she won't be taking up her old job as a fill-in anchor on evening newscasts for KVEA-TV Channel 52.
Instead, executives with the Spanish-language Telemundo network confirmed Monday that Salinas would be sent to the station's Inland Empire bureau in Riverside as a general assignment reporter, a notable fall for a one-time rising star who has become one of the most recognizable faces in local Spanish-language television.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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The LA Times covers for
October 30, 2007 - 12:51 ET by fitzfongThe LA Times covers for corrupt Democrats on a daily basis. That and the sports page are the only reasons for the paper's continued existence. With regard to Villaraigosa, they always make sure to mention his party affiliation when they're giving him credit for something. They always ignore his party affiliation when he screws up (they frame it as if he's "The People's Mayor" as opposed to just another in a long line of empty-suited Democrat hacks). And they seem eager to pin blame for all of Villaraigosa's many scandals on the whistle-blowers rather than on the sleazebag himself. The LA Times coverage of Villaraigosa is always going to be favorable. But they lost what little credibility they had left when they tried to rig the recall election by oversampling Democrats in a poll to create the impression that Gray Davis had a good chance of beating the recall.
That said, Mike Carona is a crook. Anyone in Orange County who remembers the Samantha Runyon kidnapping and murder will remember what a self-promoting attention hog he was at all the press conferences. Red flag. The two Deputy Sheriffs he hired weren't even in law enforcement, they were heavy campaign donors...One of the Deputies is facing his own corruption charges, the other went to the ends of the earth to harass a girl who accused his son of a gang rape that was caught on videotape. Carona is a sleazy, vindictive man who once suspended a rival the day after he defeated that rival to gain re-election as Sheriff. Unfortunately, Carona's party affiliation is a hammer the Times will continue to use in an attempt to damage the Republican Party in California...as if there is one. The Republican Party would be well-served distancing itself from Mike Carona.