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.
Villaraigosa's Democratic party affiliation was left unmentioned in the September 25 story by Times reporters Duke Helfand and Meg James.
Also ignored was Salinas history as a bit of serial dater of local Democratic politicians. From my August 3 NewsBusters post:
The Telemundo reporter... apparently has a history of dating Southern California Democratic politicians:
Her affair with Villaraigosa was an open secret in KVEA's Burbank newsroom and in the mayor's office at City Hall. Salinas also had dated Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) when he was divorced — and before he remarried his wife — as well as former Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla, now a state senator.
For a comprehensive listing of NewsBusters stories on Mirthala Salinas, check here.
Photo featured above is by LAT's Robert Durell, via LATimes.com, and depicts Salinas interviewing Villaraigosa in the California State Capitol in August 2006.
