What Conflict of Interest? Villaraigosa Dating Another Reporterette

I love the reaction of the suits at KTLA to the news that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is schtupping yet another local newscaster.

A Los Angeles television reporter is dating Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, about two years after his extramarital affair with another local newscaster led to the breakup of his 20-year marriage.

KTLA-TV Channel 5 reporter Lu Parker, a former Miss U.S.A., has been dating Villaraigosa since March, station officials confirmed Monday. On Sunday, while working as a weekend anchor, Parker announced a story about the likelihood of Villaraigosa running for governor in 2010.

"Now that we're aware of the relationship, she will no longer be covering local politics," said KTLA-TV news director Jason Ball, who defended the journalist's ethics but declined to elaborate. "I have the utmost faith in Lu Parker's abilities."

So she's banging the guy for at least three months and they're only aware of it now? Yeah, sure sounds like she's the objective reporter to have faith in.

"There is no concern as to the ethics whatsoever," said Don Corsini, general manager of KTLA-TV, which like The Times is owned by Tribune Co. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a personal matter."

Well, since the LA Times doesn't have any ethics, it's no surprise a station owned by the same company ignores them as well.

What a joke these people are.

Parker's own website contains a video clip of her interviewing Villaraigosa on election night in November about President Obama's election. Her site also includes a photograph of her interviewing Villaraigosa for another story.

During KTLA-TV's 6:30 p.m. newscast Sunday, Parker read a story about doubts raised about Villaraigosa's potential bid for governor.

Villaraigosa's affair with Telemundo KVEA-TV Channel 52 reporter and anchor Mirthala Salinas in 2007 also raised a conflict-of-interest question and created a firestorm of publicity that tainted his first term in office.

During his successful campaign for reelection this year, Villaraigosa continually apologized for the affair.

Salinas, who as a political reporter had covered such mayoral initiatives as his effort to gain control of the Los Angeles Unified School District, later quit after she was suspended for two months and reassigned by Telemundo to the station's Riverside bureau.

LA Times: Palin a Trophy, Shows Some Cleavage

It's come to this. Fashion critics obsessing over Sarah Palin.

To be honest, I hadn't noticed any cleavage during John McCain's speech, and I'm trained to spot these things.

Sigh.

WHAT TO do about the war, what to do about the economy, what to do about those rimless glasses and that saucy updo? Style has never been more important than it is in this election. That's not just because this high-stakes political contest is being watched by a tabloid and celebrity-obsessed culture. It's also because this election now has so many powerful women on the national stage who are putting their message across with vastly different style strategies.

For months, we've seen how polarizing style can be, dissecting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's gender-neutral pantsuits, Cindy McCain's $300,000 Oscar de la Renta-and-diamonds convention outfit and Michelle Obama's throwback Jackie O. shift dresses. But in a little more than a week, the Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, has stolen the campaign's style spotlight, causing a run on Kawasaki 704 eyeglass frames and upswept hairstyles.

Fashion can be a potent tool for packaging a candidate (or "co-candidate," as political spouses take on more substantial roles). And though men can speak volumes just by washing the gray out of their hair, or choosing to wear makeup on TV, women have bigger challenges. Keeping the focus on the issues, not the clothes or their looks. Projecting authority while seeming approachable, not elitist. If you're a woman in the spotlight of a high-profile race, the issue quickly becomes: What changes are you willing to make to your appearance to get people to take you seriously? And in a savvy, YouTube-aware way, how will you use style to telegraph your essence?

A beauty queen turned politician by way of the PTA, Palin has a style strategy that's quite clever. In an interview in Vogue magazine in February, when rumors of her as a possible VP candidate were only whispers, the Alaska governor said she was trying to be "as frumpy as I could by wearing my hair on top of my head and these schoolmarm glasses." (Never mind that she was appearing in Vogue, bastion of the fashion obsessed, which Clinton famously refused to do when she was campaigning for president.)

Barely a blip on the political radar before now, Palin has to go the extra mile to hone her VP style. But far from uglifying herself, she plays up her sexuality. And this early on, Palin is already playing the image game like a pro. When Sen. John McCain accepted the nomination Thursday night, she wore a black satin jacket that dipped just low enough in front so you could see some cleavage. In this political marriage, Palin clearly knows she's the trophy.

They also noticed she's been eschewing stockings.

Uh, morons, it is still summertime.

Witnessing the death throes of an institution

The old print media continues to experience financial woes. Today it is the LA Times that has fired it's second editor in chief in a little over a year over his refusal to cut jobs.

The Los Angeles Times fired its top editor after he rejected a management order to cut $4 million from the newsroom budget, 14 months after his predecessor was also ousted in a budget dispute, the newspaper said Sunday.
James O'Shea was fired following a confrontation with Publisher David D. Hiller, the Times reported on its Web site. The story didn't say when the confrontation took place.

Revenues for all of the old print media organizations is being severely impacted and as this story points out they are having to continue to cut staff everywhere. A big problem, in my opinion, is because there is very little news being published today that is being talked about but rather all of the editorials and the general taint of what passes as news being either biased or so full of factual errors to make the story irrelevant. People spend more time talking about the nature of the story rather then the content of the story. Newspapers can give you headlines but their substance leaves you with the same feeling you get after eating Chinese take out. An hour later you are hungry again.
Newspapers serve a purpose, and certainly without their news gathering abilities we would be seriously hindered in our search for news, but unless they can figure out how to turn around their losing ways that is exactly what will happen.
I am not happy with the cable news on TV either. They all seem to be about celebrity news or the latest missing person instead of bringing us news of the world. That is all driven by ratings which translate into dollars from advertising. So while I can sit and gripe about the nature and quality of news on TV I am then slapped with the realization that they are simply putting out a product that the public laps up. That is more an indictment of our habits then it is the cable news shows who show 22 1/2 hours of the latest missing person and 90 minutes of news that informs.

LA Times Vows to Screw Up Earlier

They're calling it streamlining. Others may call it getting the bias and errors out faster.

UPDATE: Patterico weighs in.