Recently, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the end of his marriage and an extramarital affair with television political news reporter Mirthala Salinas. Many people questioned their fitness to continue their jobs after this revelation.

Villaraigosa and Salinas claim the public should not intrude into this area of their personal lives that has nothing to do with professional performance. They invoke the right of separate personal and public morality code and separate accountability. This is an absurd claim. Previously they offered their personal conduct and moral standards as qualifications for public office.

Salinas reported in her television newscast Villaraigosa’s split from his wife and his pending divorce, according to news reports. However, she did not report his adultery or her role as his lover in this adulterous affair. Later, she described her contact with the mayor as one that expanded from professional, to friendship, to intimacy as lovers.  

Both of them are guilty of unethical professional conduct even if we ignore the seeming betrayal of marital trust in the personal area. I say seemingly, because Villaraigosa is right that we do not know the exact relationship between the three of them. However, their personal conduct intruded into areas of their professional responsibility.  

Salinas violated her reporter’s ethical responsibility to report Los Angeles political news as a neutral observer. She couldn’t do this as the mayor’s lover. The mayor violated the public’s trust by knowingly corrupting the neutrality of their news source about his administration.  

Salinas claims she reported her compromised professional position with the mayor to her supervisors at NBC-owned Telemundo. Her supervisors claim she only reported a friendship. Perhaps, some of her bosses are culpable for lack of proper supervision. This asserted failure of their oversight responsibilities may add them to the list of people ethically culpable. Nevertheless, Telemundo managers’ conduct does not remove Salinas’s responsibility to tell her television news audience about her personal role in the news event she reported.

 News reporters and national news agencies commit another common ethical violation when they present opinion as news. More accurately, they often include opinion in news articles without identifying it as opinion or commentary. This is a daily happening nationally and not isolated incidences.

A Washington Post article reported how the White House decided not to comply with Congress demand for information about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. It speculated, “Such action would escalate the constitutional struggle and propel it closer to a court showdown.”  A news analyst may logically conclude this result in an opinion article. Nevertheless, he or she should not report it as news.

An Associated Press article opened a news report with this line. “Vice President Dick Cheney, who thrives on secrecy while pulling the levers of power, is getting caught in the glare of unwelcomed spotlight.”  This statement is pure speculation and opinion. It’s possible that Cheney prefers to wheel executive powers openly, but the Constitution and President Bush restrains him. Anyway, the reporter should not influence readers understanding of reported news events with his or her opinion.

A Washington Post news article ended with this conclusion. “Regardless of what decisions are made in Washington and Baghdad, the U.S. military cannot sustain the current force levels beyond March 2008.” Reporters should not end news articles with their opinion.

A Median News Washington Bureau’ article opening paragraph: “Reeling from the collapse of a massive immigration bill last week, major tech firms plan to press for more visas and green cards  for foreign workers—one element of the failed legislation.”

This opinion loaded opening prejudices readers to view favorably managements’ position that U.S. corporations need to import more foreign technical workers. “Reeling” and “collapse” imply the Immigration Bill’s failure threatens the tech industry’s survival. This is opinion.

These are a few of the opinion loaded articles that daily pass as news reports. Readers should check articles for accuracy, relevance and bias. Still, news reporters have an ethical duty to separate opinion from news reporting.

 

Kenneth Brooks is a freelance writer and speaker. Contact him at P.O. Box 882, Vallejo, CA 94590.  opinion@ethicalego.com.