Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


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Villaraigosa and Salinas: bang the dumb slowly

So, what's the public moral lesson being taught by MSM reporting on the story about the mayor of L.A. (married, but not for much longer) and the salsalicious anchorchick of L.A.'s prime Spanish-language news program? That adultery is bad, or that the only peccadillo here is some presumed conflict of interest on the part of the lover/journalist (who, in addition to anchoring, also covered the mayor -- no really, that's how they put it -- as a reporter)?

That the answer is the latter need not be merely asserted; the AP proves it, with this quote in the linked article:

"It's one thing for your marriage to fall apart. It's another to be dating* the anchor of the biggest Spanish news channel who had covered City Hall. It doesn't look right," said Franklin D. Gilliam Jr., a political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

There you have it, straight from the UCLA poli sci department. Powerful men: just check her for std's and your own presence on her reportorial beat. Clean on both counts -- good to go.

The 54-year-old mayor has gone underground since Tuesday, when he confirmed he was seeing anchorwoman Mirthala Salinas, 35.

Well, congratulations to the AP for eschewing that really really old one about "going under cover...."

*Btw, can we start taking this word back? Christian teens and other cultural resistance leaders who hold hands at the movies and part for the night with a goodnight kiss are dating. Does the English language, in both its polite and obscene sectors, really lack enough words for what the the mayor and the newsanchor were doing? -- OIC, the middle-aged and the nearly-so insist on using the vaguer and chaste-sounding word because it makes them seem or feel younger: it's precisely the associations with youth and (relative) innocence that they want to dirty up for their own cosmetic purposes. What does it matter to them that young people who are trying to live "the pledge" are forced to invoke all sorts of awkward qualifiers when describing their relationships, lest they give scandal?
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:46 AM