Salinas placed on leave *

No surprise here: Telemundo Channel 52 today put Mirthala Salinas on leave while the broadcaster looks into the ethical questions around her affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

"As we have stated, we are committed to journalistic excellence," said Manuel Abud, general manager of KVEA Channel 52. "Given the seriousness of the allegations that have been made, we have decided to conduct an internal review of the decisions and events that led us to where we are today. In the meantime, Salinas has been placed on a leave of absence from her duties pending this review.

"We will conduct this investigation with the utmost respect to personal privacy and journalistic standards."

The Times web story says that Telemundo officials were upset that Salinas used an outside PR adviser earlier this week when she released a statement that took her employer by surprise.

Media note: I was a guest this morning on KPCC's "Airtalk" to talk about the Villarsalinas story with Larry Mantle (audio), and on KTLK 1150 this afternoon to do the same with Marc Germain.

* Salinas says she acted appropriately: The Telemundo 52 website is topped right now by the announcement about Salinas' leave of absence, and includes a brief statement from her posted this evening. English is from FreeTranslation.com, which seems superior to Google's translator (though you get what you pay for at both.)

Acepto la decisión de Telemundo de realizar una revisión comprensiva de los hechos y respeto su deseo de completar esta investigación antes de regresar a trabajar. Voy a cooperar con la estación y aprecio su compromiso de llevar a cabo una revisión completa de esta situación. Confío que cuando todos los aspectos sean analizados, quedará claro que me comporté apropiadamente.

I accept the decision of Telemundo to carry out a comprehensive review of the facts and respect its desire to complete this investigation before returning to work. I am going to cooperate with the station and appreciation its commitment to carry out a complete review of this situation. I trust that when all the aspects are analyzed, will remain clear that I behaved appropriate.