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Married L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s relationship with a TV anchor and former Miss USA should be a scandal. Instead, argues Joe Mathews, it offers a rare opportunity to engage a lethargic city in civic issues.
It is a tragedy when a perfectly good political sex scandal goes to waste. It’s especially tragic in Los Angeles, which famously lacks the kind of public narratives that dominate news cycles and force citizens to pay attention to their elected leaders.
Los Angeles’ latest missed opportunity arrived last week with the glorious news that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whose marriage broke up a few years back after an affair with a political reporter for a Spanish-language TV station, had been caught dating yet another TV newswoman, Lu Parker.
Is privacy for public figures good for a place as apathetic as L.A.? Perhaps it is time for reporters and politicians to rise above principle, for the greater good.
The story’s beginnings were promising. Villaraigosa is separated from his wife, but his divorce is not final, thus giving the new relationship a jolt of naughty electricity. Parker is a former Miss USA who has modeled and kept a personal Internet page that included a bikini shot.
Best of all, the relationship between Villaraigosa and Parker was discovered after the two were photographed together at Chevalier’s Books, an independent bookseller in an L.A. neighborhood called Larchmont, a village of walkers within the car-crazy metropolis. It is possible that no affair has been exposed in a more politically correct venue. Small-business owners, environmentalists, and neighborhood activists would have to take notice. As an Angeleno, the early reports filled me with civic pride—this was proof that, for all the nasty stereotypes about our lack of intellectual depth, we are a profoundly literary city.
I waited eagerly for followup reports, in hopes that all of Los Angeles would devour every salacious morsel of news—and perhaps pay more attention to city government in the process.
Within hours, the moralizing Los Angeles local media had bungled this heaven-sent opportunity. Instead of digging up racy details of the liaison, the media turned the story into a snoozefest over professional ethics. Had Lu Parker, beauty queen reader of news for KTLA, compromised her journalistic objectivity? Had the mayor once again gotten too close to those covering him? Yawn. The print media focused on the boring angle of how this might affect Villaraigosa’s chances in the California governor’s race in 2010—a contest that few outside Sacramento care about and that the mayor has not yet officially joined.
Worst of all, executives at Parker’s own station, the independent KTLA (full disclosure: KTLA is owned by the same bankrupt Chicago company that owns my former employer, the L.A. Times), publicly declared the relationship “a personal matter” and a “nonstory.” They declined to cover this.
Why is that such a problem?
There’s a serious answer. Southern California faces a deep crisis of civic engagement. So few people pay attention to public matters locally that it’s impossible for elected leaders to govern the place.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
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Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People's Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
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Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People's Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
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Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People's Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
"The story's beginnings were promising. Villaraigosa is separated from his wife, but his divorce is not final, thus giving the new relationship a jolt of naughty electricity."
Huh? It's some sort of scandal that a man who is in the process of divorcing his wife -- has been separated from her for two years -- is dating?
The media have moved on to better things -- like evaluating the crappy job Villarigosa has done as mayor. LA Magazine's cover last month had a picture of Villarigosa on the cover with the word "Failure" pasted across his image along with an article discussing his undistinguished performance.
There's a lot to say about Villarigosa, but Matthews has entirely missed the point with a cheap shot. That's Tina Brown journalism at its worst.
What a stupid attempt to gin up a non-story. Separated people date all the time. We stick to the issues in LA
Why is it that the media - this journalist included - wants to tell us (the public) which stories we should be reading or which stories are most relevant to us? Silly man...Slow news day, huh?
Shouldn't the mayor and this reporter have some personal ethics that would guide them to think that their relationship would send the wrong message? She was known to report or "read" local political stories and and when her employer was asked about the potential conflict of interest their relationship would create, their statement went something like,'now that we know about the relationship, she will no longer be covering local politics.' Didn't this women learn anything from her collegue at Telemundo?
I don't really care what Villaragosa does in his private life, as long as it does not effect his job performance. As a taxpayer I have a right to that. My impression of him is that he is using the mayor's office to establish himself as a potential candidate for governor. I can not think of one thing that he has done to improve the city of Los Angeles; action often requires that you alienate some part of the populace to get things done. Safer to lay low until it is time to run for governor. I for one hope we could come up with a better alternative.
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With all due respect Mr. Mathews (and Daily Beast staff) but this is one of the lamest "featured stories" you've had in a while. Talk about a bunch of blather with no point.
As a California resident, let me assure you that there are plenty of people who pay attention to what is going on in our state. Our most recent "special election" was a complete waste of time/money/resources, on an issue that is so tired (our annual budget 'crisis'). Voters saw through this attempt to manipulate us at the ballot and stayed home. I for one did vote, but I totally understood why so many didn't. We've had more special elections in the past few years than I can remember, always because of some "crisis".
Now Mr. Mathews attempts to manufacture a crisis out of the Mr. Villaragosa's private sexual life. HELLO MEDIA - AMERICANS ARE SICK AND TIRED OF YOU GINNING UP THESE NON-STORIES ABOUT POLITICIAN'S PERSONAL LIVES. Whether or not Mr. Villaragosa is having an affair has virtually nothing to do with his performance as mayor of our nation's second largest city. I am proud of the local media for not amplifying this nonsense that no one cares (outside blowhards like Mr. Mathews) about. Why does it matter to me who our elected leaders are screwing?!? As long as they aren't benefiting from said sexual liaisons, or providing public resources to their sex partners, I truly don't care. Maybe California is leading the nation in focusing on what really matters - job performance. By all accounts (and I'm not an LA resident) it appears that Mr. Villaragosa is pleasing the majority of LA residents with his job performance.
Get off your high horse Mr. Mathews and write about issues that MATTER. And Daily Beast - quit promoting this drivel as 'news'.
As a reporter, the author should know to avoid dangling modifiers such as "as an Angeleno" on the first page of the article.
This is one of those sad stories about this country... Los Angeles one of the largest cities in the nation, a city loaded with super talented people is stuck with a man who can not be beaten in an election because he is a Mexican, plain & simple.. I am not talking about being Mexican as anything bad, what I am saying is that no non Mexican could run & win against a Mexican & no Mexican has the money or power to run against him.... Bottom line is Villaragosa is in a position to do whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it...
He is here in LA instead of Washington because this is the 2nd beauty queen he has had affairs with while still being married & that is in the last year... Prior to this coming out he was involved with several other woman while being married & so on & so forth...
I personally have no problem with anyone who loves being with woman, it is not my job to judge the morals of others but I do have the right to say this man has done NOTHING for the city, NOTHING for education in the city & NOTHING for transportation in the city.... LosAngeles spends tens of millions on bilingual education that has been proven not to work... He has spent tens of millions on bus's that do nothing all day (empty) other then bring maids to & from work once a day.... Bottom line he has done nothing for the city that the city needs doing....
I guess I feel about him as I do about Diane Feinstein, I wish she would run for governor since the governor of California has virtually no power to do anything, meaning she can't screw it up & I would love to get a real Progressive in her spot in the do nothing Senate. I wish Villaragosa would run for something that he could not screw up & give hiom the time to play his sex games. (What better place then the US Senate) Sooooo I would love ot see him run for Dianes seat, her run for Arnolds seat & both win.....
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