Ron Fineman's ON THE RECORD

As you know from Friday's issue, KNBC reporter Kyung Lah, Today in LA producer Jeff Soto, and 11pm producer Jim Bunner were all fired last week. Lah and Soto were having an affair, and Bunner led to the affair getting exposed. What I'm going to tell you is what I've gathered from talking to various sources, including Bunner who agreed to speak on the record.

In December, Lah was covering the Scott Peterson case in Redwood City. She sent Soto an unsigned letter in an envelope marked Personal. Bunner described the letter as more of a card. It was nothing x-rated, but personal enough to where it might indicate something was going on, and there was enough info in there which would point to Lah being the sender.

As to how Bunner got a hold of this letter is a source of controversy, which I'll address a bit later.

Bunner, Lah's husband, and weather anchor Danny Romero are all friends. Bunner says he and her husband are especially close. Anyway, Bunner showed this letter to Romero, and both wondered, could this be what it appears to be? Bunner says he really couldn't believe it, and couldn't bring himself to tell Lah's husband about it. He and Romero sat on this letter until late February. At that time, convinced that something was indeed going on, Romero decided to confront Lah with it. He told her, either you tell your husband, or I will. Lah apparently knew he was serious, and so she confessed.

A couple of weeks later, Lah's husband went to KNBC management with the news of this affair between his wife and the morning show producer. General Manager Paula Madison fired, Lah, Soto and Bunner. Why Bunner? According to him, Madison felt that as a manager (11pm newscast producer) he should have reported this affair as soon as he had reason to believe it was going on. So, Bunner says he was fired for keeping quiet. But he offers no apologies for that. He didn't want to see all of this happen to his pal. He tells me he "took a bullet" for him. He also disputes that 11pm producer is really a management position.

But he says that Madison told him he showed bad judgment. After all, Lah's husband works in the same building. Suppose he decided to come down and shoot up the newsroom?

Bunner says he found the card from Lah, without the envelope, in a big trash can in the bathroom. He says the design on the card caught his attention, so he checked it out. Others at KNBC don't believe that. They believe that Bunner stole this letter from Soto's box in the newsroom, before Soto could ever see it. And one insider, who says they've talked to key parties involved, says that when Romero confronted Lah with the card, it was inside its envelope. Bunner emphatically denies taking that card from Soto's box. By all accounts I've heard Soto never got it.

Several people are now writing to me, telling me that this letter was circulated before Bunner ever saw it. I should add that those who are telling me are writing in anonymously. One person writes "I feel ashamed I can't come forward to my bosses or you but I want to set the record straight." This person goes on to say that every morning, the mail is taken out of the bin for possible news releases and magazines. According to this person "one of those was sent to Soto and opened and the gossip began." They write "I know of two who passed it around."

I asked them to tell me who these two people are, but they did not respond to my question. It is a great source of interest at KNBC as to how this letter got out. But if in fact Bunner was fired for withholding knowledge about the affair, it wouldn't change what happened to him, if this letter - marked Personal - first surfaced as described above.

Some people believe that KNBC assistant news director Chris Myers must've known about the affair, and therefore wonder why he's not been fired. After Lah told her husband about the affair, her husband moved in with his old friend Danny Romero. At the time, Myers was also staying with Romero while some work was being done on his home. Again, I understand there was at least two weeks between the time that Lah's husband found out about the affair, and when he went to KNBC management to tell them about it. Could Myers have been staying there, seen a third person move in under these circumstances, but NOT know what was going on? At least one insider believes that could be the case. They describe Lah's husband as quite "stoic" and so they don't think he would tell Myers. And they don't believe that Romero would've confided in him either.

On the other hand, when I spoke with Bunner, while he never mentioned Myers by name or title, he left the impression that he believed that Myers may've known about it.

I emailed Myers, Romero and Lah's husband and none have responded to comment for OTR.

What do the folks at KNBC think about all of this? I've got some of their comments in this week's edition of Inside LA TV.

Gigi Graciette was covering an anti-gang march in South LA. During her story she reported "Away from the camera's eye, we saw kids throwing gang signs as they walked, supposedly in the name of peace."

She interviewed the above boy, whose cousin was killed by a gang member. She said to him, "but your friend was just flashing a gang sign." He said, "Oh that was him. I don't know about him." And Graciette responded "Yeah but those are people you're hanging around with."

I always appreciate a reporter who goes out on a story, and then picks up on something that was not expected, not part of the plan. She not only noticed these gang signs, but then also took the time to interview that kid. And think about it, gang signs being flash during an anti-gang violence demonstration. What does that say about the sincerely of some of the young people taking part? I don't doubt the parents mean it, but this has to make you wonder about at least some of the kids. This is not what the event intended to portray, but there it was. Good reporting.

My thank to Fritz for dropping the note. Just when you thought no one at KNBC would talk to me on the record!

I must say that we had a lot more entries than I expected. I think the only fair thing to do is to put this to a vote.

Please click on the best entry (in blue) and then hit "send." We've got 20 choices.

1) Bill Raabe - "Riiiiick! Your HAND!!!!!!!" Entry#1

2) Anonymous - "Sometimes they freeze like this for minutes until the prompter comes back up." Entry#2

3) Ken Koller - "Rick! I know I'm stupid, but I'm not a puppet. Get you hand outta there!" Entry#3

4) Eva Winkle - "He's found my ass implants." Entry#4

5)Shawn Fitzpatrick - "Rick! You won't find the next story there!!!" Entry#5

6) TomVito - "O MY GOD ! Look at the hooters on that new weather gal, Jackie Johnson - she's stealing my thunder. Entry#6

7) Todd Dice - "Rick, your hand is so cold! " Entry#7

8) Jordan (no last name) - " I know they told us to sex it up, but could you please remove your hand from there. EEEOW!" Entry#8

9) John South - "And if I suck in my breath really hard, I can pop all the buttons on my jacket." Entry#9

10) David Farber - "You mean we actually have to take a written test?!" Entry#10

11) Brian Humphrey - "Oh my gawwwd, we have a viewer...I mean, like -
somebody's actually watching us!" Entry#11

12) Franklin Early - "Great, now you look like my blow-up doll at home. Lauren!" Entry#12

13) Dave Zorn - "What? Ron Fineman said something NICE about me?!" Entry#13

14) Al Prado - "Hand Check!" Entry#14

15) Houston Mitchell - "Oh no, this word has more than two syllables. What do I do?" Entry#15

16) Anonymous - "Where's the prompter? I forgot my name." Entry#16

17) Mark Mohr - "Where is Rick's left hand and why is he smiling like that?" Entry#17

18) Michael Nash - Voice of director from booth: "Hey you two, before you go on the air tonight, we just got this in -- Ron Fineman's 'On the Record' has just named Rick Garcia and Lauren Sanchez as the best LA television news team in its annual poll. Congratulations!" Entry#18

19) Roman Seano - "During UPN 13's revamped "Entertainment" report, Lauren Sanchez demonstrates her amazing skill of popping-off blouse buttons merely by inhaling. Mid-breath, she suddenly remembers it's Casual Friday, so she didn't wear a bra... Co-anchor Rick Garcia uses this time to reflect on his life and career path." Entry#19

20) Scott Pitzer - "Ooooh! RICK! I didn't know you cared!" Entry#20

NEWS YOU REALLY CAN USE

The story done by KCAL's Alan Mendelson last weeks strikes me as the kind of news feature story that more stations should do. This was about interest only loans on houses. These sort of loan can change every month, and lately the one month adjustables have gone up. For example, Mendelson reported that on a 400 thousand dollar mortgage, three moths ago, the interest rate was 3.5 percent, and now that rate is 5.75 percent. That means a month mortgage payment going from $1167 to $1917! Yikes.

For people considering these sort of loans, I have to believe this is pretty valuable information to have.

MY TWO CENTS

Every now and again, I must stray into a social or political issue. And I'm afraid we have both with the Terri Schiavo story. It disturbs me to see Congress and the President sticking their nose where it does not belong. This issue has been through the state courts in Florida. There once was a time when Republicans and conservatives championed states' rights, and tried to reduce the power of the federal government.

But just as with gay marriage, when a state allows something they find morally offensive, out go those traditional principles of political conservatism. It's interesting too. Because in the gay marriage issue, they talk about the value and importance of marriage, but in this case, they want to ignore the wishes of her husband -- wishes which he says his wife expressed to him long ago, when she was able to express herself. This woman has been in this condition for 15 years. How much longer do Bush and the Republicans want to keep her in this awful state? Why should the law be changed for just one case? Why should her husband be ignored? How would you like to "live" like that?

It's a tragic situation, no question about it. But I find it frightening when I see the federal government intervene in such a personal issue. I feel like it is really the religious right flexing their muscles, and not many Democrats have the courage to stand up to them on this issue. The Senate voted unanimously to let a federal court intervene.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi was right when she said "Congressional leaders have no business substituting their judgment for that of multiple state courts." Sounds to me like something Barry Goldwater might have said.

For you new readers...just so you know...I'm neither a Democrat or Republican. I don't much like either party. The older I get, the more I believe in more personal freedom and less powerful government, within limits of course. So you can see why I find this latest development disturbing.

This site has been fortunate to get its share of mentions over the years on TV, radio and the newspaper. But when Celebrity Justice gave it credit for breaking the Paula Abdul story last week, I believe that was the first national TV plug we've ever had. It could be a long time before that happens again, if ever. I realize this may be a lot more interesting to me than anyone else, but especially for those of you who've been with OTR for a long time, you might get a kick out of the audio.