Larry Mendte is sorry. He’s really sorry.
The disgraced former anchorman, a Lansdowne native who graduated from Monsignor Bonner High School, was in court yesterday to hear his sentence for snooping in the e-mail of his Channel 3 co-anchor, Alycia Lane.
Mendte won’t be going to jail. No surprise there.
No, this media circus was all about who was going to show up in court and what they were going to say.
Lane, the so-called Latina anchor bombshell, was there, but she did not speak. Instead she submitted a written statement to the court.
Mendte was there, and he had plenty to say in way of explaining what exactly he was thinking of as he accessed Lane’s e-mail hundreds of time, and then leaked damaging information about her to the media.
Mendte apparently thought his anchorman’s crown was tarnished by the new rising star at the station, the lovely Lane.
At the time, Mendte was being paid something in the vicinity of $700,000 as the male half of this anchor duo. Lane reportedly was making more. She also was making it pretty clear to Mendte that she was the rising star and he was on the decline, as he put it, “that I was 50 and on my way out.”
I know how he feels. I’m 53, and employed in an industry that is shedding jobs left and right. Maybe I’m on my way out as well. Of course I get paid decidedly less than Mendte did.
There was another person in the courtroom yesterday, a person I genuinely felt bad for. Her name is Dawn Stensland. She is married to Mendte. She also is an anchor, at Fox-29.
For the most part, I toil in anonymity. Occasionally, I am recognized on the street. A person will approach and ask me, “Hey, aren’t you the editor of the Daily Times?” I offer a standard response: “That depends on who wants to know.”
It’s one of the perks of the newspaper. My face is not beamed into your house every night. The TV folks have no such shield. They become familiar to us, almost like members of the family sharing dinners and other family gatherings.
Maybe that’s why we turn them into celebrities.
Stensland took the stand yesterday in her husband’s defense. She offered a tearful, heartfelt apology to Lane and said the entire incident had caused her family “nothing but pain.”
My question is this: Why did Dawn Stensland have to apologize? She did nothing wrong. If anything, she’s another victim in this sorry affair.
Maybe she wanted to be there for her husband, standing by her man as it were.
You had to admire her for her stint on the other end of the camera, walking into court under the full glare of the coverage she usually only sees from the other side.
Larry Mendte is not going to jail. Alycia Lane is still awaiting her day in court; she has filed a civil suit against Mendte and Channel 3. Dawn Stensland now must return home to try to put her life back together. At the same time, she must sit in front of that camera every night and deliver the news.
Hopefully most of those headlines will not involve her.
There’s very little to feel sympathy toward in this saga. Dawn Stensland is one of them.
The disgraced former anchorman, a Lansdowne native who graduated from Monsignor Bonner High School, was in court yesterday to hear his sentence for snooping in the e-mail of his Channel 3 co-anchor, Alycia Lane.
Mendte won’t be going to jail. No surprise there.
No, this media circus was all about who was going to show up in court and what they were going to say.
Lane, the so-called Latina anchor bombshell, was there, but she did not speak. Instead she submitted a written statement to the court.
Mendte was there, and he had plenty to say in way of explaining what exactly he was thinking of as he accessed Lane’s e-mail hundreds of time, and then leaked damaging information about her to the media.
Mendte apparently thought his anchorman’s crown was tarnished by the new rising star at the station, the lovely Lane.
At the time, Mendte was being paid something in the vicinity of $700,000 as the male half of this anchor duo. Lane reportedly was making more. She also was making it pretty clear to Mendte that she was the rising star and he was on the decline, as he put it, “that I was 50 and on my way out.”
I know how he feels. I’m 53, and employed in an industry that is shedding jobs left and right. Maybe I’m on my way out as well. Of course I get paid decidedly less than Mendte did.
There was another person in the courtroom yesterday, a person I genuinely felt bad for. Her name is Dawn Stensland. She is married to Mendte. She also is an anchor, at Fox-29.
For the most part, I toil in anonymity. Occasionally, I am recognized on the street. A person will approach and ask me, “Hey, aren’t you the editor of the Daily Times?” I offer a standard response: “That depends on who wants to know.”
It’s one of the perks of the newspaper. My face is not beamed into your house every night. The TV folks have no such shield. They become familiar to us, almost like members of the family sharing dinners and other family gatherings.
Maybe that’s why we turn them into celebrities.
Stensland took the stand yesterday in her husband’s defense. She offered a tearful, heartfelt apology to Lane and said the entire incident had caused her family “nothing but pain.”
My question is this: Why did Dawn Stensland have to apologize? She did nothing wrong. If anything, she’s another victim in this sorry affair.
Maybe she wanted to be there for her husband, standing by her man as it were.
You had to admire her for her stint on the other end of the camera, walking into court under the full glare of the coverage she usually only sees from the other side.
Larry Mendte is not going to jail. Alycia Lane is still awaiting her day in court; she has filed a civil suit against Mendte and Channel 3. Dawn Stensland now must return home to try to put her life back together. At the same time, she must sit in front of that camera every night and deliver the news.
Hopefully most of those headlines will not involve her.
There’s very little to feel sympathy toward in this saga. Dawn Stensland is one of them.
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