Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Of Mendte and McKie

Today we have two examples of men behaving badly. Allegedly, of course.

And they both have Delco angles.

First there is former Sixer and Temple star Aaron Mckie. He’s in hot water for allegedly lying on an application to buy a couple of guns in Montgomery.

That’s because he has a protection from abuse order that is still active against him right here in Delaware County. It was filed by an ex-girlfriend.

McKie was charged with a felony gun violation and a misdemanor charge of lying to authorities. His lawyer called it an honest mistake and indicated McKie was looking to buy the guns, including a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson and a .9 mm Ruger.

Montco D.A. Lisa Ferman did not sound nearly as understanding.

Then there’s local guy and star news anchor Larry Mendte. Make that former anchor star.

Mendte got the ax yesterday from Channel 3. This is all fallout from the gift that keeps on giving for local gossip hounds. That would be Mendte’s former anchor mate, Alycia Lane.

Now both of the former stars are out of work.

Channel 3 says it made the move to fire Mendte, a Lansdowne native who graduated from Monsignor Bonner and West Chester University, after its own investigation.

It appears the station has the goods on Mendte in terms of his alleged access into Lane’s e-mails via a software program that they installed on the computer.

Being out of a job is not Mendte’s only worry. He’s also apparently the focus of an FBI investigation into the matter of who accessed Lane’s private e-mail accounts.

Mendte has not been charged with anything as of yet. His attorney says Mendte is cooperating with the investigation and expects him to resume his broadcasting career.

But it likely won’t be at Channel 3. That gives him something in common with his ex-anchor mate. Lane has now filed suit against the station, saying she was wrongly fired in the wake of a series of incidents that had her in the headlines, as opposed to reading them.

In the suit, she claims at least one of the cause celebres, an appearance with Dr. Phil to discuss her divorce, was actually encouraged by the station. She also has some less than nice things to say about Mendte, who she claims was jealous that she was making more than he was (they both were earning more than $700,000 a year)_and that she was getting the bulk of the credit for the spike in the station’s ratings.

As someone who recently made an appearance on cable TV, and who was aghast at just how bad it made me look (please tell me I don’t look that ancient in person), it’s enough to make me appreciate the anonymity of the newspaper.

Then again, there is that $700,000 salary.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home