Tony Valdez

Biography

Tony Valdez is a general assignment reporter at KTTV Fox 11 in Los Angeles. He has been at KTTV since 1980. He served as a weekend news anchor from November 1991 to January 1993. Valdez reports for the "L.A.'s Most Wanted" news segment, profiling criminal suspects and missing persons. He hosts "Midday Sunday", a weekly public affairs program which spotlights local and national issues with current headline news and news makers. Valdez has received numerous Emmy, Golden Mike and Los Angeles Press Club awards for his work in broadcasting. Prior to KTTV, Valdez worked as a writer, producer and reporter for KTLA and KCET in Los Angeles. He also worked for La Opinion and Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. He attended Los Angeles City College and California State University Northridge and is also a veteran of the United States Army.

Trzeci Maj

On May 2, 1999, when all other television and radio stations in the Los Angeles area were celebrating Cinco de Mayo, Tony's half hour TV show, Mid-Day Sunday, instead, celebrated Trzeci Maj (A Polish holiday, celebrated on May 3rd). Valdez invited local dancers, the Podhale Polish Folk Dance Company to perform, and talk about their rich Polish culture.

Controversy

On May 1, 2006, during the Day Without an Immigrant, Valdez debated with KFI talk show hosts John and Ken, well known anti-illegal immigration activists, during KTTV's coverage of the event. Valdez started off talking about Manifest Destiny, then criticized the monuments to the Mormon Battalion, saying the battalion "killed a lot of Mexicans", which later proved to be an untrue statement, since the Mormon Battalion killed absolutely no one. Valdez then said, “You took this country. You killed people to take this country for yourselves.” ( [http://hotair.cachefly.net/audio/2006-04/valdez-john-and-ken.mp3 Audio] of Valdez's comments during the conversation).

Following his comments, John and Ken chose Valdez to be another of their "Human Sacrifices", asking their listeners to e-mail TV station, KTTV, saying that they were upset with Valdez for violating journalistic neutrality. Many of John and Ken's listeners even issued death threats to Valdez.Fact|date=September 2008 Other viewers expressed their support of him. KTTV received thousands of e-mails as a result. Hispanic activist Xavier Hermosillo urged supporters of Valdez to write to KTTV in support of Valdez, while some anti-illegal immigration called on KTTV to fire Valdez. Notably, John and Ken did not want Valdez fired, as they believed that Valdez was simply saying out loud what members of the mainstream media felt about the protesters.

It was later reported that Valdez would issue an apology on May 7, 2006, during "Midday Sunday". However, he did not. Rather, the station issued an apology during its evening newscast on May 4. Three listeners of John and Ken invited to debate Valdez on the "Midday Sunday" show about the issue were instead asked to discuss general issues of illegal immigration, without the focus on Valdez's comments. [http://www.kfi640.com/cc-common/podcast/request_song.php?enclosure_url=http%3A%2F%2Fa1135.g.akamai.net%2Ff%2F1135%2F18227%2F1h%2Fcchannel.download.akamai.com%2F18227%2Fpodcast%2FLOSANGELES-CA%2FKFI-AM%2FJK6P050806.mp3] In addition, Valdez will not be assigned stories covering immigration for the foreseeable future.

As of September 21, 2006, according to LAObserved.com, Fox 11's senior Latino reporter's contract had been renewed. Although targeted by KFI's 'John and Ken,' Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa whom 'John and Ken' brand him as "Reconquista" defended Valdez and blasted the AM shouters as 'divisive.'"