Anchors Away: Philadelphia News Anchor Charged with Hacking Co-Anchor’s Email
[Ed. note: This post is by MARIN, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the “reality blogging” competition that will determine ATL’s next editor. It is marked with Marin’s avatar (at right).]
If you’ve ever secretly read somebody else’s email 537 times, turns out you’re not alone. Larry Mendte, former CBS3 Philadelphia news anchor and Botox enthusiast, allegedly hacked into his former co-anchor Alycia Lane’s personal email accounts 537 times since January 2008 and leaked the contents of some of those emails to the press, according to the criminal information filed last Monday. What makes this case interesting is not the charge itself (one felony count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization; Mendte is expected to plead guilty on August 22), but the fact that this case appears to confirm that there are real-life Ron Burgundys among us: vain, jealous and 100% ridiculous.
According to Lane’s attorneys, Mendte, insanely envious of Lane’s 8.7% higher salary (Lane supposedly made $780,000, Mendte about $100,000 less), embarked on a campaign to sabotage her career by installing keylogger programs to obtain Lane’s passwords, which he then used to compulsively check Lane’s emails from work. And home. And vacation. And his country club. Lane unwittingly assisted Mendte in his plot to undermine her by sending pictures of herself in a bikini to married NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen, which were intercepted by Eisen’s wife. It is believed that Mendte leaked the correspondence to the press, including the wife’s classic response:
Boy, do you look amazing in a bikini … congrats! Whatever you’re doing, (Pilates? yoga?) keep doing it - it’s working for you. Anyway, sorry but those seven e-mails you sent to my husband, Rich, well, oops, they came to the e-mail address we both use from time to time, but no worries, I’ll forward the beach shots as well as the ones of you dancing with your friends on to his main address. Do you have it?
Mendte also allegedly leaked certain privileged communications between Lane and her lawyer concerning that one time when she allegedly assaulted a police officer and accidentally called her a “dyke b*tch.” Stay classy, Philadelphia.
Evidently Mendte was so busy hacking into email, subverting attorney-client privilege and leaking private information to the press that he failed to consider that his lower salary was merited. It takes more than a Cheshire grin and a plastic face to succeed as a news anchor, and unfortunately for Mendte, his spray tan could not mask his complete ineptitude as an investigative journalist.
U.S. v. Lawrence Mendte [pdf]
Philly ex-TV anchor charged with e-mail snooping [Associated Press]
Bikini E-mails Rattle TV Wife; Alycia Lane Arrested, Punches Cop [NY Post]
(111) Comments
Comments
First.
Bad.
Nice.
Marin > Sophist
Alex > the field
Pretty good. Better than Sophist. Please ditch the creepy Michael Jackson pic.
This "substantive/serious" entry is more entertaining than Sophist's and his was supposed to be the humorous one.
Post those bikini photos and the job is yours.
A good post, but I can barely stand to look at it because of the MJ pic. The thought of having to look at that thing for another week, much less on a regular basis would make me vote against you by itself.
Bring on the flood of "Philly = TTT" and "UPenn State Law School" troll comments.
Potential... not quite there yet, though.
If I was not completely offended by the criticism of residents of Philadelphia, I may have found this piece mildly entertaining. Oh well, back to work.
Wait, you make $780,000 as an anchor in Philly. Holy shit! Each day I'm reminded of how I chose poorly by going into law.
How is a $780,000 salary only 8.7% higher than a $680,000 salary?
8: Penn State is not in Philly. HTH.
11:
My thoughts exactly. And, this is much better than Sophist's post.
Yo, baby, Marin
So check it out, dawg
Marin
So check it out, man
I hated
Check it out
Did not like the arrangement
I liked it .. definitely better than Sophist .. just a little too long and I can't help confusing you with a gender/race confused creep
Please post a photo of your dog. Kthanxbae.
Pretty good, Marin.
(And I agree with the other comments about the creepy avatar. Please ditch it.)
I think he got confused...$680,000 is 87.2% of $780,000.
Ok, this story's a little stale (old), but the quote from the wife of Rich Eisen was pure gold and was completely new to me (possibly saving the post). Should have ended the post one paragraph sooner, though. Brevity is the soul . . .
B-
good song choice, and it's easy to look good following sophist. alex is still the favorite, but marin > sophist.
I would deduct points for the fact that this story has been on lots of blogs, with the same Ron Burgundy comparison made. Also, Marin weirdly downplays how bat-shit crazy Lane is, omitting the fact that she was fired over the bikini and dyke incidents.
Pretty good. Your creepy avatar is hurting you, though. Change it to something that looks less offensive.
"It takes more than a Cheshire grin and a plastic face to succeed as a news anchor"
What is the "more," boobs? Lane is at least as big an asshole as Mendte and probably bigger. You've toned down her history quite a bit. There are a lot of other reasons she's no longer working in Philly. Good bloggers don't pick predictable sides and root sub rosa. Your not in feminista land anymore.
Rich Eisen's wife sounds *awesome.* Way to play it cool.
Definitely B- material: brief, entertaining (to the point of not being fair if the finalists were assigned their topics), little weak in a few departments (e.g.., math), but a good post with some potential.
each time I see a UPenn St- Philly campus flame i sigh and hope its the last... but then #13 comes around and makes it funny all over again.
I don't know who's worse: the trolls who post that crap, the tards that feed the trolls, or me for getting such a kick out of it every time.
Anyway, I think the post was actually ok. It was mean, concentrating too much on ripping the two apart for being news anchor TTTrash, but that isn't the worst criticism in the world. With a little refinement, we may find the balance of caddy and informative that we are searching for. Looking forward to the next post...
Please change the avatar. I almost did not read the post because I had a hard time looking at that picture of MJ.
"Lane unwittingly assisted Mendte in his plot to undermine her by sending pictures of herself in a bikini to married NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen, which were intercepted by Eisen's wife."
Clunky.
Marlin = WACKO FOR JACKO
White Boys With MJ
How did Marin miss the chance to post a bikini shot? Kash never would have let that opportunity slip by.
stopped reading at the shiTTTy math... 780,000/680,000 > 1.087... I was captivated by Ms. Lane's picture for a moment though.
Check your facts next time:
1. The Union League is not a country club in that it is located in the middle of Center City (it stood in as the Heritage Club in Trading Places).
2. Thanks for the "stay classy" remark. Too bad Alycia is from New York, which is also where the incident took place.
yes yes i remember when the eisen story broke. i further remember her response = priceless!!
marin - not bad, but the jackson pic is creepy. but hey maybe thats a good thing.
also post those bikini shots of the hottie and you got the job. just make sure that the crazy b*itch does not find you or for that matter her crazy buddy - booker.
bottom line on this slut is that she's from phili (ttt) and was trying to be ny tough. lesson to all: if your not from ny then just be yourself cause you cannot become a ny'er. even when we are tough there is a certain ny way to go with it
well written and good incorporation of quotes (i.e. Eisen's wife's response)
3:32(2), see 3:32(1).
Given this is a legal blog, why no mention of any of the lawyers or firms involved in representing Lane or Mendte?
With this post, Marin has moved up in my book (not hard after I read her bio and a few posts on her personal blog). Still, it had some flaws. The writing was solid (not outstanding, but pretty good). But you could have done more with this wealth of material. Unlike most commenters, I would've recommended a longer post (with the details "after the jump
27: How am I trolling? Penn State is NOT in Philadelphia.
-13
Agree. I read this story with the Rob Burgundy reference on other blogs. Thumbs down to the unoriginal plagiarist.
this baffoon was sophisticaed enough to install loggers but not to snoop anonymously?
3:36 - exactly my point. 3:32(1) is wrong on that she is not from ny, however, the incident ocurred here.
I thought it was pretty good, and overall better than Sophist.
Yes, this news story has been all over the web, but I make allowances for the fact that the contestants are not running this site full time and may not have time to dig up original material while holding down their regular jobs. (Heck, people always complained that some of Lat's material had been posted earlier on the WSJ legal blog or whatever). This was a good treatment of the psycho-anchor story, and the quote from the wife was handled very well.
The MJ avatar is really annoying. Contestants should be allowed to change avatars once, just to spare us from having to look at this exceptionally creepy picture of a creepy man.
Penn State's Warden school is in Philly. That must be what 8 is talking about.
Marin beats Sophist.
This is still a little too long.
MJ mug shot MUST CHANGE.
Ron Burgundy reference is nice, but I didn't need it explained. That's the point of referencing it.
short. fairly well written. sex angles. criminal angles. media angles. i wanted to not like marin, but let's face it, she hit the trifecta and just about nailed her audition.
13/40- you weren't trolling. #8 was trolling, and you fed the troll cuz you don't get it.
-27
How in the world can uber-dork Rich Eisen almost score a piece of ass like that? Of course uber-dork blew it by sharing a freaking e-mail account with his wife. Bat-shit crazy or not, I would hit that in a heartbeat.
and actually, I apologize to #8, who wasn't trolling, but rather making fun of the trolls who post that stuff. And you, #13, you fed it ANYWAY. Ha!
-27
45: WRONG twice.
1. WHARTON is Penn's business school; it has nothing to do with Penn State.
2. Wharton is not located in Philly.
-13/40
Better than Sophist.
Still stale as hell though. Could we get something from, say, this week.
What's with the gratuitous use of "allegedly"?
I'm pretty sure that 3:36, which cross-references 3:32(1), elucidates the meaning of 3:32(2), particularly given that all parts of the statute normally must be read in pari materia.
Meanwhile, we can look forward to an insightful discussion of whether 8, 13, 27, 40, and 48 are or are not crazy trolls, who were or were not trolling, and are or are not being fed.
Is SUNY-Cornell where people go if they cannot get into UPenn State?
It was good. You had some pitch problems, but overall I liked it.
Um, 51, not to feed the trolls or whatever, but Wharton is indeed located in Philly, just a few blocks from UPenn's law school and undergrad. Look it up.
sweet 53, I look forward to that. Maybe someone can answer me how UPenn St can be ranked twice by US News. So confusing.
I wanted to go to Penn for the in-state tuition but I could not get in.
Pretty good. Change the avatar, though.
Um, 51, not to feed the trolls or whatever, but Wharton is indeed located in Philly, just a few blocks from UPenn's law school and undergrad. Look it up.
"former CBS3 Philadelphia news anchor and Botox enthusiast" Love it.
Sub-par. Marin loses. This story was old news last week. It's a post about local news anchors that only happens to deal with lawyers, via the attorney-client privilege issue. Nonetheless, lawyers are not central to it.
Vote No for Marin, ATL does not need a hacky wannabe stand up comedian.
a quick GIS for the pics brings up some really bad photoshops
FYI -- the bikini pics have not been released to the public.
Good job Marin, you have my vote
too old to matter
Good job Marin, you have my vote
I remember that jackass. 20 years ago he was the weekend weather guy in San Diego. He did some career day thing at my high school and one of my friends asked about a career in meteorology and he said something like "I'm not a meteorologist, I'm a weather man."
Enjoy prison. They love pretty boys in the pen.
Something tells me that Mendte has retained those pics for his own private use.
I preferred Sophist's story. This one was boring and I learned nothing that I hadn't read before.
64, I think the commenters meant that if it were Kash writing this, they would have asked Kash to post some bikini shots of herself. Which is completely irrelevant to the story, but thats how it works around here.
64, I think the commenters meant that if it were Kash writing this, they would have asked Kash to post some bikini shots of herself. Which is completely irrelevant to the story, but thats how it works around here.
Good, better than sophist or alex
ATL is going to suck if the only 'news' they publish is stuff you've read on every other site already... boo marin
ATL is going to suck if the only 'news' they publish is stuff you've read on every other site already... boo marin
ATL is going to suck if the only 'news' they publish is stuff you've read on every other site already... boo marin
Outstanding post! (And I am an early Marin basher.)
On merit, Marin is WAY out in front.
Weak law angle (on ALT we would expect one of the protagonists to be an attorney, not a news anchor), but great post!
Nailed it!
How long do you have to live in PA to get in state tuition at UPENN? I assume in state it is the same price as the other state schools right?
13 / 40 / 51 - You are not a troll, you are one of the retards that feeds the trolls.
UPenn State Law (i.e., US News #7), is indeed in Philly
-Trolly McTrollerson
Nicely done....nicely done.
Good, better than sophist or alex
The writing is clunky and difficult to read in parts. If this post had been snappier it could have been a clear winner.
3:42: 3:32(1) here.
She's from Long Island: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alycia_Lane
51 (aka 13 and 40) correcting 45 has to be one of the funniest/saddest exchanges I've read in a while.
Does anyone here think that UPENN would even have a legitimate football program if it were not for Joe Paterno?
As I said, I liked the post.
As another commenter pointed out, the post could have been better (as it turns out MUCH better) by linking with one of the actual emailed pics of Lane in a bikini:
http://www.ideagrove.com/blog/uploaded_images/alycialanebikini-704108.jpg
Today's winner.
this was a really good post.
i liked it.
old news
Marin is good at quips.
Okay, I admit my mistake on the location of Wharton (I thought it was in Happy Valley), but I was correct that it is unaffiliated with Penn State.
-13/40/51
Marin easily over the others and that's what she said.
91 - Um, actually that's not true either. Wharton became part of the Penn State system back when Penn State acquired its Philly campus.
93: False. The lone undergraduate Penn State campus near Philadelphia is in Abington; only Penn State's law school is actually in Philadelphia.
-13/40/51/91
I thought it was the Warden school at UPennState. Or is that at the Carlisle campus?
Okay, I think I am understanding this troll thing, and I apologize for triggering it. I am a Penn State grad, and just wanted to set the record straight; I didn't realize this was a running joke....
Penn State and Penn are both great schools.
-13/40/51/91/94
Doens't UPennState have three law schools?
Larry Mendte's success as an anchorman has always perplexed me. He does not come off as particularly handsome, charming, or intelligent.
Great post - it gets my vote.
This is by far the best.
And don't hate on the MJ avatar, it is one of the most famous and absurd criminal mugshots of all time! This is a legal tabloid, no?? What does a catwoman or a constipated mouse have to do w/ the law?
96-
Welcome.
juicy stuff!
Hilarious, great incorporation of the wife's email. You stay classy, Marin. You've got my vote for sure.
Far superior than the other contenders' posts.
Go Marin Go!
I was unpersuaded by the bio, but this is the winning post.
If the others win the blog will be unreadable.
Far superior than the other contenders' posts.
Go Marin Go!
I was unpersuaded by the bio, but this is the winning post.
If the others win the blog will be unreadable.
FIRST to say that I would bang that lady anchor chick so hard she wouldn't be able to pee straight for a week.
I've read all the posts. Marin wins the day!
Congrats!
Lame. Plus she writes like shit.
Well written and funny. Good stuff.
Best writer so far, but ditch the avatar. MJ just isn't funny anymore.
Sophist's post was better. Plain and simple.