WPIX reporter Larry Mendte returned from Libya last week after a hectic trip to the country’s capital with U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon, and now some are questioning the wisdom of the mission as Weldon’s planned meeting with Muammar Qaddafi never materialized.

“This is a station that fires people left and right, and they’ll pay for a Libya trip,” a WPIX insider complained to the New York Post recently.

This morning the Post published a takedown of WPIX, which is currently trailing far behind its rival WNYW in the ratings, and wondered if Mendte’s trip to Libya was less about bolstering the station’s hard news identity and more about repairing the image of the troubled reporter, who is in the midst of a messy legal battle with his former KYW co-anchor Alycia Lane: Read more

As the legal battle between former KYW co-anchors Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane drags on, one Philadelphia journalist is saying that she’s fed up with the negative public image that Lane has presented of female journalists.

Morgan Zalot writes in The Philly Post:

I’m certain that Lane wasn’t the first bright-eyed, shiny-haired, perfectly built female reporter to let her fame and ego get the best of her, and I’m certain she won’t be the last. But her misadventures continue to bring us-—at least in my eyes, as a young female journalist—-steps back. And if you read her story and believe any part of it, you can see that, while it may have been a sad one at one point—-a young reporter-starlet letting the limelight get in the way of her real career—-it’s hard to argue that she was the victim in everything.

So what do you think? Is Lane giving female journalists a bad name? Sound off in the comments section below…

Larry Mendte, who has been working as a contributor for WPIX, is currently in Libya, covering U.S. congressman Curt Weldon‘s discussions with Muammar Qaddafi and hoping to potentially land an interview.

Mendte, along with WPIX photographer John Frasse, recently traveled to Tripoli with Weldon, a Republican representative from Pennsylvania, and has provided exclusive coverage of the diplomatic engagement for the New York CW-affiliate.

“Today’s dawn could bring new hope for an end to the crisis in Libya,” Mendte said on Tuesday, reporting live from Tripoli, “that’s because in a strange twist to this saga, the leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi has reached out to an American he has dealt with in the past” (video above).

So how did this “strange twist,” as well as Mendte’s seemingly unlikely coverage of it, come about? Read more

Amid the tawdry details of Alycia Lane‘s tryst with Larry Mendte brought to light in their current legal battle is one detail that is especially jaw-dropping: Lane’s salary.

According to court documents, reviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Lane told Mendte’s lawyer that she made $780,000 in 2007, while working as a marquee anchor for Philadelphia’s KYW.

“How much money were you making in 2007?” Mendte’s lawyer asked Lane during her deposition. “2007, I was making $780,000.”

The figure is especially significant since Lane’s rising salary has been mentioned as a motivation for Mendte hacking into her e-mail account between 2006 and 2008. At the time, Mendte was making roughly $700,000 a year.

CW-affiliate WPIX took home the most Emmys of any New York station this weekend, winning 10. The award tally, which included wins in the Continuing Coverage, Technical Achievement, and multiple Promotion categories, is a bright spot for a station that was toppled in the February sweeps and has been struggling to remake its image in the market.

WPIX’s wins were especially good news for Larry Mendte, who won for On-Camera Talent and Writer for his commentary franchise just as new details emerged in his embarrassing legal battle with his former KYW co-anchor Alycia Lane.

Also celebrating wins at New York’s Emmy ceremony were WNBC with eight, including Evening Newscast (under 35 minutes); WCBS with seven, including On-Camera Talent awards for anchor Chris Wragge and meteorologist Lonnie Quinn; WABC with five; and Fox O&O WNYW with 4. Read more

It’s a classic case of He Said, She Said in the lawsuit involving former KYW anchors Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane.

In new details from the case published today by the New York Post, the two veteran anchors characterize their much-publicized tryst very differently.

In the court proceedings, Mendte, who now works as a contributer for New York’s WPIX, described having a passionate relationship with Lane in which she would text him the numbers “1-4-3,” code for “I love you,” during their newscasts, and the two could hardly keep their hands off each other outside of work.

Lane, on the other hand, has provided a much different description of their interactions, even going so far as to call Mendte “a sociopathic narcissist.” On one occasion, according to Lane, Mendte gave her a toy frog dressed as a prince because “he knew I didn’t find him attractive.” Lane’s reaction to the gift? “I tossed [it] out promptly because [it] creeped me out.”

In a candid new piece for Philadelphia magazine, Larry Mendte opens up about the scandal that derailed his career and how he’s now attempting to rebuild his life.

Although Mendte is trying to move past the Alycia Lane email debacle, it’s clear that the treatment he received from colleagues following the incident still stings:

WIP’s Howard Eskin, who must have forgotten his own highly publicized e-mail scandal that ended when a woman with whom he chatted online was murdered by her jealous husband, went out of his way to criticize me. Fox 29’s John Bolaris coordinated news coverage of my case while my wife Dawn, his colleague, was sitting right next to him on the anchor set.

Mendte also opens up about the movie and book offers that came rolling in as entertainment attorneys and literary agents tried to capitalize on the tawdry story: Read more

Former KYW anchor Alycia Lane is expected to be in Philadelphia on Thursday to begin a two-day deposition in her civil lawsuit against CBS.

Lane, who is now with LA’s KNBC, is suing CBS for breaching an employment agreement and defamation in connection with her very public dismissal from CBS O&O KYW.

Lane was scheduled to give a deposition earlier this month, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, but the appointment was canceled because Lane’s attorney had a scheduling conflict. Following the cancellation, CBS lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case.

“There’s absolutely no civility from CBS,” said Paul Rosen, Lane’s attorney, adding that she has “been begging to have the testimony come out.”