On the heels of successive scoops that identified and raised ethical questions about its new owners, The Las Vegas Review Journal on Sunday took the bold step of publishing a front-page editorial reaffirming its commitment to transparency.
Titled “We will continue to fight for your trust every day,” the editorial was splashed above the fold of the Review-Journal’s latest edition, underneath a large, bold headline. Running nearly 1,000 words, it promised the newspaper’s staff would “disclose, disclose, disclose” any potential conflicts of interest arising from ownership by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson:
You can be assured that if the Adelsons attempt to skew coverage, by ordering some stories covered and others killed or watered down, the Review-Journal’s editors and reporters will fight it. How can you be sure? One way is to look at how we covered the secrecy surrounding the newspaper’s sale. We dug in. We refused to stand down. We will fight for your trust. Every. Single. Day. Even if our former owners and current operators don’t want us to.
The editorial is a response to a sequence of events that began earlier in December, when GateHouse Media sold the Review-Journal to a mysterious buyer for $140 million. The anonymous nature of the transaction prompted protests by journalists at the Review-Journal, who contended that the paper’s shadowy ownership jeopardized the newsroom’s commitment to transparency.
Sleuthing by reporters from the Review-Journal and elsewhere revealed that Adelson’s family orchestrated the purchase of the paper. A subsequent story offered strong circumstantial evidence that Review-Journal reporters were instructed by their corporate bosses to snoop on a judge critical of Adelson.
Now, it appears, the Review-Journal is making clear that Adelson’s ownership of the paper will not deter its journalists from covering the GOP mega-donor’s casino businesses or political interests:
We believe in this community and want to help make Las Vegas an even greater place to live. We believe deeply that a strong and effective daily newspaper plays a critical role in keeping our state apprised of the important news and issues we face on a daily basis.”
We’ll do everything we can to preserve our newsroom’s independence — and hold the Adelsons to their word.
The Las Vegas-Review Journal is not the first newspaper in recent weeks to take the unusual step of ceding its front-page real estate to an editorial. In the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California earlier this month, The New York Times published an A1 editorial that demanded lawmakers help “end the gun epidemic in America.”
