
Reporters in Las Vegas Try to Crack Case of Who Owns Their Newspaper - rmason
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/business/media/reporters-in-las-vegas-try-to-crack-case-of-who-owns-their-newspaper.html
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iokevins
Speculation: "Because the newspaper is a prominent platform in a key electoral
state, some wondered whether there could be a political motive behind its
purchase. Some in political and media circles suggested that the casino
magnate and billionaire political backer Sheldon Adelson could be behind the
change in ownership, but representatives for Mr. Adelson did not respond to
emails and calls seeking comment on Monday. (Through a spokesman, the
Republican donors Charles and David Koch publicly denied to Fortune magazine
that they had any role in the purchase.)"

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brudgers
That people wondered is a fact. It is subject to verification.

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iokevins
I'm in complete agreement with your statement--that was my intent; I regret
the confusion. Thanks.

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JVMsOfGor
Making it difficult to determine who owns huge assets is newest craze.
Referenced in a recent HN link [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/us/shell-
company-bel-air-m...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/us/shell-company-bel-
air-mansion.html)

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eli
Another rumor I heard is it's Tony Hsieh. I don't think there's any evidence
for that, but it's at least plausible in the sense that he has a lot of big
investments in Nevada that could perhaps benefit from a friendlier press. See
e.g. [http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/angry-tenants-voice-
co...](http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/angry-tenants-voice-complaints-
about-downtown-container-park)

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tshtf
Sheldon Adelson: [http://fortune.com/2015/12/16/sheldon-adelson-bought-the-
las...](http://fortune.com/2015/12/16/sheldon-adelson-bought-the-las-vegas-
review-tribune/)

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lvspiff
and refuted: [http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/16/media/las-vegas-review-
journ...](http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/16/media/las-vegas-review-journal-
sheldon-adelson/index.html)

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0fx
The article you posted is not a refutation, let alone a convincing one. This
was a bored Sheldon Adelson toying with a reporter in an informal context
while waiting for an event to resume.

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justintocci
> ...said it was difficult to demand transparency from the people and
> institutions the paper reported on when their organization was not being
> forthright itself.

Does anyone else see a contradiction here? By not knowing who the owner is, no
reporter can bias any article for or against the owner. If they never find out
then they'll have the only unbiased publication in history. That should more
than compensate for 'lack of transparency'.

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obstacle1
By not knowing who the owner is, nobody can verify the existence of a pipeline
from friendly editors upwards, whether or not stories need approval from
upwards, whether or not certain stories were commissioned by those upwards,
etc.

Complete transparency or bust, especially in an organization like this.

The issue of individual reporters biasing individual articles is extremely
small potatoes. Unfortunately, it is what most people think of when thinking
'media bias'.

The much more serious issue is larger systemic bias where reporting about
{X1,...,Xn} potentially never even sees the light of day, or is systemically
edited in particular ways, without anyone other than top people knowing why.

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iokevins
Confirmed as Adelson family (son-in-law, and so forth), by the paper itself,
on December 16, 2015 - 1:51pm: [http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-
vegas/adelson-son-law-...](http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-
vegas/adelson-son-law-orchestrated-familys-purchase-las-vegas-review-journal)

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a3n
China? Mark Zuckerberg? Ashton Kutcher?

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archmikhail
Kim Jong Un.

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hellbanner
Please stop submitting useless comments, thanks.

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bigtones
It's not useless - its humor.

