Goodness, this didn’t take long – from Vegas Happens Here:
News just broke that R-J publisher Sherm Frederick is stepping down as publisher of the newspaper and as CEO of Stephens Media and Thomas Mitchell is out as editor. And yet, there’s even more to it than that.
Not in their story? Allan B. Fleming, the Review-Journal’s general manager, is also out. And Mitchell is getting a new gig created for him, some sort of senior editorial page editor role…
…An extremely knowledgable source at the paper called this move a “shakeout” and a “head slap” from the top, meaning the owners back in Arkansas. He reminded me that the Stephens family are big Washington D.C. players, with banking interests and other issues to deal with in Congress. They may have supported Republican candidates, but the over-the-top efforts by Sherm Frederick and Thomas Mitchell to support Sharron Angle and unrelentingly beat up on the Senate Majority Leader was exceptional. It was nasty and personal and harmed the reporters’ ability to have their work taken credibly, but even more importantly, if the Stephens clan wanted to make nice with Harry Reid, the only way to do it was to get rid of Frederick and Mitchell…
I wouldn’t classify the R-J’s coverage of Reid as over-the-top; there was a lot of anti-Reid stuff in the editorial page, but the news coverage was pretty much typical, MSM “lets always be nice to Democrats” coverage. Regardless of that, however, the paper was clearly against Reid and for Angle…and Reid is well known in Nevada for getting back at anyone who crosses him. The owners of the R-J are aware of this, and acted accordingly.
As I said before the election – when it looked like Reid would lose – the best thing about a Reid loss would be the ending of a poison in Nevada politics. Reid and his cronies have their claws deep in this State and use it as the merest implement for power and self enrichment. Reid is corrupt and corrupting – and he’s now got Nevada’s largest newspaper to roll over for him, which means there will be even less MSM criticism of his corruption than before.
Now, more than ever, it is important that outside groups look in to the Reid campaign lawbreaking on voter turnout. We know that the Reid campaign and Harrah’s illegally coordinated efforts to get out the vote. In order to expose this – and allow Nevada to breath a bit after Reid has been knocked down – the only path open is House hearings. I do hope that the whole issue of illegal donations and voter fraud is brought up next year – not just with Reid, but if it is done at all, it will help weaken Reid, and strengthen the people of Nevada.
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