A challenge to Sheldon Adelson

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper, is now owned by Sheldon Adelson, who controls Las Vegas Sands Corp., owner of the Venetian and Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip as well as major casinos elsewhere in the United States and in Asia.

Adelson is a major donor and therefore influence in Republican politics. In the last presidential election cycle, he backed Newt Gingrich for the GOP nomination. He is a strong supporter of Israel and in particular its current conservative government. He owns a newspaper in that country.

Locally, he has been known for his battles with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau, which he regards as a competitor for his convention business that unfairly enjoys the advantage of access to tax revenue. Adelson has opposed organization of workers in his Las Vegas hotels by the Culinary Union, which represents employees at most other Strip properties.

He is also known for his litigiousness, having sued among other people R-J columnist John L. Smith, driving him into bankrupcy.

Adelson says, laughably, that he bought the R-J for $140 million as a business investment. His pledge that he will not interfere with thepaper's editorial operations must be viewed with skeptcisim. The R-J itself just reported on a mysterious review of the perfomance of three Clark County (Las Vegas) judges, one of whom is hearing a major case involiving Adelson, that was ordered by the former owner of the paper but may have been done at the behest of the soon-to-be owner.

It has been noted that the R-J is already a conservative, libertarian-leaning newspaper in line with Adelson's political orientation. That is true of the paper's opinion pages. But the potential problems concern the paper's newsgathering function. The independence of the paper's reporters and editors is threatened not only by Adelson's political involvements, but also by his business interests.

Las Vegas Sands is a major player in a major industry that affects the Las Vegas economy but also the economies of cities and regions throughout the country. The R-J has been a major source of news coverage of that industry. Imagine the challenges the Detroit Free Press would face if the Ford family bought that newspaper. That's about the same situation with a different industry in Las Vegas.

The big problem in judging a newspaper's performance is what then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called "unknown unknowns." Many of the biggest shortcomings in news coverage involve not what is covered, but in what doesn't appear in the paper at all. Unbalanced or inaccurate coverage is relatively easy to spot; more difficult is imaging what the paper should be covering that it isn't. Yes, there are competing media in the Las Vegas market, but none with the resources and reach of the Review-Journal.

If Adelson is to gain the confidence of the community in spite of the obvious potential for conflicts of interest, he must not only assure the indepence of the R-J's news operation, he must appoint an indendent ombudsman and give that person absolute independence to investigate, report and comment not only on readers' issues and complaints, but also on the paper's internal operations and the news judgment of its editors.

A second thing he could do is to create a position that the general interest Las Vegas media have always needed and never really had -- that of a consunmer-oriented gaming columnist/critic, someone with the expertise to give competent advice, answer reader questions, analyze industry trends affecting gamblers and investigate possible abuses in the industry.

If Adelson can't tolerate an indendent staff, his paper will lack credibility and therefore any value to the community. Eventually the community will reject it and his "investment" will fail.

I hope Adelson rises to the occasion, but I have to say I'll be surprised if he does. The best outcome for the community probably will be if Adelson decides the hassles of owning the paper aren't worth the trouble, and sells it to someone or some company legitimately in the news business.