The publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal Sherman Frederick sent a sharp message to the senior Democratic senator from Nevada Harry Reid yesterday, after the Senator reportedly told the paper’s Director of Advertising Bob Brown, that he hoped the Review-Journal would “go out of business.” How sweet of Mr. Reid to be thinking of potential unemployment in his home state. Senator Reid should know better than to say such things. He is down in the polls against two possible GOP challengers, and supporters of Mr. Reid’s, from the National Education Association, cannot even release a radio ad where “Nevada” is pronounced correctly. The Review-Journal’s Mr. Frederick hit back hard:
No citizen should expect this kind of behavior from a U.S. senator. It is certainly not becoming of a man who is the majority leader in the U.S. Senate. And it absolutely is not what anyone would expect from a man who now asks Nevadans to send him back to the Senate for a fifth term.
If he thinks he can push the state’s largest newspaper around by exacting some kind of economic punishment in retaliation for not seeing eye to eye with him on matters of politics, I can only imagine how he pressures businesses and individuals who don’t have the wherewithal of the Review-Journal.
For the sake of all who live and work in Nevada, we can’t let this bully behavior pass without calling out Sen. Reid. If he’ll try it with the Review-Journal, you can bet that he’s tried it with others. So today, we serve notice on Sen. Reid that this creepy tactic will not be tolerated.
We won’t allow you to bully us. And if you try it with anyone else, count on going through us first.
That’s a promise, not a threat.
And it’s a promise to our readers, not to you, Sen. Reid.
The Washington Times contacted Senator Reid’s office, but a spokesman has yet to give a response.
