It is very easy to say this with a straight face: For at least six out of the eight years of the Bush presidency, the media was less than friendly with the president. In fact, some could say the press was overtly hostile to the Bush Administration.Yet, in all those years of the blood sport that became known as 'Bush Bashing' never did the former president say to one of those who were critical of him: 'I hope you go out of business.'
Yet, that is what Senate Majority Harry Reid allegedly told the Director of Advertising of the Las Vegas Review-Journal last Wednesday at a Chamber of Commerce meeting.
Then, later, according to the Review-Journal, Reid said he wanted to let everyone know that he wants the Review-Journal to continue selling advertising because the Las Vegas Sun is delivered inside the Review-Journal.
These two remarks prompted a scathing rebuke from the publisher of the Review-Journal wrote:
This newspaper traces its roots to before Las Vegas was Las Vegas.
We've seen cattle ranches give way to railroads. We chronicled the construction of Hoover Dam. We reported on the first day of legalized gambling. The first hospital. The first school. The first church. We survived the mob, Howard Hughes, the Great Depression, several recessions, two world wars, dozens of news competitors and any number of two-bit politicians who couldn't stand scrutiny, much less criticism.
We're still here doing what we do for the people of Las Vegas and Nevada. So, let me assure you, if we weathered all of that, we can damn sure outlast the bully threats of Sen. Harry Reid.
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Such behavior cannot go unchallenged.
You could call Reid's remark ugly and be right. It certainly was boorish. Asinine? That goes without saying.
But to fully capture the magnitude of Reid's remark (and to stop him from doing the same thing to others) it must be called what it was -- a full-on threat perpetrated by a bully who has forgotten that he was elected to office to protect Nevadans, not sound like he's shaking them down.
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.
Clearly, the Las Vegas Review-Journal understands the how to handle a school-yard bully like Harry Reid.
Thank you for standing up to this bully.
ReplyDeleteIf ever there were an example of someone corrupted by being kept too long in a powerful position it is Harry Heid.
I only hope that such does not go unpunished. I add my encouragement to the fine citizens of Nevada to 'throw the bum out' at their next opportunity to do so.