Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Supported by

Former Top RJ Editor Offers Scoop On Adelson, Newsroom Turmoil

Associated Press

As the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s deputy editor, Jim Wright led the team of reporters who unraveled the mystery of the secret purchase of the newspaper by billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s family.

Now six months later, all of the journalists who worked on breaking the news have departed the RJ, including Wright. The 30-year veteran of newspaper journalism is leaving Las Vegas to start a fellowship at the University of Michigan in the fall.

Wright had planned to stay through the primary election, but was unceremoniously let go in a late-night phone call at the beginning of the month, another sign of turmoil at Nevada’s largest newspaper.

"I was pretty much on the bad person's list from the moment that Mr. Adelson took over," he told KNPR's State of Nevada. "It was pretty clear that my future there was very much prescribed. While they didn't fire me out right, which kind of surprised me some days, they certainly excluded me from a lot of things." 

Wright said "there was a gradual diminution" of his authority at the paper. For the fellowship program he is going to, he was supposed to get a leave of absence and a letter of support, but since he knew he wasn't going to be welcomed back at the newspaper, he didn't ask for one. 

Wright said when the current publisher of the Review-Journal, Craig Moon, took over he requested a list and an assessment of the people involved in the effort to expose who bought the newspaper.

However, Wright does not regret the effort to find out who bought the paper. 

"There was never any doubt that we were going to push and prod and probe and fight to report who the owner of the paper was," he said. 

Wright stood by an earlier statement that he believes the Las Vegas Review-Journal is now the public relations arm of the Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corporation.

"That is how Adelson's people view the newspaper," he said, "It is not how the newspaper views itself necessarily."

Wright said Adelson has the right to do what he wants with a newspaper, which is privately owned. However, readers need to understand what is happening. 

"People should know that when there is an issue that is of interest to Sheldon Adelson or the Las Vegas Sands Corporation coverage is being effectively directed to promote those interests or reduce coverage of things that would make them uncomfortable," he said.

He pointed to the debate over the proposed domed stadium as an example where that is happening. He said a story that included a quote critical of the amount of public financing being requested by supporters of the stadium and directly called out Adelson was changed to exclude that quote. 

Wright said whenever there was a story that might get Sheldon Adelson upset or mentioned his name or any member of his family or any of his companies it had to be reviewed by the editor personally. 

If anything was changed, "generally there was no appeal" of that decision, Wright said.

"For me, it was an untenable situation," he said, "I don't do that kind of work... the choice is to accept that or leave and well, I'm leaving."

Jim Wright, former deputy editor, Las Vegas Review-Journal 

Stay Connected
With deep experience in journalism, politics, and the nonprofit sector, news producer Doug Puppel has built strong connections statewide that benefit the Nevada Public Radio audience.