Report Claims That Big Political Funder Sheldon Adelson Is The 'Anonymous' Owner Of Las Vegas Newspaper
from the well,-that's-a-fun-one dept
Earlier this week, we wrote about the truly bizarre situation in which the Las Vegas Review Journal -- the largest newspaper in Nevada -- had been purchased for $140 million... and no one knew who the owner was. For fairly obvious reasons, this started to make a lot of people uncomfortable -- including the reporters for the NVRJ. Suspicion quickly focused on big time political funders, with some noting that Nevada is an early primary state, and may play a key role in the presidential election. The Koch brothers, who are big time funders of candidates flat out denied it, leading to more intense scrutiny on the other key guess: Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a key funder of Mitt Romney in the last election.Now, Dan Primack at Fortune is claiming that Adelson did, in fact purchase the paper, using the newly formed News + Media Capital Group LLC as a shell to try (apparently not very well) to hide that fact:
For nearly a week, the media and political worlds have been wondering who paid $140 million to purchase Nevada’s largest daily newspaper, The Las Vegas Review-Journal. The primary buyer had taken great pains to remain anonymous, but Fortune has learned from multiple sources familiar with the situation that it is Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.The LVRJ itself had been investigating the issue and provided a bunch of supporting evidence for why Adelson was the likely buyer.
The Fortune report wonders if Adelson really only wanted to keep it secret until after last night's debate -- which he hosted -- had passed. Though that doesn't really make much sense. Either way, by trying to be secretive about it, the only end result is putting that much more attention on the fact that he's the buyer. If the idea was to subtly influence viewpoints, that may have backfired.
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Filed Under: funding, journalism, las vegas review journal, newspaper, sheldon adelson
Companies: las vegas review journal, lvrj, news + media capital group
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Though I have to admit they might not be any worse than what we've got now.
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Not Plausible
It seems more plausible that Adelson saw an investment opportunity and didn't want to upset the status quo, knowing that a large number of employees might find his political views disagreeable.
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Re: Not Plausible
A. Impossible
B. Going to draw more attention
C. Look really shady
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Re: Not Plausible
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Re: Re: Not Plausible
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If he really is the new owner... EEK.
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Schadenfreude
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Disgusting
I come to Techdirt to read tech news, not reprints of Stormfront conspiracy theories/
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Re: Disgusting
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