Good newspaper ownership

For many years the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the largest newspaper in Nevada, had locked horns with Sen. Harry Reid as he rose from an obscure member of the House of Representatives to the U.S. Senate and finally to become the Senate Majority Leader.

As the publisher of the newspaper during that time, I interacted with Sen. Reid on many occasions. He wanted the newspaper to see things his way and to give him more credit for his rise to power. As those who were here at the time, Harry was never very popular in Nevada I think due in part to his standoff-ish personality. When he came up for re-election it was always a crap-shoot. Luckily for him, Republicans had a knack of choosing piss-poor candidates to oppose him in the general election. 

I told Harry repeatedly that we’d always treat him fairly in news stories. But, on the opinion pages he’d continue to get criticism because he advanced policy we did not think was in the best interest of Nevadans.

Harry always had a bit of a mean streak in him. He never took “no” lightly, especially the bigger and more powerful he got nationally.

It is in this context that Arkansas U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor called for a meeting with Stephens, Inc. — the Little Rock investment bank that had bought the Las Vegas Review-Journal when they acquired the Donrey Media Group and later re-named it the Stephens Media Group.

Sen. Pryor proceeded to tell executives at Stephens that the company’s business interests were under threat by Harry Reid because of the way the Review-Journal treated him. Pryor laid out specific plans that Sen. Reid had in mind to target other business interests of the investment bank.

As it was told to me, Stephens execs listened to Sen. Pryor, followed by a period of silence.

Then, Sen. Pryor was thanked for delivering the Harry Reid threat. As the U.S. newly elected senator from Arkansas they were sure he always looked to protect Arkansas businesses. 

“So, should we both go to the FBI and report this extortion attempt,” Pryor was asked.

Boom.

Caught in a Harry Reid power play, Sen. Pryor left the meeting no doubt hoping none of it was recorded.

Now, to be clear, I wasn’t in the room for this. This story was told to me later.

All I can add with first-hand certainty is that neither Warren Stephens, whom I met with regularly, nor anyone else at Stephens, relayed any kind of “back-off” message to me.

“Keep doing what you’re doing,” was the consistent guidance from ownership.

And that, ladies and gentlemen of the press, is what good newspaper ownership looks like.

(As a sidebar, it should be noted that Pryor ran for re-election in 2014, but was defeated by Republican Tom Cotton. Stephens supported Cotton.)

ONE MORE THING

Thanks for reading. Until next time, remember to laugh a little, avoid soreheads and always question authority. You can see more Properly Subversive on Substack – https://shermanfrederick.substack.com/.