Column on Reid sparking response
The headlines say no one reads newspapers, but the flap between Sen. Harry Reid and the Las Vegas Review-Journal tells a different story.
More than 4,700 readers from across the nation posted online comments to the Sunday column by Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick, who alleged Reid threatened the paper by wishing it would go out of business.
The piece also quickly generated about 75 letters to the editor and coverage by the New York Times, Politico, CNN, Fox News and other news organizations.
In the column, Frederick responded to comments Reid made to Bob Brown, the newspaper's advertising director, before a Chamber of Commerce lunch Wednesday at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas.
"I hope you go out of business," was how Brown recounted the comments to Frederick, who responded in his weekly column.
Frederick characterized Reid's statement as "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."
The column circulated on the Internet Sunday and, following a link by the Drudge Report, led to a frenzy of news coverage and more reader responses on Monday.
"Just when I gave up on the printed media a gutsy paper stands up to a bully from Washington. Whether Republican or Democrat, these pompous thugs need to be thrown out," wrote one responder identified as Edward.
Other online comments said that Frederick blew Reid's remark out of proportion, and they criticized the newspaper.
"His statement does not seem like a threat at all," wrote one person identified as Arthritis. "If your publication makes these broad inferences with no evidence, perhaps it should go out of business."
Reid spokesman Jon Summers said the flap was overblown.
"Clearly he wasn't serious," Summers said. "Once again, the editors at the Review-Journal got it wrong."
Reid and the Review-Journal have had a mixed relationship. The paper endorsed Reid in 2004, but in 1998, it endorsed his Republican opponent, then-Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev.
Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.
