It was just a joke, right?

In the context of the dust-up between the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Sen. Harry Reid, comes these two reminders.

The first is a this from former Nevadan Francis Beckwith, whom many will remember from his days at UNLV.

He posted this to my Facebook page. Thought it might be instructive and add fodder to the debate.

"Nice work, Sherm. When I was writing commentary for NPRI in the late 1990s, Reid forced Reno Air to stop advertising on NPRI's TV show after one of our commentaries blasted Reid. (I was the writer of the commentary, though I do not know who read it on the air). This meant that guests--such as me--could not get free air fare to be a guest on the program.

"Thus, his recent threats are not surprising."

(If you want to be my Facebook "friend" and participate with me in another level of conversation aside from these blogs, please click to me on the "friends" mechanism of Facebook. I post most of my columns there, a few blogs, and a few other things that are special to the Facebook community.)

Secondly, a loyal reader also reminds me of the time Sen. Harry Reid threatened ABC with their license if they didn't make changes to the content of the movie "The Path to 9/11." Harry took issue with the way the Clinton administration was portrayed.