Via Politico, the latest from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where right-wing plutocrat Sheldon Adelson installed former Arkansas Gazette publisher Craig Moon as his lackey, part of an ongoing effort to utterly destroy the paper and turn in to a mouthpiece for Adelson: 

After a brief spell of normalcy seemed to return to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, all bets are now off.

A new publisher has appeared overnight at the paper, a new editor will be installed as soon as Friday, and, sources tell me, stories involving new owner Sheldon Adelson are being reviewed, changed or killed almost daily.

Further, the newsroom is abuzz with word of a list of a half a dozen or so journalists whose work has rubbed Adelson the wrong way over the years, and who may soon be targeted for departure in what one insider describes as a “house-cleaning.”

On Moon’s shenanigans: 

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Longtime Gannett executive Craig Moon, announced as publisher on Thursday, has quickly moved to reverse both business decisions and prominent editorial moves recently implemented, some of them with public fanfare, that aimed to protect the integrity of the newsroom’s news report. … 

On his first day on the job, Moon had those principles [regarding how the paper would cover its new owner, often in the news in Las Vegas] removed from regular publication. Within five hours, the immediate inherent conflicts of Adelson ownership made themselves highly apparent. The Review-Journal reported that Adelson had met with the ownership of Oakland Raiders football team, hoping to lure them to Las Vegas and into a new “public/private”-funded $1 billion domed stadium.

The new publisher has reviewed each stadium story since, and the stories have seen numerous Moon-directed edits, several sources confirm. Those edits include removing key points of fact on what may turn out to become a $600 million-plus public investment in a football stadium. At least one stadium story was killed, as well, my sources confirm.

It doesn’t make sense to describe Craig Moon’s disgraceful work here as “newspaper publisher” at all. He’s simply an errand boy for a megalomaniac, Adelson, obsessed with using his millions to kill the efforts of the free press to cover him. The errand boy Moon should be ashamed, but clearly he was hired precisely for his lack of shame. 

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