Las Vegas Review-Journal - The Complete Las Vegan

Reporters may choose to pretend this isn't true, but it's plain that the decision already has been made over at the Las Vegas Sun to do everything possible, journalism be damned, to elect Rory Reid next governor of Nevada. He is the son of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, who in the three-plus decades of elected public service to Nevada has never met with a discouraging word from the Las Vegas Sun. That never-ending series of in-kind political contributions now carries on to the son.

Let me be absolutely plain, here. This is not to say that Rory Reid is a bad guy or wouldn't make a good governor. But that's a decision better left for later and in the crucible of a competitive race. It certainly is not a decision that should dictate news coverage now or later.

But it is hard not to see the theology of Reid predestiny in the pages of the Sun. Consider the story today in which a rare "three-fer" is achieved.

Rory is touted for governor.

Check.

Rory's chief Democratic rival, Barbara Buckley, is whacked.

Check.

Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons gets a sharp elbow to the temple.

Double-check.

The only surprise in the story comes in the very last graph (an editing "error"?) in which this criticism of Reid finds ink:

"(Dan) Burns (spokesman for Gov. Gibbons) then previewed a line of attack that Reid will surely face — management of the troubled county hospital, University Medical Center: “Who is in charge of the county hospital? If the chair of Clark County Commission wants to criticize what is happening in the Legislature, maybe he ought to look in his own back yard first,” he said."

You'd think a good reporter interested in writing about the governor's race this far out might naturally dig into that question and others.

Don't hold your breath.

Instead, stand by for a big Sun puff piece on how UMC has finally turned around to now become a great medical institution under the caring and watchful guidance of the County Commission.

Bet me.