{"id":160751,"date":"2021-01-08T14:37:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T22:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=160751"},"modified":"2021-01-08T15:15:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T23:15:46","slug":"las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Sun Wanted $20 Million Adelson Buyout, Claims Review-Journal in Antitrust Spat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawyers for the Sheldon Adelson-owned Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> (LVRJ) went on the attack this week in their response to a lawsuit brought by a rival. They claimed that the publisher of the rival Las Vegas Sun<\/em> sought $20 million from Adelson in 2015 to wind down the Sun\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

\"Greenspun\"
Brian Greenspun, publisher of The Las Vegas Sun<\/em>, was \u201ceager to be bought out,\u201d according to LVRJ<\/em> lawyers. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The allegation came as the two parties filed pretrial motions in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0in which the left-leaning Sun<\/em> accuses the conservative LVRJ<\/em> of trying to run it into the ground.<\/p>\n

The Sun<\/em> claims that the Adelson family orchestrated a \u201ccalculated scheme\u201d to monopolize the Las Vegas newspaper industry. That after taking ownership of LVRJ<\/em> five years ago. It allegedly did this by attempting to \u201cstrangle the sole remaining competitor and dissenting voice,\u201d according to the lawsuit filed by the Sun<\/em> in November 2019.<\/p>\n

Bickering Bedfellows <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Since 1989, LVRJ<\/em> and the Sun<\/em> have been bound by a joint operating agreement (JOA) under the federal Newspaper Preservation Act (NPA). This Nixon-era law allows antitrust exemptions for newspapers operating in the same regional market, allowing them to combine production, marketing, distribution, and sales. That was provided they remain competitive and editorially independent of one another.<\/p>\n

But when Adelson acquired LVRJ<\/em>, he sued to have the agreement torn up, claiming the Sun<\/em> was in breach of contract.<\/p>\n

The Sun<\/em> said that was a sham lawsuit designed to kill it, because Adelson knew it was \u201coperationally and economically dependent\u201d on LVRJ.<\/em><\/p>\n

But now, LVRJ\u2019<\/em>s lawyers argue Sun<\/em> publisher Brian Greenspun was hardly petrified of an Adelson newspaper monopoly in Las Vegas \u2013 at least, not if the price was right.<\/p>\n

Mr. Greenspun never expressed any real concern about the printed Sun<\/em> or its editorial voice ceasing to exist, in sharp contrast to assertions used in pleadings to this court in an effort to support the LV Sun\u2019s<\/em> sham litigation,\u201d LVRJ<\/em> lawyers claimed Monday. \u201cTo the contrary, Mr. Greenspun was eager to be bought out, repeatedly attempting to push the deal forward.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shadowy Adelson Takeover <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Adelson family\u00a0purchased LVRJ<\/em> anonymously, creating a surreal scenario in which the newspaper\u2019s own reporters were left to investigate the identity of the owner. LVRJ<\/em> broke the story<\/a> of its new boss before any official announcement from the Adelson camp.<\/p>\n

The three reporters who wrote that story left the newspaper shortly afterwards, and others followed, claiming articles pertaining to Adelson or LVS<\/em> were being heavily edited or killed by new management.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for LVRJ <\/em>have denied the newspaper wants to put the Sun<\/em> out of business, although this claim is somewhat contradicted by a front-page LVRJ<\/em> editorial in August 2019 titled, \u201cWhy we want to stop printing the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, LVS announced in an official statement that Adelson would be taking medical leave to resume treatment for non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers for the Sheldon Adelson-owned Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVRJ) went on the attack this week in their response to a lawsuit brought by a rival. They claimed that the publisher of the rival Las Vegas Sun sought $20 million from Adelson in 2015 to wind down the Sun\u2019s operations. The allegation came as the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":160754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLas Vegas Sun Wanted $20 Million Adelson Buyout, Review-Journal claims<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Las Vegas Review-Journal versus Las Vegas Sun antitrust lawsuit develops as LVRJ accuses Sun of wanting $20 million Sheldon Adelson buyout.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Las Vegas Sun Wanted $20 Million Adelson Buyout, Review-Journal claims\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Las Vegas Review-Journal versus Las Vegas Sun antitrust lawsuit develops as LVRJ accuses Sun of wanting $20 million Sheldon Adelson buyout.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-08T22:37:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-08T23:15:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/brian.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"997\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"665\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/\",\"name\":\"Las Vegas Sun Wanted $20 Million Adelson Buyout, Review-Journal claims\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/brian.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-08T22:37:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-08T23:15:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Las Vegas Review-Journal versus Las Vegas Sun antitrust lawsuit develops as LVRJ accuses Sun of wanting $20 million Sheldon Adelson buyout.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-sun-wanted-20-million-adelson-buyout-review-journal-claims\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/brian.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/brian.jpg\",\"width\":997,\"height\":665,\"caption\":\"Brian Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, was \u201ceager to be bought out,\u201d according to LVRJ lawyers. 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