Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: Want news? Read the Sun

I know it is frustrating trying to read the other newspaper without getting nauseous and otherwise sick to one's stomach, but last week's embarrassment under the byline of Editor Thomas Mitchell was just too much for even me to accept. And I am a very forgiving person.

Believe me, I try hard to defend them down the street when they pull their bully boy routine on practically everyone in town who dares to defy them. I tell those who come crying to me about the patent unfairness of the R-J and the Neanderthalish outlook the paper presents as an editorial policy, that they know not what they do. In fact, a singular lack of knowledge about what is news is the No. 1 criterion for the job of editor down there. And from all appearances, they have managed to find a person who meets that requirement.

I wasn't going to waste this precious space by answering the rantings of the other editor but, if I did not respond, I would disappoint not only the people who work very hard here at the Sun to bring a good newspaper product to this community, but also the folks down the street who know what a clownish operation they work for but can't say anything because they need the work. So, here we go again!

Mr. Mitchell thinks he can hurt me by calling me Chicken Little. He thinks he can belittle the Sun's efforts to make Southern Nevadans aware of a potentially disastrous health problem by saying his newspaper cares about "reason, study ... and debate," as if to suggest the Las Vegas Sun doesn't do exactly that. And he thinks that by describing the Review-Journal readers as the "ignorant and gaping multitude" somehow he will excuse his own lack of professionalism.

Well, as the young people are fond of saying these days, "I don't think so!"

This latest broadside by the nearsighted naysayers down the street came as a result of a column I wrote a couple of Sundays ago questioning the reasons why the R-J ignored a significant story about radioactive uranium tailings that were leaking into the Colorado River in Utah. That river is the same one that brings this valley its life-giving water and the crops to the south and west of us the nourishment they need to grow up and join the food chain for millions of Americans.

I know why they ducked the coverage -- it was our story -- but I don't understand why they continued to do so after I pointed out the potential danger to the health and safety of their readers. These are the people who not only have the right to know what is happening but the very same people who overpay each month to subscribe to the Review-Journal, presumably to get the news that the editors down there purposely withhold from them. I also suggested that they could subscribe to the Sun and get a good newspaper for a change.

Perhaps that is what made Mitchell so angry that he stooped so low he fell over his own words trying to strike back. Or maybe it was my little jab at R-J columnist Jon Ralston who had the chance to stand up for Nevada's mothers and fathers on national television and ducked. I guess we won't know the real reason Thomas took after me but who cares. The fact is that he spent both barrels trying to make me look bad so he, I suppose, could look good.

And, in the process, he never explained to his readers why his newspaper didn't run the story about the radioactive waste leaking into our drinking water source and why, as I write this, it has continued to fail to inform those who pay for such information.

Oh well, chalk another episode up to the arrogance of being the largest paper in Nevada. Do I sound like sour grapes? OK, you got me. I think the readers should make the Sun the largest newspaper in the state and one day they will. Until then, though, we'll have to settle for just being the best. Maybe that's what's driving Mitchell mad. He can't understand why the Sun is continually being heralded as the best newspaper in this part of the state which, in his mind, encompasses the only good part of Nevada. There's that arrogance again.

Instead of explaining to his readers who, incidentally, are also Las Vegas Sun readers on Sunday why the R-J failed to inform them about the nuclear headache forming in Utah, Mitchell went off on a tangent about the nuclear waste issue in Nevada. Could it be that he really doesn't understand the difference between a uranium tailings pile that is leaking into the river and the nuclear power industry's efforts to dump the nation's radioactive waste in our Yucca Mountain? Naw, he couldn't be that dense, could he?

No self-respecting newspaper editor can take the chance of a "yes" answer. So, until the truth is known, it will be the Las Vegas Sun that will have to shoulder the responsibility of informing Southern Nevada's families of what is good for them and what is bad for them. In other words, the news. The other paper, I suppose, will just go on doing whatever its editor thinks is good for the Review-Journal and that is very bad news.

So, despite Mitchell's blatherings about credibility, the smart play is to subscribe to the Sun. That way you'll know what is going on. Sure, some of it will come with a little bit of passion and some excitement to spark up your day. And some may upset you. But it will be the content of our stories that will cause the heartburn and not the fact that we are withholding something vital to your family's well-being.

That's what a good newspaper does. That is what brings credibility to a newsroom. And that is what makes readers respect the paper and the people who work so hard to make it happen. Respect? Credibility? Community conscience?

Guilty, your honor, and damn proud to say so!

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

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