Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sheriff Lombardo sets sights on shutting down Sun

In text exchange, Lombardo talks of ‘putting Brian Greenspun out of business’

Trump

Wade Vandervort

Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo attends the America First rally at Treasure Island Friday, July 8, 2022.

The text message was direct: “Maybe start by putting Brian Greenspun out of business.”

That text wasn’t from a competitor of the Las Vegas Sun, owned by publisher and CEO Brian Greenspun. Rather, it was from Republican gubernatorial candidate and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

Stephen J. Cloobeck, a businessman who made significant wealth in timeshares and is a deep-pocketed Democratic donor, reached out to Lombardo on July 29 as well as other “politically active folks” to detail his new media company.

After Cloobeck explained Factz — a “purple” online news site run by web entrepreneur Nik Richie, who ran the gossip site called Dirty — Lombardo messaged back, “Well that would be fantastic if we can get there. Maybe start by putting Brian Greenspun out of business. I would like to talk to you about it?”

Cloobeck shared the text message chain with the Sun. The Sun confirmed it was Lombardo’s cellphone number in the text exchange.

In an interview with the Sun, Cloobeck said he was “shocked” and “dumbfounded” when he saw Lombardo’s response.

“I said to myself, ‘Wow, that’s pretty aggressive,’ ” Cloobeck said. “That we have allegedly a nonpartisan sheriff, who’s now running for office, in a partisan fashion, and taking a very hard stance with regard to a family and a paper that’s somewhat partisan.”

Lombardo on multiple occasions has told Sun reporters that he’s unhappy with the publication because of its editorial board’s stance — opinion pieces separate from the newsroom — calling him “cowardly” for refusing to answer reporters’ questions. Editorials also criticized him for campaigning for governor as a more “Trumpian” candidate than he previously appeared to be.

Lombardo’s campaign spokesperson Elizabeth Ray in a statement to the Sun criticized Greenspun, calling him an “angry left-wing political activist with a checkbook.”

Ray mentioned Greenspun’s support of political campaigns while “eviscerating his chosen political rivals” through the editorials of his newspaper.

Greenspun has donated about $16,000 to Sisolak’s campaign for governor since 2018, according to the Nevada secretary of state’s website.

Greenspun isn’t alone in Las Vegas newspaper owners donating to candidates. The Adelson family, owners of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has given $424 million to former President Donald Trump and Republicans since 2016, according to Newsweek.

Additionally, Greenspun in 2016 turned over his “Where I Stand” column space to Lombardo to write about Metro Police’s use-of-force practices. And in 2018, the Sun’s editorial board endorsed Lombardo, who was running unopposed, for reelection.

In response to Lombardo’s gubernatorial campaign, Greenspun said the Sun has always taken its responsibility to provide news and information about those who seek to run for public office seriously.

“As far as putting me out of business, Joe is going to have to stand in line,” Greenspun said. “This newspaper has fought back attempts by the mob, by Sen. Joe McCarthy, Sen. Pat McCarran, the Howard Hughes people and many in between, and now the entire Sheldon Adelson family, to try to put the Las Vegas Sun out of business, all because they don’t like what we write and how we write it.”

And Lombardo clearly doesn’t like what’s being written about him, including the Sun editorial board last month writing that “Lombardo has been a walking contradiction ever since he began his pathetic reinvention as a conservative standard-bearer” after the sheriff appeared with Trump at a campaign event.

“Yes, we do support Sisolak,” Greenspun said. “But Sisolak has not used his office to try to put businesses out. Only Lombardo has suggested that, and there’s not a place for that; not a place in Nevada or anywhere else for that matter.”

Cloobeck also sent the screen grabs of his text message exchange with Lombardo to members of the Clark County Commission, saying Lombardo’s comments make him unfit for his position as sheriff and requesting that the commission insert Sheriff-elect Kevin McMahill into the role. But that’s not within the scope of the commission’s abilities, said Erik Pappa, the county’s director of communications. The sheriff, Pappa said, is elected in his own right and reports solely to the public.

Cloobeck said he also sent the screen grabs to Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office, although his office could not confirm. “It is an inherent conflict of a sheriff in a nonpartisan position governing our community and protecting it, all of a sudden taking partisan stances with another hat,” Cloobeck said.

David Damore, who heads the political science department at UNLV, said Lombardo’s comment was indicative of a trend that tapped into the broader breakdown of political norms that accelerated with Trump and perceptions that the positions taken on the editorial page dictated news gathering and reporting.

“Complaints about perceived unfair press coverage are as old as the nation,” Damore said in an email. “In the past, elected officials might have offered access or doled out tips to specific outlets in hopes of currying favor, but what is occurring now are efforts by some politicians to freeze out specific outlets in favor of engaging with those that will provide uncritical coverage.”

Lombardo’s statement appears to go farther than simply disliking a media outlet and suggests Lombardo is eager to target those he considers unfriendly for reprisals.

A healthy democracy, Damore said, requires a press that “serves as a watchdog and facilitates an open and transparent marketplace of ideas by providing a wide range of information and perspectives. … Freedom of the press is a constitutionally protected right.”