Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Owners Told Reporters to Monitor Judges; New York Times, 12/18/15

Ravi Somaiya and Barry Meier, New York Times; Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Owners Told Reporters to Monitor Judges:

"The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Friday that in the weeks before Sheldon Adelson bought the paper, its journalists were asked to monitor three local judges. One of those judges is overseeing a case involving Mr. Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate.

The assignment was handed down by corporate management over the objections of the newsroom, the paper reported.

No reason was specified for the assignment, the paper’s editor, Michael Hengel, said in an interview on Friday, and the material, which the paper said amounted to 15,000 words, was never published...

One of the judges the reporters were told to monitor, Elizabeth Gonzalez, is handling a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed in 2010 against Mr. Adelson and his casino company by Steven Jacobs, the former chief executive of its operations in Macau.

Mr. Jacobs has contended in court papers that he was fired after refusing to carry out what he believed to be illegal demands ordered by Mr. Adelson such as digging up potentially damaging information on high-ranking members of the Macau government."