Las Vegas newspaper owned by secretive conservative megadonor endorses Trump

By Fusion Staff | October 23, 2016 | 5:03pm

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The Las Vegas Review-Journal, the 22nd-largest newspaper in the country, the highest-circulation print media outlet in the swing state of Nevada, and the paper of record for Las Vegas, endorsed Donald Trump on Saturday, giving him his first major newspaper endorsement. (The only other two newspapers that have endorsed him are out of Santa Barbara, California, and St. Joseph, Missouri, both named the News-Press.)

“Mr. Trump represents neither the danger his critics claim nor the magic elixir many of his supporters crave,” the editorial says, after listing reasons, including his business acumen, support for the Second Amendment, and conservative Supreme Court judges for why they believe he should be president. (It also approvingly quotes “spiritual guru” Marianne Williamson, who was excoriated as a “priestess of pop religion” by Mother Jones in 1997, referring to her only as an “activist.”)

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Another thing that the Review-Journal, besides being an important media outlet in a swing state, is that it’s owned by Sheldon Adelson, a conservative megadonor who spent more money than anyone else in American history on the 2012 election. The Las Vegas casino magnate bought the Review-Journal secretly through a holding company late last year, and has been exerting his control over the editorial side ever since, having the paper run a plagiarized, pseudonymous smear piece about a judge assigned to one of his legal cases soon after he bought it.

Adelson has been much less warm to Trump than to other Republican candidates, like Marco Rubio, but has still donated some $5 million towards his campaign.

Sam Stecklow is the Weekend Editor for Fusion.