Brian Greenspun on the overreaction to his election column

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006 | 7:35 a.m.

Memo to Sherman Frederick: Ouch!

OK, OK, I give up. Almost.

Your over-the-top reaction to a Civics 101 lesson I gave leads me to wonder whether you were really the force behind the marijuana initiative, because I am now convinced you have to be smoking something! How can you be so smug when you are so wrong all the time?

The beauty of this new newspaper arrangement in which the Review-Journal is delivered with the largest newspaper in the state, the Las Vegas Sun, is that our readers have access to both, or should I say, practically all points of view. That means I get to read what's on your mind, and you get to try to read what's on mine.

I say "try" because I am not sure I am writing clearly enough for you to understand. Otherwise you would not have taken me to the shed for sharing with our readers the basics of checks and balances and the essential nature of an independent judiciary to the health of our democracy.

What you wrote, of course, was a gloating of sorts that the Sun backed the losing candidates in the governor's race and two congressional races.

As I wrote last week, the election is over so there is no purpose in rehashing who supported whom. The fact is that nearly half of Nevadans voted for the winners and nearly half voted for the losers!

But where you made one of your most obvious mistakes is when you said I think the voters are stupid. The opposite is true.

When I wrote that the Review-Journal owners pushed so hard against Nevada Supreme Court Justice Nancy Becker because they hate taxes and the government for which taxes pay, I was telling the truth. And Sherm, when you wrote that you were fulfilling your newspaper's wish by getting her dumped, you were also telling the truth. Mostly.

But, what you failed to say - and here is the lie by which you sell out whatever credibility the R-J may have left - is that the reason you urged everyone to vote against her is because she was part of a near-unanimous Supreme Court that upheld Gov. Kenny Guinn's effort to pass a responsible tax plan for the fastest-growing state in the union. And your owners hate paying taxes anywhere, especially in Nevada where they make a ton of money and give back nothing to the people who have helped in their success.

So, rail all you like against taxes and the people who support them and the quality of life we enjoy in Nevada. Mea culpa.

But, in the future, if you don't have the courage to tell the truth, at least have enough respect for your readers to level with them.

In this, as in all elections past, your newspaper has supported candidates whose positions appeal to your owners' desire to take all they can from Nevadans while they give nothing in return.

Not even an honest editorial policy.