LVS CEO Refutes Personal Interest Claims In Review-Journal

Finally breaking his silence on the purchase of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Las Vegas Sands Chairman and billionaire Sheldon Adelson has said that he played no part in making the purchase. Adleson was interviewed by the Macau Daily Times and went on to clarify that the newspaper was purchased by members of his family and he played no direct role in the acquisition.

In a statement, Adleson said,

You don’t tell your children what to do. I can’t tell my children what to do. They wanted to buy the newspaper so, they bought the newspaper. I don’t have anything to do with it, I have no financial interest. My money that the children have with which to buy the newspaper is their inheritance. I don’t want to spend money on a newspaper.

The secret $140 million purchase of the paper in early December created quite an interest before news broke that purchase was made by Adelson’s son-in-law and a number of journalists took to Twitter to question the motive of Adelson’s sudden acquisition of the newspaper. There are suspicions that Adelson will control the editorial content of the newspaper and to push his own views and try and influence the public.

Some of this speculation started when the management asked three of its reporters to direct their efforts to cover three local judges, one of whom presides over the an on-going lawsuit against the Las Vegas Sands resorts. To add more fuel to the fire, the editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Micheal Hengel submitted his resignation a few days after the news broke that Adelson was the new owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Adelson clarified during the interview that the purchase of the newspaper was nothing more than a sound financial investment for his family and there were no intentions of operating it. He once again highlighted the fact that his children decided to invest in Review Journal because it has a solid history of profitability. Adelson also used the example of his newspaper in Israel to elaborate that he uses a hands-off approach in managing his newspaper interests.

Adelson also made it clear that editors and journalists of the Las Vegas Review-Journal operated independently and neither he or his family members has ever asked any of the 200 journalists to write anything specific. The 82 year old billionaire also stressed that he spends so little time with the newspaper that if anything was written about him, he would most likely end up reading the article along with the daily public.