Senate majority leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, who was mysteriously quiet during a week-long standoff involving a Nevada cattle rancher and the Bureau of Land Management that ended (at least temporarily) April 12, suddenly became quite vocal over the past week --- following the abrupt BLM pullout --- with a series of interviews from Reno to Las Vegas, going so far as to label those who sided with rancher Cliven Bundy in the cattle-grazing feud “nothing more than domestic terrorists,” observes Grumpy Editor.
About 300 cattle in the BLM roundup were returned to Bundy after the week-long “bullying” by the feds.
Reid’s almost daily attacks last week grabbed front-pages and broadcast news leads in the state and elsewhere, especially after the Nevada Democrat appeared at a Las Vegas Review-Journal “Hashtags & Headlines” luncheon at a major Strip hotel on Thursday.
Attendees paid $40 a head to hear Reid answer questions directed at him by a Review-Journal liberal columnist.
While Reid received wide coverage of his “domestic terrorists” phrase, there was no mention of the range dust being kicked up when the BLM rode in with 200 armed agents, including snipers positioned in the hills plus growling police dogs along with use of tasers and helicopters at Bundy’s ranch in Bunkerville, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Since 1870, the Bundy family’s herd has been grazing on that Clark County land.
The BLM and its hired “cowboys” went to the ranch to start rounding up Bundy’s 908 cattle grazing on 1,200 square miles of remote mountains and desert managed by BLM and the National Park Service. Early reason for the roundup was triggered by supposed endangerment of the desert tortoise. Then the emphasis switched to Bundy not paying grazing fees for 20 years.
Major media stories in the past week did not mention Reid’s close ties with the communist Chinese and the possibility of a major solar facility locating on the vast sun-bathed grazing land that also contains rare minerals along with the tortoises. (See the April 14 Grumpy Editor on earlier developments at the Bundy ranch and mention of Harry Reid in the headline over a revealing Infowars.com story --- a day prior to the BLM pullout.)
Reid was linked to a proposed $5 billion solar plant in southern Clark County two years ago. That operation, later shelved, involved a Chinese energy company.
Interestingly, in the same edition that reported Reid’s “domestic terrorists” description of Bundy backers, an illustrated Review-Journal feature focused on about 750 sheep dispatched to the hills on the western edge of Carson City, on the western side of Nevada, to munch on invasive grasses to reduce risk of wildfires as the fire season nears.
No comment from Reid on those grazing animals that belong to a four-year-old Gardnerville sheep farming company.
In case you missed these…
WESTERN POLITICAL LEADERS SEEK LOCAL CONTROL ON LANDS. Allied with the Bundy feud with the feds in Nevada, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday that more than 50 political leaders from nine states convened in Utah’s capital to discuss their joint goal --- wresting control of oil, timber and mineral-rich lands away from the feds. "The urgency is now,” declared State Rep. Ken Ivory (R-West Jordan, Utah) who organized the summit with Montana State Sen. Jennifer Fielder (R-District 7).
LOS ANGELES GETS ANOTHER DAILY. First editions marking the Wednesday debut of the Los Angeles Register were hawked on Los Angeles City Hall grounds --- across the street from the Los Angeles Times building. The paper will be sold at more than 5,500 retail outlets and vending machines. It’s the first new daily in the City of Angels since the Daily News turned into a daily in 1981. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, a long-time daily, folded in November, 1989.
MEDIA PEOPLE ON THE MOVE. Fox News re-signed Chris Wallace to a multi-year deal to continue anchoring Fox News Sunday. He has anchored the Sunday morning program and contributed to Fox News’ political and election coverage since joining the network in 2003…Radio host Laura Ingraham joined ABC News as a contributor and will continue as guest commentator for Fox News Channel, often filling in for Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor…Dee Dee Myers, one of former President Bill Clinton’s press secretaries, was named head of corporate communications and public affairs for Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., Hollywood’s largest studio.
U.S. NEWSPAPER REVENUE CONTINUES DOWNWARD. Newspaper Association of America said the industry’s 2013 revenue slipped 2.6 percent to $37.6 billion. Print advertising revenue last year sank 8.6 percent to $17.3 billion but circulation revenue gained 3.7 percent to $10.9 billion.
GET READY FOR THE LOCAL ANGLE. A newspaper editor in the west ran a distant police beat story in yesterday's edition like it happened down the street. A woman in Dover, N.J. --- that’s 2,300 miles from the breaking news, headline-conscious editor --- reported that on the first date with a man she met on the Internet, Joel (last name unknown), swiped her TV set and dog.
Now the editor is hoping for a follow-up.
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