Well, this is interesting: Nevada Press Association Contest Winners.
It looks like my favorite columnist has won himself a third-place award under the category of “Best Local Columnist.”
I almost didn’t want to write about this; didn’t want to bring attention and notoriety to this. But my most recent post under the theme of transparency compels me to.
I’ll bet not one of the Nevada Press Association panelists judging these entries had any idea of the breadth of what I’ve unearthed about John L. Smith and brought to light about him on this blog.
As I mentioned on that blog post about transparency, I know this man’s work very well, because he’s written about me. He’s written a number of factually incorrect items about me. He’s also been sued for libel to the tune of $15 million. And again, just in case anyone’s not clear what libel is, here’s the dictionary definition: “a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation.” Now John L. Smith will do what he can to deflect this lawsuit, to make it appear as if it’s just some billionaire bully out to get him. Well, here are the facts, briefly, around this case: John L. Smith wrote a book published by Barricade Books in 2005 entitled, “Sharks in the Desert: The Founding Fathers and Current Kings of Las Vegas.” Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, owner of The Venetian resort and one of the wealthiest men on the planet, worth billions, was a topic of discussion in that book. What Smith wrote about Adelson in the book was not truthful. And Adelson didn’t like that. So he sued Smith and the book publisher for libel.
Again, as I mentioned before, this raises a question: If Smith has written this kind of factually incorrect stuff about me that I KNOW is inaccurate, and if he has written factually incorrect stuff about billionaire Sheldon Adelson and been sued to the tune of $15 million, what other errors in fact are out there under his byline? What else has he gotten wrong? How can you trust him? How can you trust his credibility? How can the panelists judging this contest award his writing at any level given his history? And these are just a couple things I’m mentioning. Spend some time reading through the entries on this blog to get the full picture.
Do I have an axe to grind? You bet I do! It’s time folks in the Las Vegas area woke up to who this guy really is.