Connecticut Reporter Resigns Blaming ‘Plagiarizing’ Publisher With Adelson Ties

Michael E. Schroeder speaks at a news conference at the Legislative Office Building, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 in Hartford, Conn. as Connecticut state Sen. John DeFronzo, D-New Britain, center, and Rep. Tim O'Brien, D-... Michael E. Schroeder speaks at a news conference at the Legislative Office Building, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 in Hartford, Conn. as Connecticut state Sen. John DeFronzo, D-New Britain, center, and Rep. Tim O'Brien, D-New Britain, right, look on. Schroeder, a former newspaperman who worked at Newsday for 15 years, has signed a letter of intent to buy the New Britain Herald and the Bristol Press in addition to three other weekly newspapers. The papers are presently owned by the Journal Register Co. (AP Photo/Bob Child) MORE LESS
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A Connecticut newspaperman resigned Thursday after the publisher of his newspaper was accused of adding plagiarized content into the paper and acting as a spokesman for Sheldon Adelson, newly minted owner of Nevada’s largest paper.

Steve Collins, who has covered Bristol for various outlets since 1994, announced his resignation from The Bristol Press via an open letter on Facebook. He said he was quitting because his paper’s publisher Michael Schroeder (pictured above) was caught using the name of a fake reporter to allegedly strong arm a story in the Connecticut paper that condemned the rulings against Adelson by a Nevada judge. Schroder has refused to comment to multiple outlets that reported on the alleged plagiarism.

Bringing additional attention to Collins’ resignation is that Schroeder is the manager of the company that recently purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal, of which Adelson’s family is the main investors. Adelson’s involvement in the purchase of the largest newspaper in Nevada — an early primary state — prompted a host of ethical complaints because of Adelson’s known political ties and because the overall secrecy with which the purchase is carried out.

Collins said Schroeder was “guilty of journalistic misconduct of epic proportions.”

From his open letter:

I have learned with horror that my boss shoveled a story into my newspaper – a terrible, plagiarized piece of garbage about the court system – and then stuck his own fake byline on it. He handed it to a page designer who doesn’t know anything about journalism late one night and told him to shovel it into the pages of the paper. I admit I never saw the piece until recently, but when I did, I knew it had Mr. Schroeder’s fingerprints all over it. Yet when enterprising reporters asked my boss about it, he claimed to know nothing or told them he had no comment. Yesterday, they blew the lid off this idiocy completely, proving that Mr. Schroeder lied, that he submitted a plagiarized story, bypassed what editing exists and basically used the pages of my newspaper, secretly, to further the political agenda of his master out in Las Vegas. In sum, the owner of my paper is guilty of journalistic misconduct of epic proportions.

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  1. Resigning in protest. Very old-school. Quite refreshing.

  2. Yes, his resignation is old-fashioned, real, analog version behavior of an honest courageous human, compared to the corrupt digital version of msm.

  3. I’m not to clear on what’s happened here…the publisher is a Sheldon Adelson stooge? In Connecticut? So, Adelson, like Murdoch, owns papers all over the country? So, this Adelson stooge inserted something plagiarized into the paper this reporter works for, to slant it in a positive manner towards Adelson?

    I dunno…whatever. Adelson, the Kock brothers, and yes, I meant to spell it that way, Murdoch, Ailes, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, and Hannity can all go fuck themselves. They are all propagandists that would make Goebbels proud.

  4. Avatar for bkmn bkmn says:

    The more sunshine that is shone up Sheldon Adelson’s adventures the better. His overseas casino investments are ratholes of corruption and now his newspaper publishing will be following them down the tube. Expect more crap to hit the fan in the coming months.

  5. Add this:

    http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015-12-23/review-of-judges-caused-worry-at-just-sold-las-vegas-paper

    LAS VEGAS (AP) — When several reporters for the largest newspaper in Las Vegas were taken off their beats and assigned to investigate three judges, the decision seemed strange because it came from the paper’s owners, not a newsroom editor.

    The mystery deepened weeks later, when the public learned that casino mogul Sheldon Adelson’s family had purchased the paper in a secretive deal. And the questions only intensified, leading the Review-Journal to publish a front-page story about suspicions that the executives who were in talks with the Adelson family had attempted to use the paper to strike out at a judge handling a lawsuit against the wealthy political donor known as a Republican kingmaker.

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