My Point Of View
Rolando Larraz
Founder
Las Vegas Tribune
November 20, 2002

I realize that this column will be of great surprise to many people. Some will agree with me and others, those who disagree with me, will attack me saying that I don't respect people’s rights and that all my defense of the first amendment is fake.

I know that there will be others that would accuse me of selling out for not allowing others to express their opinions even if it is for personal vendettas. But the fact is that I don’t give a damn.

For years I have allowed Steve Miller to use this newspaper as a tool to express his frustration for the election that he lost 11 years ago, in return for some editing and proofreading of no more than six articles a week. I also allowed Steve Miller to defend his family and his integrity for being accused of a crime that he didn’t commit, because I know how it is to be unfairly accused of a crime that one has not committed.

I was not only accused, I was charged with a crime that they (the police and the prosecutors) and that God knew very well I was not guilty of. But not because I blast the police every week or every day and every hour and every minute. Neither do I attack all police officers or their families and their friends and create a chain of hate.

Steve Miller is so obsessed with how he lost the election to Jan Jones that anybody that even ‘smells’ like Jan Jones - he goes after. Unfortunately he does that in my newspaper. He has never put a penny in this newspaper, never has he moved a finger to help this newspaper financially and on few occasions he even has interfered with the welfare of this enterprise.

Once there was a gentlemen club owner that was thinking of advertising in the Tribune and because of Steve Miller’s attacks on the Crazy Horse Too the man changed his mind.

I remember asking Steve why the man changed his mind and Steve told me that the man didn’t want to give the appearance that his club was behind the articles. "He would advertise in the paper when we finished the series of articles about the Crazy Horse Too." The rest is history.

Steve Miller never finished writing about the damn club. Steve is a very intelligent, very educated and very knowledgeable individual, but he thinks that his poop don’t stink. And that is not true, his poop stinks like anyone else’s, some times even more.

He also doesn’t want to accept the fact that I own this newspaper, I make the decisions and enforce the rules. If he wants to believe his racist friends that can not accept the fact that someone with a heavy Spanish accent can own an English language publication that is his problem.

For years I allowed Steve Miller to write his vendettas in this newspaper, because I understood his frustration. I have them too. But when I asked him to stay away from people that I like, admire or respect, he ignored my request; he made it my problem and I have enough problems already paying the printer every week.

Steve and I are very much alike. He thinks he is doing me a favor by writing in the newspaper and I think I’m being very humble by doing him the favor of letting him write in this newspaper.

I try to tell him that he had to let it go but he does not want to listen. He doesn't care about Rizzolo and the Crazy Horse Too. He started writing about the Crazy Horse Too because of City Councilman Michael McDonald’s friendship with Rizzolo.

Actually he doesn’t care about Michael McDonald either. In fact he used to like McDonald and they used to be friends. He started writing about Michael McDonald when Jan Jones took him under her wings and made him Mayor Pro-Tem.

Miller disagreed with me when I was defending or writing the other side of the Sandra Murphy and Richard Tabish ordeal.

He never believed that these two kids werre innocent, but he started defending them when McDonald started supporting David Roger for District Attorney and when Rizzolo gave Roger such generous campaign contributions he went bizarre.

It is my humble opinion that Steve Miller doesn’t give a damn about Buffalo Jim Barrier either. If it was not because the Crazy Horse Too is owned by Rick Rizzolo, who is a friend of Mike McDonald, who was at one time the favored councilman of Jan Jones, who ran a very nasty campaign against him and used very unfair tactics to win, Miller would not have been involved in the Barrier saga.

Once I had a wealthy Jewish man that wanted to invest in the Tribune only if I "got rid of Miller." But nevertheless I took Miller to a meeting with my potential investor and the man asked him if he had an interest in the Tribune. To my amazement Steve’s quick answer was, "I am not that stupid, I don’t invest money in a newspaper."

He should have added that he only uses the newspapers for his own gain and vendetta, but he didn’t. He just called the guy "stupid" right in his face for wanting to invest in a newspaper and called me stupid for owning one.

The same statement was made once again in my own home during a conversation with a guest of mine. He believed that his actions and behavior should be accepted without questioning the motive or the reasons.

During this year's campaign, before the primary elections, we prepared for a Sheriff’s debate. Mark Clark asked Steve to help him because Mark did not have any experience in moderating a debate.

Well, the debate started fifteen minutes late, because Steve hadn't arrived. When I got there, I told Mark Clark to start the debate and "the hell with Miller." Clark did a very good job and I am proud of his accomplishment. Miller never showed up, nor did he have the decency of notifying anyone that he was not going to make it that night.

In a way it might be the best that could have happened. If Miller would have shown, the Sheriff’s candidates and those present for the debate probably would have had to listen to the story of Miller’s time as a City Councilman, or about the mayoral race that he lost to Jan Jones.

Just two weeks ago Miller found out, not through me, that City Councilman Gary Reese was to appear on the television show - "Face The Tribune." Miller’s lack of professionalism was visible again: He never showed up to do the TV show and never had the decency of calling the station or me to notify us that he was not coming.

I have asked him to avoid attacking or writing discriminatory articles about my friends Joey Cusumano, Fred Doumani, Oscar Goodman, and Judge Nancy Saitta. It was like I was telling him - "go ahead go after them, don’t you worry about anything."

If I knew for a fact that any of these people were doing something wrong, I swear on the Bible, I would never tell anyone who writes in this newspaper not to print the truth, and not to fight for justice. But I know, deep inside that he only writes about these people because they don’t agree with his writing and they maintain a friendship with Rizzolo who is a friend of McDonald who was, at one time, close to Jan Jones.

Because Steve does not give me the respect that I deserve, because Steve does not want to listen to what I have to say, because Steve’s poop stinks and because Steve doesn’t own this newspaper -- Steve Miller is not writing here anymore.

Now he can pay for his own printing and he can write about Joey Cusumano, Fred Doumani, Oscar Goodman and Nancy Saitta in his stupid e-mail list that no one reads any more, because it is deleted it when they see his name.

Steve Miller might think that he owns the Las Vegas Tribune newspaper, but I don’t care what he thinks, I am the one and only ruler in the Las Vegas Tribune and Steve Miller is not writing here anymore.

My name is Rolando Larraz and this is My Point of View.

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