The entire state was hanging in the balance of the special session, yet the Review-Journal chose to devote an entire reporter to write a second conspiratorial piece about The Tea Party of Nevada.

First, some background. TPN formed as an official third party and Scott Ashjian, a registered Republican, has announced he will run for Harry Reid's Senate seat.

Believing this is only an election year trick designed to fracture the truthers and birthers, the RJ wrote a political notebook item about Ashjian on Feb. 22 -- choosing that as a more pressing concern on the eve of the special session.

Then as the session ended, it sent reporter Kristi Jourdan to cover the dissention in the ranks of the TP crowd. Her story, complete with an unbelievable, unattributed paragraph supporting the conspiracy, ran March 1. http://www.lvrj.com/news/tea-party-crasher-arouses-anger-85800257.html

Actual journalist Jon Ralston discussed the unprecedented break from journalism normalcy in his Flash on March 1.

"It appears the newspaper has assigned a reporter to cover the TPN, apparently with the sole motive to discredit it because it might help Reid. The coordinated in-kind contribution continues, made obvious with passages such as this: "Some say the third party creation is a ploy by Reid's campaign to boost his chances of winning. Both Reid's office and Ashjian's campaign have denied the rumor."

Rumor? Hello, Journalism 101. The only rumor is being spread, without any evidence, by the Know-Nothing Party, including the publisher of the newspaper that now has assigned a reporter to further its Reid-defeating cause.

The paper has not talked to Ashjian, whom it refers to in its headline as a "party crasher," and has not an iota of evidence Reid has anything to do with the effort, and yet prints offal such as this?

Hey, RJ: When did you stop beating Harry Reid?"

Ralston may be having fun with Sherm with that last line. But it's bound to go right over Frederick's head. He's so far removed from actual campaign coverage, he wouldn't even get the reference.

This is a classic case of the conspiracies taking over journalism. We know they've already largely taken over the TP movement, embarrassing even the Glenn Becks of the world.

We suppose it is refreshing to see the RJ has actually hired two new political reporters. It's just too bad they're putting them all on the beat Reid beat.

To that end, Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden got section front free media coverage in the March 2 RJ.

Putting two and two together sure adds up to another big zero for the RJ.