It’s a new year, a new page on the calendar, and time to move on to new things. But we couldn’t let one thing from the old year pass us by without comment. Well, a few things actually.

It seems our old boss, Bruce Spotleson, delivered a fond farewell to another of our old bosses, Rod Smith, in the form of a postmortem kick to the nuts. (Spotleson was publisher of CityLife when we went to work there in 1998 as a writer; he left for the Greenspun Media Group about midway through our tenure, when Smith took over. Smith eventually became the Gaming Wire editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, until he passed away Dec. 14.)

Now CityLife in general, and Smith in particular, were critical of the operations of the Greenspun Media Group, and of the Greenspun-owned Las Vegas Sun. We know, because we wrote much of the media criticism in those days, in a column that ran in CityLife called Media Watch.

Spotleson objected to that coverage, and specifically to some of Smith’s editorializing about the activities of the folks at Greenspun, and its business newspaper, In Business Las Vegas. (By way of full disclosure, we should note that In Business Las Vegas is a direct competitor of the Las Vegas Business Press, which, like CityLife, the R-J and this blog, is owned by the Stephens Media Group.)

And by fuller way of disclosure, let us say this: We like Spotleson. He was a good boss, with a rich history of experience in journalism. And, best of all, he left us alone to pursue stories in the way they needed to be pursued, regardless of whether the target was an advertiser or a friend. And we can offer no higher praise of a publisher than that.

By the same token, we can honestly say that Smith was the same kind of good boss. He never interfered in the newsroom, even a single time during our tenure at CityLife as a writer. It’s not to say we think he should be lionized; in fact, we’d criticized some of his recent, inexplicably positive coverage of the Las Vegas monorail — repeatedly. But we thought Spotleson’s backhanded sendoff was somewhat in poor taste, even if the message was that he’d forgiven Smith for a long-ago slight. (By the way, while Spotleson characterized the media coverage of CityLife and the Business Press as "relentless and vicious," we note with irony that he never indicated it was untrue, although he did note Smith was forced to disavow a particular column with a sensational charge.)

As we said, we like and respect Spotleson, to this very day. But we wonder if the freedom that he gave us those many years ago at CityLife is enjoyed at the Greenspun Media Group.

And that brings us to another subject entirely: Our very own current Corporate Overlord Sherm Frederick.

A couple of weeks ago, we at CityLife placed Frederick’s weekly column on our annual "Get Out of Town" list. The decision to do so was met with gasps and shock in some quarters of the far-flung Stephens Media Group LLC empire. Some even speculated that we would be canned as editor of CityLife for daring to criticize the boss. (We even put a little note at the end, poking fun at impending terminations. It was a joke, of course. Nobody’s job was ever in jeopardy.)

Why? If you have to ask, you don’t know Sherm. Or if you do, you don’t understand him.
When we applied for — and were selected — as editor of CityLife, Sherm put no restrictions on us whatsoever. In fact, we recall the only thing he said to us on the subject was this: "If you don’t piss me off at least once a week, you’re not doing your job."

He wasn’t joking. It wasn’t idle chatter. He really wanted us to take the reins of CityLife and feel free to be as outrageous, as provocative, and as critical as necessary to maintain the paper’s integrity.

In the months since, that commitment has been tested. We’ve been critical of the Review-Journal, as well as the Las Vegas Sun. And people inside the R-J haven’t taken kindly to our critiques, either. But we have never — ever — been told to not publish something, to go soft in our coverage, or to censor ourselves. Not once. And the reason for that is none other than Sherm Frederick.

So, as bosses go, we’re glad to bestow upon him the highest praise available: He gives us the freedom to tell the truth as we see it, even when that freedom is used to criticize his own work. We don’t ever worry about being fired for what we say on this blog, or in the pages of CityLife. The only thing we worry about is being worthy of the freedom that Sherm has given us.

We don’t know if you readers care about that, but you should. We know of places where publishers inflict their own views on the news, protect advertisers or business partners or friends. For whatever it’s worth to you to know, that doesn’t happen at CityLife. Any failings of that paper are the faults of her editor, not her corporate overlord.

Say whatever you will about Sherm, but we say this: There’s a special place in journalism heaven reserved for folks with his attitude about free speech. More’s the pity that it will be so ill-populated.