Review-Journal business reporter Jennifer Robison must be a terribly conflicted person.

Back in June, Robison penned a long story about how Nevada’s 2003 tax increases were oppressing poor small business people who were just trying to make a living. The story raised the specter of businesses leaving Nevada — or not moving here in the first place — because of taxes. And, Robison’s piece quoted not a single tax proponent (although it did give state Sen. Dina Titus a brief chance to make the case).

CityLife responded with its own piece, correcting errors and reminding folks taxes pay for nifty things like roads and police and courts, all of which help businessmen.

But then, on Aug. 6, Robison wrote another story, this one headlined “Business bullish on Las Vegas.” It reported how the Nevada Development Authority had lured 46 new businesses to town in fiscal year 2005, and helped another 11 expand. She quoted authority President Somer Hollingsworth extolling Nevada’s “…low taxes and business friendly state and local governments.”

Hmmm, interesting. The same writer, two totally contradictory stories. Was she in some way apologizing for June’s slanted and questionable piece? And is Nevada the low-tax haven she wrote about in August, or the high-tax hellhole she slammed in June?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer! It seems that Nevada has been named as the fifth best state in business friendliness by the Development Counsellors International of New York. She quotes Michael Cutri, a Los Angeles real estate broker, saying the state has a “favorable regulatory environment, level of taxation and cost of doing business.”

So, should we go with two out of three? The R-J never did publish a correction or apology for Robison’s initial June piece, at least none that we could find. But it’s published two subsequent stories by her now that leave us with one, inescapable conclusion: The piece she wrote back in June is simpy flat wrong.

Full disclosure: CityLife and the R-J are both owned by the Stephens Media Group, although we’re pretty sure they don’t like to admit it.