If you read the Las Vegas Sun insert in the Review-Journal every day — and we do — you’ve no doubt noticed a curious contrast. While the R-J has broken story after story about golf course developer Bill Walters and his business dealings with the city of Las Vegas over the Royal Links golf course, the Sun has, by and large, steered clear of the story.

In fact, about the only person at the Sun writing critically about the Walters saga is my friend and colleague, Jon Ralston, who pens a couple columns per week in the Sun.

We’ve wondered why, and we’ve pretty much concluded that it’s because the Sun-owning Greenspun family is business partners with Walters in a deal that saw the Wildhorse golf course traded with the city of Henderson for a couple of parcels slated for homes. The deal netted the partners a quick and hefty profit.

But that doesn’t mean the Sun is taking the high road, avoiding any mention at all of Walters because of the obvious conflict of interest. On Sunday, Sun Editor Brian Greenspun mentioned Walters in a column.

Greenspun marvels at “…this mess involving my friend Bill Walters. I can’t help wondering what happens next year if those very expensive lawyers that Attorney General George Chanos hired don’t back his play as the ‘new sheriff’ in town. After all, he ignored our own sheriff and district attorney to make his play on the basis that Walters got a sweetheart deal from Las Vegas.

“Now it appears that Chanos may make a similar move regarding the land deals at McCarran International Airport, which recently got a somewhat clean bill of health from those investigating that mess. The one thing both matters have in common are the Las Vegas Review-Journal screaming that the taxpayers got taken. Maybe they did. And, maybe they didn’t. But there is no question that the R-J screamed and Chanos jumped.”

Ah, yes, it’s a conspiracy! The R-J and Chanos, conspiring to get Greenspun’s “friend” Walters! And the “somewhat” clean airport crew, too! Those bastards!

It couldn’t be, could it, that the R-J, which fills the role of a newspaper in the Las Vegas area, found a legitimate story, followed it and the authorities reacted to the paper’s coverage? That, perhaps, Walters did get a sweetheart deal from the city of Las Vegas? It couldn’t be that, because if it is, the Sun is missing a hell of a story about its editor’s “friend.”

But it’s even worse than that. Not only is Walters Greenspun’s friend, but they’re in business together! And that’s a fact you won’t read in Greenspun’s column or in the several stories defending Walters and his dealings with City Hall.

So instead of lambasting the R-J — a fully justifiable sport that we at Various Things & Stuff engage in from time to time — perhaps we should be glad that there’s at least some in the media willing to investigate and pursue these things. Without the R-J and Ralston, in fact, the most recent Walters story would probably have never come to light.

So here’s to folks who’s only real “friend” is the truth. That mysterious aura that surrounds them? It’s called credibility, Mr. Greenspun.

(Full disclosure: We at Various Things & Stuff once worked for the Sun, so we know whereof we speak. Moreover, we were employed for five years as the R-J’s political columnist, and that paper’s parent company, the Stephens Media Group, owns CityLife, this blog and our very souls. But we still get uppity from time to time.)