Washington Monthly's Laura McGann brings us the fascinating story of John Doughterty, an investigative journalist and New York Times contributor.

After proving his investigative chops to the Nevada Policy Research Institute (a Las Vegas based libertarian think-tank), Dougherty was asked to jump on some conference calls organized by a new “right-of-center: nonprofit with ”reporters from other similar free-market policy" to help train them in the ways of investigative journalism.

As, McGann reports, the calls “rubbed Dougherty the wrong way”:

“What bothered me,” he recalls, “was they were taking delight in causing specific angst for political gain. It wasn't, to me, 'This is public interest journalism.' This is hatchet journalism to attack an opposing candidate.” After Dougherty wrote a memo to his bosses explaining his discomfort, they allowed him to skip the teleconferences, and he went on to write more than a dozen stories questioning the legality of the state's property tax structure. Once again, Dougherty's reporting hit a nerve; at least two of the state's Republican gubernatorial candidates have made overhauling the property tax system part of their campaign platforms.

Then, this past March, NPRI and Dougherty started talking about yet another project: forming a nonprofit investigative reporting center in Nevada. Dougherty was intrigued, but only wanted to be involved if the center's board was independent and included a mix of political perspectives. NPRI refused to agree to these terms. Weary of the secrecy and ax grinding surrounding the whole endeavor, Dougherty finally cut ties with the group. “There has always been, to some degree, a sort of tension between my point of view about reporting and his,” Steven Miller, the institute's vice president for policy and Dougherty's former supervisor, said when I asked him about the incident. “It's amazing we found as much common ground as we did.”

There you have it folks, “conservative journalism” at its finest.

Be sure to add McGann's entire report to your weekend reading list.