Gans to Jacko to Murray: Las Vegas news media hometeam drop the ball again

Interesting to see this morning that once again the Las Vegas print media is not exactly providing blanket coverage of its most far-reaching news story of the day. The police investigation into celebrity drug addiction and the issuing of fraudulent prescriptions is the biggest of its kind, is receiving international coverage and is centered on Flamingo Road in Las Vegas, where investigators searched the offices of Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray.

One Los Angeles detective only hinted at the scope of the scandal when he said:

"It’s long been suspected that friendly doctors have been enabling celebrities in Hollywood to feed their habits. However, the real extent of what’s been going on is truly shocking. We are uncovering a massive trade in fraudulent prescriptions.”

So where are the Las Vegas newsmen? The Las Vegas Sun is on its third day of covering prostitution at the Rio pool, The Review-Journal notes that Wynn resorts profits freefell 91 percent in the second quarter (the one during which his star attraction Danny Gans died), but they continue to shy away from the big embarrassments.

In fact, Vegas McCloud impersonator and Review-Journal editor Tom Mitchell has yet to assign a reporter to follow upon his gossip columnist's July 11th item about a local doctor aproached to provide drugs to Jacko:

"How widespread has the practice of doctor-shopping become in Las Vegas? Will the investigation into Jackson's prescription drug abuse lead back to the Las Vegas medical community, given Jackson spent a good deal of time here in recent years? Will the intense scrutiny uncover more leads in Danny Gans' drug-related death?

"Doctor-shopping 'has become very common'...

"The physician felt pressured to accommodate a VIP. He treated a high profile casino executive who wanted sleeping pills. A week later, the executive wanted a refill and a week after that he requested another refill 'and I said no'...

"The sad thing, he said, is that someone else filled the void. "'It's Elvis Presley all over again.'"

As we'd predicted, the Danny Gans story has become a watershed moment for the news media in Las Vegas. How long can they run? And what's their excuse this time?

(UPDATE: The Sun posted a brief story on the records seized from Dr. Murray on its website at 2:55 pm. The Review Journal ran five sentences at 3:12 pm.)

One month, two days:The only Las Vegas blogger to investigate the Danny Gans overdose death goes mysteriously silent after explosive report

The only journalist in Las Vegas to publish uncompromising reports on the overdose death of local superstar Danny Gans has gone silent, and apparently missing, since his last controversial post on the subject, which looked at the complicity of the Las vegas news media in the coverup-- as well as the possibility of foul play.

The posting, which hit almost all of the topics that the rest of the mainstream Las Vegas news media deliberately shooed away from because of pressure from casino powers and other conflicts of interest, has been the last posting on the site since.

That's one month, two days without a posting, on a site that was posting several items a week.

Down Charleston Blvd. had been ostensibly an entertainment site, reviewing Las Vegas shows as well as new music an performance. But after Gans' mysterious, untimely death on May 1st, the blogger behind the site found himself as the sole hometown source of information, as local newspapers and television media alike apparently conspired to keep a wall of silence around the tragedy, ignoring whispers of foul play and in some cases, deliberately covering up the rampant talk about the musical impressionist's use of prescription painkillers and steroids.

While the Tabloid Baby newsteam kept up an unrelenting barrage of exclusive reports and criticism of the news media and those most responsible for the Danny Gans news blackout-- (including New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas writer, Michael Jackson concert promoter and comp queen Steve Friess (far left) and Tom Mitchell, the mustachioed, duster-wearing McCloud wannabe and editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (left)-- our praise was unqualified for the anonymous journo behind Down Charleston Blvd:

"No one in Las Vegas is tackling the biggest story to hit Sin City in this young century...

"No one, that is, but a man with a blog called Down Charleston Blvd.

"His recent posting, dated on the one-month anniversary of Gans' untimely death, is the type of story we'd expect to see in a newspaper or alt-weekly-- if today's crop of "alt-weaklies" lived up to the name.

"Pretty simple, really. A local journalist serves his readers, engages them in a dialogue and responds to their questions, chases down rumours that have swept through the Ls Vegas area like bad luck.

"Bravo, Down Charleston Blvd."

Shortly after the Clark County Coroner delivered a carefully-parsed verdict on Gan's death by the powerful opiate hydromorphone, Down Charleston Blvd. posted a story titled: "More on Danny Gans' overdose"-- perhaps the only local journo to call the death an "overdose" rather than "toxic reaction."


Among the lethal points:

"First and foremost, lets call it for what it really is – an overdose";

"A source had told us Gans did not have a prescription for hydromorphone";

"A reliable source tells us that Gans became addicted";

"Our source says that Gans’ did dabble with steroids on and off – which started way back in his baseball playing days";

"He also used and tried various pain meds, typically in the synthetic opiate family";

"Another source close to Gans told us on the topic of Chip Lightman – 'Chip’s comments in the RJ since Danny died are phony";

"The chances of Gans’ family giving consent (to releasing the toxicology report) are extremely slim. The chances would be higher if there was a doctor involved in prescribing the meds because the family would likely want justice for the doctor’s malpractice..."

"A... Review Journal Employee has informed me that the RJ has been extremely reluctant to talk about Gans. They want to story to be gone as soon as possible... This is not the first time the Review Journal has buried stories or reported as little as possible..."

That was June 16th. Down Charleston Blvd. has not posted anything since.

Has the site been shut down? Have its owners run out of town for breaking the "stays in Vegas" code?

Our emails to the site and its editor have not been returned.

Down Charleston Blvd., what happened?

Danny Gans and doctor shopping: Gossip columnist blows the lid off Las Vegas news media's cone of silence

How widespread has the practice
of doctor-shopping become in Las Vegas?
Will the investigation into
Jackson's prescription drug abuse
lead back to the Las Vegas medical community,
given Jackson spent a good deal
of time here in recent years?
Will the intense scrutiny uncover more leads
in Danny Gans' drug-related death?

--Norm Clarke, Las Vegas Review Journal

Norm Clarke of The Las Vegas Review-Journal has brought up the subject of "doctor shopping" in the Danny Gans death case. The gossip columnist and compulsive Twitterer buries the reference in story about Michael Jackson, but his column reveals once again that Las Vegas journalists are covering up a huge story bubbling under the drug overdose ten weeks ago of the biggest star on the Strip and the most unique entertainer in the country.

Norm's column, in which he interviews an anonymous doctor who claims Jackson's handlers once tried to intimidate him into prescribing painkillers under someone else's name," directly connects Jackson's apparent overdose death to Gans'.

Norm also extends the accusation of "doctor shopping" (requesting care from multiple physicians, often simultaneously, without making efforts to coordinate care, usually due to a patient's addiction to prescription drugs) in Las Vegas to at least one "high profile casino executive."


The column is all the more extraordinary for several reasons:

* The exact cause of Jackson's death won't be known for weeks, until toxicology reports are completed;

* The Las Vegas news media had refused to speculate about or investigate Gans' untimely death, claiming they could do nothing until toxcicology reports were completed;

* The talk of the town in Vegas was and is Gans' alleged use of steroids and prescription drugs;

* No one in the mainstream Las Vegas news media opened the floodgates of revelations about Gans once it was revealed that the supposedly Born Again Christian former athlete had died from a dose of hydromorphone, otherwise known as Dilaudid or "drug store heroin."

Leave it to the gossip columnist.

Just as his jaunty eyepatch is key to his image, Norm's candid reporting is a hallmark of his work. As a gossip columnist, he is known to plant unconfirmed items from publicists-- or, in the Danny Gans case, from Gans' manager and close female friend who were on a campaign to mislead the public about the musical impressionist's lifestyle-- but his job also frees him to write whatever he wants to fill the space (after the coroner's report on Gans was released, he was the only one to copy our report that Gans was now linked to Vegas legend Elvis Presley though Dilaudud).

This morning he writes about a doctor who claims he was called to Jackson's suite at the Mirage Hotel & Casino in 2003 (owned at the time by Steve Wynn, and the home of Danny Gans' show ):

"The doctor's experience with Jackson raises several questions: How widespread has the practice of doctor-shopping become in Las Vegas? Will the investigation into Jackson's prescription drug abuse lead back to the Las Vegas medical community, given Jackson spent a good deal of time here in recent years? Will the intense scrutiny uncover more leads in Danny Gans' drug-related death?

"'Doctor-shopping 'has become very common,' he said.

"The meeting with Jackson wasn't the first time the physician felt pressured to accommodate a VIP.

"He treated a high profile casino executive who wanted sleeping pills. A week later, the executive wanted a refill and a week after that he requested another refill 'and I said no -- and my services are no longer required.'

"The sad thing, he said, is that someone else filled the void.

"'It's Elvis Presley all over again.'

Though we've criticized Norm for the recent Gans factoids he spread, the joy with which he covers his beat and his excitement over getting a scoop-- see his constant, compulsive Twitter posts-- sets him apart from the corrupt editors and scaredy-cat reporters who are content to keep their heads down so they don't join the ranks of the laid-off.

The speculation in Las Vegas-- and knowledge among many reporters and editors-- is that Danny Gans got his prescription drugs from more than one doctor, as well as from members of his entourage.

Norm's single sentence in the nineteenth paragraph of a gossip column, could be the spark that sets off the explosive coverage that will blow this lid off off a scandal that goes far beyond the hypocrisy of Danny Gans.

The realization of what slipped through on the weekend will surely cause editor Tom Mitchell to tear off his three-beaver Resistol, toss it on the floor and jump up and down on it, yelling, "Dag nab it! Dad burn it!"

Norm's column could also convince a reporter to interview a doctor or musician under the cover of anonymity.

It could even lead to some real independent journalism in a city where journalism isn't merely dying, but slowly killing itself with painkillers.

Exclusive! Steve Friess' Danny Gans excuse: "A fine restraint"? More like "a fine mess."

Throughout our coverage of the Las Vegas news media's lax coverage of the death of local superstar Danny Gans, a local writer named Steve Friess has gotten more than his share of attention, beginning when he went on the public attack against us after we emailed him privately for his take on the situation. In the weeks to follow, the author of Gay Vegas and stringer for the New York Times tried to have us shut down and refused to allow us to use his photo, forcing us to use facsimiles, as he was revealed to be part of an organized campaign to cover up the details of Gans' life and death.

This morning, Friess has surfaced in the pseudo-alternative Las Vegas Weekly with an astonishing excuse on behalf of not only himself, but the entire local news media for its unforgivable lax coverage and coverup of the drug overdose death, and apparently secret life of, a unique superstar entertainer.

In a city with such a colorful history of corruption and criminality, with a press that is world-renown as little more than public relations lapdogs, the holier-than-thou screed from the notorious comp queen is beyond astounding. For this one, we will use Steve Friess' actual photo, because readers should be able to connect the words with the face. We present his article, along with the frightening photo of Danny Gans chosen by a sly photo editor, unedited-- with a few footnotes:

Las Vegas Weekly
6.18.09 issue
A fine restraint
By not going tabloid on the Danny Gans story, the Las Vegas media distinguished itself
Steve Friess

Danny Gans at the Encore Theater, March 2009 Photo: Leila Navidi

In New York and Los Angeles, when a major star drops dead of unknown causes, there is a repulsive ritual that takes place. (1) A certain breed of journalist will begin a vigil outside the deceased’s residence, will rifle through their trash, will bribe all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons and will call up anyone and everyone even questionably related to the person for even the most unlikely comment. (2)

In Las Vegas, when left to our own devices, we do things a little differently. (3) And I, for one, couldn’t be happier about that. (4)

Danny Gans’ death provided an intriguing case study of that difference because of his strange status as this massive, mega-wealthy star whose fame essentially ceased to exist beyond the county limits. (5) As I wrote some weeks ago in this space, I was on the front lines of trying to get someone beyond Las Vegas to take interest after Gans’ wife found him unresponsive early on May 1. (6)

"In Las Vegas, when left to our own devices,
we do things a little differently."

The national press noted the death with a minimum of interest and then moved on (7) even as questions remained in the air about what killed the impressionist following an inconclusive autopsy. Even the tabloid media only dabbled in it vaguely, owing probably to paltry interest (8); PerezHilton.com’s few postings on the Gans matter drew just a couple dozen comments, most of them from people wondering who Gans was. (9) A typical Perez post draws hundreds of responses. (10)
This left the Las Vegas media to tackle the matter without the influence of outside forces. (11) And so there was no vigil at the Gans household, nobody got bribed (12), and his widow and children were left to attend to their grief.It’s not that journalists here didn’t want to know and report what had happened to Gans. (13) It was that nothing we could report could be concrete, backed up by any data. (14) Reporters were stuck in a holding pattern until the toxicology reports were completed, (15) because absent of an official report by the scientists analyzing Gans’ remains, no amount of speculation could be credible or based in fact. (16)Oh sure, we could have traded in rumors. (17) That’s undoubtedly what would have happened had Gans been a star whose death became a national obsession. But even then, it wouldn’t have been the legitimate media airing theories and conjecture, it would’ve been unrestrained talking heads on cable TV and some breathless tabloid hacks. (18)

One Internet rumor that Gans had a legion of pill bottles strewn about his bed (19) was an interesting case in point. Nobody ever said this on the record, (20) and try as I might (21) I couldn’t find the original source of this claim. It’s an urban legend, both unprovable and impossible to disprove, fodder for those wishing to grab on to something. (22)

But hey, let’s take it as truth for the sake of argument. So? Let’s stir in the suspicion among many that Gans took steroids. (23) So? Have we now proved anything? (24) Let’s put that unsubstantiated conjecture on the front page of the newspaper. (25) So? Have we now informed the public of anything that we know to be true? (26) No.
During the quiet period, those six weeks until Coroner Mike Murphy’s June 9 press conference revealed that Gans’ death was caused by some vague interplay between the powerful pain pill Dilaudid and his heart condition (27), the Vegas media took a licking. (28) One particularly strident commentator (29) looked in on the case from afar (30) and insisted that at worst there was a cover-up (31) and at best the town was being covered by a lazy group of journalists not doing their jobs. (32) More than one person suggested this could be the story of the century, that it was Pulitzer bait. (33)

Except that it’s not. (34) It’s just a celebrity death. That’s all. (35) It’s a sad and curious event, sure. But a story of consequence? One that impacts the day-to-day lives of anyone beyond the bereaved? No. (36) This wasn’t even a celebrity who liked the limelight. Unlike other celebrities whose deaths were being used as yardsticks-- Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger, Elvis Presley- Gans didn’t use his self-destruction, if that’s what it was, to market himself. (37)

That’s just a little bit of perspective, (38) and it’s something that Las Vegas reporters were surprisingly able to hold on to because the tabloid-industrial complex didn’t rush in to pervert the situation. (39) Indeed, it’s become so normal for the lurid details of entertainers’ lives to be exploited (40) that it’s become not only expected but, in some quarters, viewed as good journalism. (41)

Now that the coroner has made his ruling, the media has certain facts to work off of, and has done so. (42) Review-Journal Editor Tom Mitchell wrote this week that the paper is trying to unseal the autopsy results (43) because the Dilaudid explanation raises more questions about whether Gans was an addict to that or something else (44), and whether his doctors were irresponsible. Mitchell made that pursuit sound hopeless. (45)

The Las Vegas Sun’s Marshall Allen, the medical writer who had already been digging in on the data related to the reckless overprescription of pain medication in Las Vegas, came back on June 11 with a piece quoting pain and addiction specialists suggesting there must be more to the story. (46) All that is as it should be. If there is an issue of broader societal relevance in the Gans death, (47) it’s as a high-profile example of what Allen has been writing about for months. That problem actually does impact thousands of other patients in Nevada. (48)

"Unfortunately for those who desire more,the rest of the informationis tightly controlled by the Gans family and perhaps the Wynn Resorts folkswho made the deal to sign Gans."

But until the coroner had offered his conclusion, Allen couldn’t go there, because had he been wrong— had something unrelated felled Gans— the journalist’s credibility would have been shot, and the stories written would have had to be retracted.(49) Whether this analysis happened on June 11 or May 11 made no actual difference to anyone, except that on June 11, it had the force of science behind it, too. (50)
I have certainly chastised the Vegas media for not being aggressive enough in many past instances, even related to celebrities. (51) It outraged me, for instance, when journalists gathered for a roundtable with Criss Angel weeks after he had threatened to blind R-J columnist Norm Clarke didn’t even ask about it. (52) Physical threats to reporters would seem like something journalists would rally around, (53) but only my Weekly colleague Richard Abowitz and I dwelled on it much. (54)

Yet in this situation, there was a sequence of events that had to unfold. And it did. (55) And unfortunately for those who desire more—and given Gans’ lack of notoriety outside Vegas, that desire is extremely limited (56) — the rest of the information is tightly controlled by the Gans family and perhaps the Wynn Resorts folks who made the deal to sign Gans. (57)

Sure, it would be interesting to know the rest of this story, (58) and I suspect little bits will come out here and there. (59) So far as I can see, though, this was a job well done by the Vegas press in maintaining a certain level of dignity and credibility that is quickly vanishing in big-city media circles. (60)

Far from calling this a symptom of why the old media is failing, (61) I posit another conclusion: Perhaps it’s a reflection of why the old media was so successful in the age before it became commonplace to dwell in the cellar with the heartless, scum-sucking trolls. (62)

-------

FOOTNOTES:

1. The “repulsive ritual” is called “reporting.”
2. Friess’ thesis is flawed and slanted from the get-o, as he lumps the extreme method of digging through trash and potentially-illegal bribery with making phone calls and doing journalistic legwork, which are legitimate and standard procedures.
3. In Friess’ case, “differently” means attacking journalists who are doing their jobs, attempting to have their site shut down, spreading false rumours to throw them off the track and helping Danny Gans’ close friend in a coverup of the facts.
4. Friess does not explain that he wanted the story killed because of conflict-of-interest (his relationship with Steve Wynn and Alicia Jacobs among them).
5. Gans was a star with a permanent home on the Las Vegas Strip, but his audience was comprised of tourists from all over the world. His fame was worldwide.
6. From the first story he wrote for the Las Vegas Weekly on May 7th, Friess is the one who has been pushing the notion that “apart from Vegas, most of the country had no idea who Gans was.”
7. In a story like this, the national press will take its cues from the local media. It’s up to someone like Friess, a stringer for national and international outlets, to do the work. From the start, he downplayed the Gans story and worked actively to stop anyone from covering it.
8. The tabloid media took great interest in the story. (See TabloidBaby.com.)
9. Perez Hilton is not the best barometer, as Gans’ wholesome, mainstream audience is older than the Perez readership.
10. Friess is known to have an obsessive hatred of Perez Hilton, as reflected in his May 7th blogpost about Tabloid Baby, in which he referred to Perez and his ilk as “vermin.”
11. The Las Vegas media was pounded by outside forces who wanted Gans’ secret life and habit covered up because of the negative impact it would have on his squeaky-clean image and industry that will continue after his death with books, DVDs and tributes. Friess in particular was drawn into a coverup by his friend Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen-turned-TV-entertainment-reporter who works with Friess' “husband” Miles Smith at KVBC-TV.
12. While story sources may not have been bribed, whether journalists or writers like Friess were paid off to stay away from the Gans story is still being investigated.
13. The Las Vegas news media, including Friess, made it clear that it was in their best interest to not know.
14. The data was out there to be gathered. Legwork and phone calls are the key.
15. During this “holding pattern,” journalists should have been gathering evidence to back up or refute the coroner’s findings.
16. In the end, the coroner’s report was spurious and questioned, but still unchallenged.
17. The Las Vegas news media should have addressed and shot down the rumours that spread beyond city borders.
18. With his “podcast” promotional show, Friess is the “unrestrained talking head” of Las Vegas, taking the lead in covering up the Gans story.
19. The pill bottle story came from a police source.
20. A reporter does not get all his information from “on the record” sources.
21. “Try as I might"? We challenge Friess on the point that he did any investigative reporting at all on this story.
22. Demonstrably untrue. The story can be confirmed or refuted by speaking to the paramedics on the scene or a source at the Henderson Police Department. That however, would entail “call(ing) up anyone and everyone even questionably related to the person.” (See footnote #4).
23. Friess wrote on his blogsite on May 15th that “Gans' suspected steroid use has been out there for years.”
24. Yes, the report would have proven that Gans, the allegedly clean-living athlete, used steroids that could have contributed to his unexpected death at 52.
25. Conjecture? It is your job to get the facts. Through phone calls; in this case, even garbage-sifting.
26. A journalist determines the veracity through his or her work.
27. Danny Gans died from an overdose of the powerful opiate hydromorphone, also known as Dilaudid or “drug store heroin.” He apparently did not have a prescription for it.
28. Deservedly so. It should be mentioned that while the media took a licking, it licked the boots of its masters, the casino magnates and advertisers.
29. Tabloid Baby.
30. Afar? We have operatives and correspondents in Las Vegas proper.
31. Friess admitted being party to the cover-up (See TabloidBaby.com, May 15, 2009)
32. True.
33. The sudden, unexplained death and ultimate exposure of Las Vegas entertainment’s single paragon of virtue, a homegrown superstar whose industry was based on a shrewd appeal to corporate and evangelical Christian audiences, who was either a boon or a drag to a sinking economy and a controversial figure amid the local water crisis, is surely one of Las Vegas’ biggest stories of this young century, and an investigation of all the story’s threads and tentacles could indeed lead to Pulitzer recognition, not to mention the downfall of a corrupt power structure. TabloidBaby.com’s coverage is already being assembled—in the proper binders--for Pulitzer Prize recognition.
34. Except that it is. (See footnote #33)
35. A celebrity death is, in itself, worthy of coverage and investigation.
36. Of course it impacts lives in Las Vegas, beginning with the staff at the Encore Theatre, continuing through tour groups, the Church at South Las Vegas, Terry Fator, Gordie Brown and many others, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which bought the rights to Gans’ “autobiography” days after his death.
37. The fact that Gans marketed himself as a squeaky-clean Born Again Christian and clean-living family man while apparently living a double, secret life as an addict, makes this story even more newsworthy than the sad public decline of someone like Anna Nicole. Add the Elvis connection and it’s more than a story.
38. “Perspective”? More like a bit of spin from a corrupt writer who, with his BFF Alicia Jacobs, is trying to keep a lid on the truth.
39. The “tabloid-industrial complex” was there to cut through the perversion of gatekeepers like Friess.
40. The Gans story is not a case of journalistic exploitation, but one of revelation of the exploitation of fans by a cynical marketing team and its collaborators in the local media who knew the true story behind the façade.
41. Not necessarily good journalism, but journalism.
42. An examination of the local Las Vegas media’s coverage since the coroner’s announcement has revealed precious little work by the local media.
43. Incorrect. Tom “McCloud” Mitchell wrote that his paper had asked for the results and was denied. In his words, “the case is closed.”
44. A little reporting, and a few of those dreaded phone calls, could find the answers.
45. Assign a reporter or two to the story and you’d be surprised what hope will appear.
46. Friess is beginning to disappear up his own arsehole. Now he is explaining why the Danny Gans story is important and actually deserves investigation!
47. Four paragraphs ago, Friess claimed no one “beyond the bereaved” would be affected by the story (see footnote #36). Now he claims there is wide “societal influence.” Does the Las Vegas Weekly have an editor, or does the editor, like so many others in Las Vegas, dislike Friess and is allowing him to be hoist by his own pertard?
48. See footnotes #36, 47.
49. Interviews, phone calls, legwork could all have confirmed facts before the delayed, whitewashed coroner’s report was released.
50. The scientific evidence within the report was not released. The Gans death report had the force of powerful Las Vegas public relations spin behind it and the paid reporters in town were powerless to refute it because they had not laid the foundation beforehand.
51. This has no relevance to this issue.
52. Personal gossip.
53. Friess threatened Tabloid Baby and attempted to have the site shut down—because we used his photo.
54. LA Times reporter Abowitz has remained at a far remove from the story, partially because of his antipathy to Gans as a performer and persona.
55. The events unfolded, but the Las Vegas media remained paralyzed.
56. Again, Friess keeps insisting that no one outside Las Vegas is interested. A Google News search of “Danny Gans death” proves him wrong.
57. Bingo. The news media is also under tight control by the “Wynn Resorts folks.”
58. Again, Friess reverses himself by admitting the story is of great interest.
59. Much will come out, despite the efforts of Friess and his crew.
60. Astonishing in its disingenuousness and dishonesty.
61. It is a huge symptom of why “old media” is dying.
62. Again, Friess resorts to name-calling.

Rumor Rat is latest influential media source to focus on Las Vegas news media's attempt to cover up Danny Gans overdose

They won't admit it in the newsrooms and corporate boardrooms of Las Vegas, but people are paying rapt attention to our coverage of the death and post mortem coverup of the life of Danny Gans, the evangelical Christian headliner who died from an overdose of the powerful opiate Dilaudid.

If it were up to Tom "McCloud" Mitchell, editor of the sinking Las Vegas Review-Journal, fellow journalists would follow the lead of Gans' tragic family and leave the details of his drug use and secret life a closed book.

Steve Friess (left), the local New York Times stringer and comp queen, would have us believe that an investigation into the details of a life that one prominent Las Vegas journalist now calls "a fabric of lies" is somehow not fit to be printed.

But people are paying attention: powerful people far beyond Clark County who are looking at the players in Las Vegas and shaking their heads. The Hollywood Reporter's Ray Richmond was the first to point it out on his essential Man Bites Tinseltown site.

The latest resource spreading the news about Danny Gans and what the Las Vegas news media is not reporting is Rumor Rat, the entertainment news and gossip site that caused immediate shockwaves when it suddenly appeared a few weeks ago with shots across the bows of Perez Hilton and the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com.

Writes the Rat:

"There's an interesting story that's, oddly, NOT surfacing in Las Vegas, but which seems to have a great deal of journalistic merit.

"Apparently entertainer Danny Gans, one of few Sin City entertainers with a squeaky-clean family image, had been hooked on pain killers for years prior to his death.

"Despite this, his overdose is being portrayed in the local Las Vegas media as a freak accident of sorts...

"But the website Tabloid Baby is reporting that Gans had recently been seeking medical treatment for hearing loss - the kind of hearing loss suffered by Rush Limbaugh and others as a result of chronic Vicodin and/or Oxycontin use.

"Tabloid Baby has been on top of this story since news of Danny's death first broke, and the webber's account of what's not being reported by the Las Vegas press is an eye-opening read."

There is one Las Vegas newssite that's been fearless in its reporting of the Danny Gans case. We'll have their story next.

"Denied. No surprise." Prying? Or lying? Las Vegas Review-Journal editor can't wait to close the books on the Danny Gans story he can't tell

LAS VEGAS - “It was not a well-kept secret among his friends. We all knew Danny Gans was a drug addict.”

A source within the newsroom of the Las Vegas Review-Journal was talking this weekend about the case the newspaper staff was not allowed to investigate.

“And no one was surprised by the coroner’s announcement. But he was really cool. Because it wasn’t a homicide, all he had to do was list what killed him. Who knew what cocktail Danny was on when he died?

“Tabloid Baby was spot on. Every time. You had it right every step of the way. But our hands were tied. None of his friends or coworkers would go on the record. They were afraid they'd lose their jobs. And Steve Wynn was putting so much pressure on the paper…”

If it’s difficult to be a journalist at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, imagine how hard it must be to be the editor, knowing his stature diminishes a bit every time he’s forced by outside pressures to make it seem as if the paper’s crack investigative reporting team is trying its hardest to bring “justice” in the untimely death of the Las Vegas Strip headliner, while everyone who works for him knows he’s settling back comfortably after dodging a bullet from advertisers and casino magnates whose boots he licks.

Long tall Tom “McCloud” Mitchell, the Review-Journal’s fussily mustachioed Stetson-sporting editor, kept his reporters away from the Gans story for 39 full days, making any reporting— and it turns out investigation— off limits, beyond laudatory comments from the likes of Steve Rossi— until the Clark County coroner found a way to acceptably cloud the cause of death that everyone in town knew was fait accompli. (On May 13th, we reported that Review-Journal reporters and editors believed Danny Gans succumbed to painkillers; on May 25th, Marshal Mitchell called us "anonymous plagiarizing gnats.")

Seems the unwritten rule at the Review-Journal is that a reporter waits obediently for the public officials to hand him a statement, then gets to work and asks politely for more crumbs. When the crumbs are denied, the reporter must throw his hands in the air and walk away.

In the case of the Dilaudid overdose of Danny Gans, controversial Clark County coroner Mike Murphy took 39 days to come up with a delicately-parsed explanation of the clean-living entertainer’s death that threw up the admission that Gans had died “accidentally” from a “toxic reaction” the powerful opiate also known as hydromorphone, while pointedly leaving out all other details and refusing to answer other questions, including the amount of the “drug store heroin” found in the tissue samples, whether Gans had needle marks on his body, who prescribed the drug, or what other drugs-- including steroids-- were in Gans’ tissues.

Change the headline

After reporting the very controversial findings, the Review-Journal did its part in helping the coroner explain away the many unanswered questions-- and change the headline at the time, "Findings in death of Danny Gans leave questions," by digging up a local doctor who claimed he’d prescribed Dilaudid to Gans five years ago.

The doctor’s, and by association, the Review-Journal’s official, “magic bullet” theory: Gans had stumbled upon the old bottle in his medicine cabinet on May 1st, inadvertently popped a Dilaudid or two and died.

The effect of the tall tale, titled “DOCTOR SAYS DANNY GANS WOULDN’T ABUSE DRUGS,” worked as intended: newspapers around the world picked up the story and a new factoid was added to the Danny Gans death coverup:

Associated Press:
Doctor: I wrote prescription for Danny Gans’ drug

MSNBC.com:
Doctor: I wrote prescription for Danny Gans

Honolulu Advertiser, San Jose Mercury News:
Doctor says Vegas entertainer Danny Gans had old prescription

Behind the scenes, Las Vegas Review-Journal reporters know better. Legendary tough-talking columnist John L. Smith expressed his skepticism yesterday in the buried blog section of the paper’s website:

“I’ve received a number of calls from people who claim Gans wasn’t always the clean-living guy his friends have described in the days since his death.”

“A number of calls?” Surely, the calls had begun long before the coroner’s press conference on Tuesday.

Surely, the tough guy columnist followed up on them.

Surely, he and the rest of the Review-Journal news team had been gathering information and following up on leads all along, ready to publish them as soon as the coroner had his say. Few stories in the so-called Sin City could be juicier than that of the secret double life of a charismatic, enigmatic star who built a reputation and industry on an anti-Vegas, holier-than-thou evangelical Christianity and family values ticket.

"Denied. No surprise."

We’d hoped that the Review-Journal would finally show its hand with a big spread in today’s Sunday edition.

It did not.


Instead, there was an “opinion” piece from editor Tom “McCloud” Mitchell, essentially a reprint of a blog post from earlier this week, in which he actually declares the Gans case to be closed, and makes it seem that once again, his investigation is being stymied by the coroner.

It should be noted that McCloud’s columns are usually accompanied by this photo:


Here is the editor's photo for this particular whopper:


Notice that Tom Mitchell is not wearing his cowboy hat, most probably because he realizes his column violates Tenet #3 of The Cowboy Code:

“He must always tell the truth.”

The column is entitled:

We pry because the dead can't speak for themselves

“The day after the coroner announced that the death of impressionist/singer Danny Gans was accidental, the Review-Journal received a reply to our public records request for Gans’ toxicology report. 

No surprise. Denied.”


Tom Mitchell explains that coroner “cited a 1982 opinion from then-Attorney General Dick Bryan” that maintains the confidentiality of medical records beyond the grave. He describes the decision as “bizarre,” “fashioned out of vagaries and sleight of hand,” and adds:

“…The living can speak for themselves. No one can really speak for the dead.

 Nothing against the coroner’s conclusion in the Gans case, but if the toxicology report were allowed to be inspected by an independent medical examiner, might not another opinion be found? Now the case in closed. No one, so far as we will ever know, will be found culpable or contributory. 

Gans can’t speak for himself. Who will?”

“No surprise… denied” is disturbingly similar to brings to mind the "The word is… No word”, the LVRJ lead of June 4th, when the paper wrote that the coroner still had no answers to Gans’ mysterious death, and that the Review-Journal would wait patiently until he did.

On Tuesday, Tom Mitchell sent a reporter to a news conference, reported what the coroner said, sent in the standard request for the complete report, was turned down and now wipes his hands of the matter. As far as he's concerned, the story’s over.

"We pry."

You pried?

“Now the case is closed. No one… will be found culpable or contributory.”

Now the case is closed?

”Gans can’t speak for himself. Who will?”

Who will?

The case is never closed as long as a journalist keeps it open (we learned that from those third-rate burglaries at that office-apartment-hotel complex hotel in Foggy Bottom back in ’72).

Who will speak for Danny Gans?

That’s your job, Tom.

You pried?

You didn't pry. You and the rest of the Las Vegas news media transcribed, paralyzed by the notion that it was somehow improper to pry until the coroner announced his official finding. Once that happened, you asked, but didn't tell.

The case is closed? Not by a longshot. There’s another major revelation about Danny Gans that we know you and your reporters know about.

Bet we beat you to it.

Tomorrow.

Despite spin from coroner and Las Vegas media, the sad truth remains: Danny Gans died from using Dilaudid, the opiate favored by Elvis & Anna Nicole

Las Vegas Sun

Impressionist Danny Gans’ death was accidental and the cause
was hydromorphone toxicity due to chronic pain syndrome,
Coroner Mike Murphy announced this afternoon.
Hydromorphone is a synthetic opiate
more commonly known as Dilaudid.

--Las Vegas Review-Journal

Danny Gans was a superstar. Danny Gans was a family man. Danny Gans was an athlete. Danny Gans was an exemplar of Born Again Christian values that were part of his official biography and a major art of his appeal. Danny Gans was the wholesome, corporate clean standard bearer of Las Vegas Nevada, a resort destination known the world over as "Sin City."

Whatever pain and human frailties this man endured, he realized he had to endure in private. And after he died, unexpectedly, unexplainedly, on May 1st, in his home, the media in his town kept his secrets, deciding to not report about the prescription drugs found by paramedics in the room where his body was found, the rumours of steroid use that were rampant throughout entertainment circles, or any hint of human weakness.

So the long-delayed announcement today by coroner Mike Murphy that Danny Gans died because of "hydromorphone toxicity due to chronic pain syndrome," the phrasing was deliberate, the language was perfected to Clintonesque perfection to disguise the sad reality:

Danny Gans died from the use of Dilaudid, hydromorphone, an opiate narcotic used to treat severe chronic pain, the drug a favorite drug of Elvis Presley, and a drug he took on the day he died, as well as the drug favored by Anna Nicole Smith.

Two reporters for The Las Vegas Review Journal reported on the death this morning with a lead that reflected the whitewashing, tone favored by editor Tom "McCloud" Mitchell, but a second line that was a journo's demand for clarity:

"Impressionist Danny Gans’ death was accidental and the cause was hydromorphone toxicity due to chronic pain syndrome, Coroner Mike Murphy announced this afternoon.

"Hydromorphone is a synthetic opiate more commonly known as Dilaudid."

At his press conference Tuesday, the coroner was Danny Gans' greatest defender, insisting, "This was not drug abuse. What I’m trying to be clear about is, we have an issue involving Mr. Gans’ health and the hydromorphone, and as a result of a combination of those issues, Mr. Gans succumbed to his health condition.”

Mike Weatherford and Brian Haynes summarized his findings in the Review-Journal:

"Dilaudid was 'a factor in exacerbating those risks' of his pre-existing conditions, hypertensive cardiovascular disease and polycythemia, a thickening of the red blood cells often described as 'the opposite of anemia.'"

They added, pointedly:

"Dilaudid's analgesic potency is from two to eight times that of morphine, but it is shorter-acting and produces more sedation than morphine, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration."

The coroner would not report what other drugs were found in Gans' body. “We are trying to respect (the Gans family's) privacy and treat them appropriately as we deal with all families... They’ve been very good to work with.”

Sadly, it is Chip Lightman, Gans' manager, who led the charge to protect his client's reputation through these six weeks of mystery, who for once is left without spin, flailing and asking if his client was on the powerful narcotic because of shoulder surgery in November.

“Could they have given him that during his recovery? I don’t know where he would have gotten (Dilaudid) from but from his doctor, that’s all I could figure.”

Where did Danny Gans get the Dilaudid?

Did he have a prescription for the drug?

Why, if Danny Gans had a heart condition, would he be prescribed a drug that could lead to a heart attack?

Was this really "accidental"?

How could Las Vegas' symbol of clean-living Christianity fall to the same toxicity that brought down Elvis and Anna Nicole?

With the coroner's conclusions, the story of the death of Danny Gans is only beginning to unfold...

Down Charleston Blvd: The only Las Vegas journalist doing his job in the Danny Gans case is an anonymous blogger who puts the paid hacks to shame

Living in Las Vegas, it would be nice to open up the morning paper, pull the weekly "alternative" paper out of the box, switch on the TV news or even turn to Twitter to find the latest on the story that everyone in town is interested in, has been affected by and has an opinion about.

Unfortunately, in the case of the mysterious death of entertainer Danny Gans on May 1st, the supposedly competitive members of the news media have circled the wagons, gone to the mattresses and deliberately, offensively ignored the story, avoided investigation, allowed Gans' close friend to whitewash the details and agreed as one to wait patiently as a controversial coroner takes his sweet time coming up with an answer to what killed the supposedly strong performer at 52.

No one in Las Vegas is tackling the biggest story to hit Sin City in this young century (think about the ties to the Las Vegas economy, construction, water supply, tourism and the growing evangelical powerbase).

No one, that is, but a man with a blog called Down Charleston Blvd.

We first got in touch with the mysterious web journo in the early days of our own investigation. Down Charleston Blvd went farther on a limb than any other source, suggesting that Gans may possibly have been murdered.

FindAGrave.com

His recent posting, dated on the one-month anniversary of Gans' untimely death, is the type of story we'd expect to see in a newspaper or alt-weekly-- if today's crop of "alt-weaklies" lived up to the name. Some excerpts from Danny Gans Mystery Runs Deep:

One Month Later…

The mystery continues to grow larger, and as rumors are quashed or lose ground, new ones spawn from this dark uncertainty. Due to the fact that news and details are extremely scarce; Rumors, rumblings, and things that were overheard are sprouting up like weeds...

People want to know what happened, and when there are contradictions, and strange/odd things happening it only makes the mystery grow larger, deeper, and gives it life.

We all know everyone has a side of themselves that most rarely see. Often a darker side.

Gans is well know as a man of unflinching faith and conviction, passionate about performing, and even more passionate about his fans. A charitable celeb that didn’t donate for the publicity, a father, a husband, a friend, and said to be the best at all three.

As much as we want to believe that there were no dark secrets, no drugs, steroids, affairs, and so on; That he (Gans) just died of something unforeseen, something perhaps related to high blood pressure. You’d think we would have found that out by now if that was the case. You’d think….

We have received many requests to address some of the more possible and/or popular rumors that have been circulating. Since Gans had many fans across the world and details are scarce outside of Vegas... heck, they are even scarce here if you read the Las Vegas Review Journal or Las Vegas Sun (both owned by the same company by the way)

Did Danny Gans Kill Himself intentionally, accidentally?

You have a friend/pastor saying he was depressed, down in the dumps the day he died. Yet you have his family saying he wasn’t depressed. Danny’s religious faith was deep, in one way this knocks down the suicide theory but if his image was just a long ongoing front... drastic things can become the result...

Did Danny overdose, have a bad reaction to Drugs and/or Steroids?

...It has been speculated that Gans may have used steroids to help overcome the injuries while playing baseball and may have been using to keep up his act as he got older. Whether it has been all these years, occasionally, or just recently has been debated amongst insiders.

...Last year, The Albany County District attorney David Soares launched a probe that indicated performers Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland, Wyclef Jean and actor Tyler Perry had allegedly ordered steroids or human growth hormone from doctors and pharmacists targeted in Soares’ investigation.

Was Gans using and did his heart become so weakened that he died or could have their been another similar reaction? or did he perhaps take too much? We contacted the Clark County Coroner’s office about this directly, and asked about rumors that there were marks on Gans’s body possibly indicating ‘track marks’ – or that needles were used by Mr. Gans. The coroner’s office denied these rumors...

Friends and associates have been said to believe that Gans was hiding his usage of steroids, and noted his facial characteristics changing as it took effect on him.

One Friend we spoke with shared an awkward moment he had with Gans when he told Danny that his head was getting big. “He (Gans) took it figuratively he said, but I meant literally." he went on to say “I can’t say for sure if he took any kind of drugs or steroids and I honestly think if he did, very and I mean very few people knew about it; All I noticed was the change in appearance as others have, for me it was the size of his head increasing..."

As more and more rumors point to Gan’s using steroids, at this stage it seems to be the strongest theory as to what may have caused Gans to suddenly die at age 52.

Talks of murder dim, but lingering

The rumors of Gans being murdered haven’t completely diminished here in Sin City. They have only altered and shifted in possible details.

At first people thinking money being the factor, now have gone more towards rumors of Gan’s having an affair. The woman rumored that Gans was possibly having an affair with? Why Alicia Jacobs of course.

...in the exclusive interview with Tabloid Baby (here) Alicia said in response to the rumors of her and Gans having a relationship

“No. Oh my gosh, no,”
“We were just very great friends.”

But you have a few out there saying something was odd about them. Those ‘few’ people have said that when seen together, they looked like a couple, or at least Alicia made it appear that way. “It was obvious how incredibly charmed she was by him” said one source. One source going as far as to call her “Gan’s biggest groupie." The rumor of them having an affair has stuck around especially when Alicia shared her story about Gan’s giving her a bible, inscribing it, and how she cherished it every night. Plus other comments and Television appearances she has made seem to only add fuel to the rumor...

As we reported early on, this appears to be the weaker rumor that still happens to be floating. Although Metro (LVMPD) has stated that they do not suspect foul play, a Metro source told us that “This early in the game, Metro will say that, even if they do suspect it. I know it’s not ruled out at this point"

So where are the Feds in all this?

...At the time of this posting, the FBI had not gotten back to us.

So we wait… As irritation, and suspicion grow fiercer and it becomes clear that the delay in the Toxicology Results do not fit the time frame of other reports on other cases here in Las Vegas. Fans of Danny Gans along with writers/journalist (who are actually touching the story) share the frustration and anger. I’m sure even Mr. Gans’ family are eager themselves to find out. This mystery begs to be closed but something about it indicates that we may be far from it…

****

And there you have it. Pretty simple, really. A local journalist serves his readers, engages them in a dialogue and responds to their questions, chases down rumours that have swept through the Ls Vegas area like bad luck.

Bravo, Down Charleston Blvd.


Shame on Tom "McCloud" Mitchell (above), Steve "Comp Queen" Friess (left) and every other paid newsman or newswoman who's avoided this case or participated in the coverup, whitewashing and image-burnishing.

NOTE: An FBI source told Tabloid Baby two weeks ago that the FBI is not involved in the Danny Gans case.

Developing...

"The word is... no word": Tom Mitchell and his Las Vegas Review-Journal team wait obediently to be spoonfed answers to the Danny Gans mystery

Danny Gans, a photo worth a thousand words (Leila Navidi/Las Vegas Sun)

"The word is... no word."

If you've come late to the story and want an idea of what's wrong with the Las Vegas news media and its disgracefully lax and irresponsible "coverage" of the death of its local superstar Danny Gans, look no farther than today's "Breaking News" report on the website of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Here it is.

Right here.

Just click.

Never has a newspaper appeared to be more pleased and smug that there is not an answer in the mysterious passing of one of its city's foremost figures and prime economic generators. Rarely is a newspaper, with a newsroom full of aggressive, competitive reporters who know their ship is on the verge of sinking, so obsequious, obedient and... and... incurious as this gang of civic boosters laboring under the fussy mustache and cartoonish Stetson of editor Tom "McCloud" Mitchell.

"The Las Vegas Sun put more
time, effort and column inches into
investigating the final years
of Las Vegas legend Sam Butera,
who died this week at 81, than the
entire local news media combined
have dedicated to the death
of Danny Gans."

To bring you up to date: Last night, beauty queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs, Danny Gans' close personal friend (and, with his manager Chip Lightman, guardian and promoter of his myth) somehow got the news that the Clark County Coroner had finally received the results of the long-awaited toxicology report that might explain why this seemingly robust, athletic, teetotaling, healthy-eating Born Again Christian, clean-living, spiritual family man died in his sleep at 52.

This morning, we spoke to the coroner's office. The spokeswoman there wouldn't elaborate beyond what Alicia Jacobs reported. She wouldn't answer our questions about whether steroids or other drugs were involved.

"We're not allowed to give out any information," she claimed.

The local boys though, they got to speak to coroner Mike Murphy. Their secret? They don't ask questions. They listen. They transcribe. They never, ever challenge an answer. They copy down the party line. Their editors sanitize the story even further so even someone like Steve Wynn would approve.

And then the story is released without a byline.

Tom Mitchell, the cowboy-posing pissant who accused our journalistic team of plagiarism and has yet to apologize, will have to take the blame for this one (from which we excerpt a portion):

****

Cause of death for Gans will take at least two more weeks
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

The word is... no word. A medical explanation for the death of entertainer Danny Gans at age 52, which shocked Las Vegas last month, is still at least two weeks away.

“It’s not available for release and we’re still poring over the information,” Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said today about toxicology reports that have now been submitted to a medical examiner. “We’ve gathered what we believe is all the critical information and now we anticipate an answer within the next couple of weeks,” he said, but added that it could take longer.

“You need to remember that Mr. Gans died on May 1 and we’re just at the beginning of June and it takes two to four weeks just to gather that information, so we’re in the right time frame. And once you get all the information, it could create the need to do other testing. But all the initial information is in, so we have to review it and see where it goes.”

Murphy declined to speculate about possible findings. Gans’ family has said he was on medication to control high blood pressure, but otherwise had no health issues as far as they knew. As the wait for a conclusive cause of death continues, Gans’ manager, Chip Lightman, said the family is “doing as well as can be expected..."

Lightman added that the coroner had promised Gans’ wife, Julie, that she would be the first to be called when test results come in.

Lightman has said that on the night before Gans died, he had slept poorly. Police responded to a call from Gans’ Henderson home at around 3:45 a.m. May 1. Paramedics arrived but could not resuscitate him...

****

Fellow journos: Have a field day parsing that one.

We'll stick with the most obvious ringers. Interesting that the crack reporters at the Review-Journal allowed themselves to be lectured on process by the controversial coroner, and then reprinted the late, unsubstantiated claim by Lightman and Jacobs that Gans was dealing with high blood pressure-- yet did not bring up national reports of Gans' steroid use ("steroids" being the first word on anyone's lips when Gans' death is discussed).

Even comp queen, Gay Vegas author, former New York Times stringer and Gans cover-up accomplice Steve Friess (left) admitted "Gans' suspected steroid use has been out there for years."

(Just think, Tom. A simple warning about steroids might save the life of a high school athlete.)

The paper also did not comment on word that Gans' wife Julie would be the first to get the results. With all respect to Mrs. Gans, it is all to obvious that the second person to receive the findings will Lightman, who will then get laundry help from Jacobs.

The Las Vegas Sun? Fughedabout it. The Pulitzer winners are running with an Associated Press story. In the end, the Sun today put more time, effort and column inches into investigating the final years of Las Vegas legend and Tabloid Baby pal Sam Butera, who died this week at 81, than the entire local news media combined have dedicated to the death of Danny Gans.

Don't ask, don't tell?

Shame, guys.

Every one of you hiding behind Alicia Jacob's miniskirts might as well be at the end of one of her leashes or inside one of her controversial doggie purses.

Is it fear? Incompetence? Pressure from advertisers and higher-ups?

We'll place our bet on the chance that there's one reporter in the Review-Journal newsroom who's mad as hell and busting at the seams to get the real story out.

You know where to find us. (Find us by clicking here!)

"The word is... no word?" Ask some tough questions. Follow up what you know. You'd be surprised how many words you'd be able to come up with.

Tom Mitchell and his crew have neglected their responsibility and as result are adding to and extending the Danny Gans mystery. They've set the stage for what is bound to be the most disputed and disbelieved post mortem since the report from The Warren Commission.