Danny Gans coverage tale of the tape: Tabloid Baby vs. Las Vegas Review-Journal

Earlier we listed the stories the Las Vegas-Review Journal has published about the mysterious death of Strip superstar Danny Gans. We reprint the list, followed by a listing of the stories Tabloid Baby has posted since receiving word that Danny Gans had died suddenly and mysteriously at age 52.

If you lived in Las Vegas and were looking for information on the top story in town, which source would you seek out?

Las Vegas Review-Journal:
May 01: Las Vegas entertainer, 52, dies at home;
foul play not suspected
May 01: Entertainers, celebrities offer memories of Gans
May 02: 'HE CAN'T BE REPLACED'
May 02: DANNY GANS: CELEBRITY MEMORIES
May 02: NORM: Gans' final act leaves mystery
May 03: NORM: Gans has final word in life story
May 04: NORM: Gans friends share feelings, memories
May 06: NORM: Mourners gather for Gans' funeral
May 08: NORM: Gans service to be invitation only
(contains retraction of May 02 story)
May 08: EDITORIAL: Danny Gans
May 10: NORM: Heart problems in Gans' family
May 14: NORM: Insurance issue
May 14: MIKE WEATHERFORD: Gans was 'down in the dumps'
before death
May 14: Coroner awaits facts to reveal cause of Gans' death

TabloidBaby.com:
May 1: Danny Gans
May 1: Remembering Danny Gans
May 1: What killed Danny Gans?
May 1: Danny: What happened?
May 1: Danny, we hardly knew ye
May 1: Curse of The Mirage?
May 2: Photos: The house where Danny Gans died
May 3: Encore website presents touching tribute
to Danny Gans-- but where are the investigative reporters
looking into the facts of his early demise?
May 3: Robin Leach on Danny Gans: "Rumors are rampant"
May 3: "Four a.m. phone call": The woman who was
first to be notified of Danny Gans' death
May 4: Danny Gans texted special friend before death
May 4: Saint Danny Gans? Las Vegas newscaster
refers to late entertainer as "religious leader,"
perhaps explaining lack of investigation by local news media
May 6: Who killed Danny Gans? Who cares?
May 6: Danny Gans sidebar: Sig Gissler can kiss our ass!
May 7: Las Vegas newspaper makes book deal
with Danny Gans' manager and family
May 7: Las Vegas journo: Tabloid Baby coverage
of Danny Gans mystery is "beneath contempt"
May 7: What are they hiding? Las Vegas journo Steve Friess
calls us "a**holes" for asking questions about
the mysterious death of Danny Gans
May 7: Danny Gans' manager Chip Lightman and Steve Wynn
book big stars into his theatre
May 8: The curtain falls on an instant myth:
Danny Gans didn't really close his last show
with eerie, prescient Bobby Darin number
May 8: Libel suit? Las Vegas writer Steve Friess
continues attacks on TabloidBaby.com
for pursuing leads in death of Danny Gans
May 8: Exclusive: Alicia Jacobs speaks to Tabloid Baby
about the life and death of her close friend Danny Gans
May 9: All of a sudden, friends say Danny Gans
had high blood pressure and a history
of heart problems in his family
May 9: The Danny Gans daisy chain:
Steve and Chip and Alicia and Norm and Miles and--
May 10: Please send us a nice photo of Steve Friess
May 10: Danny Gans item: Las Vegas journo's cry for help?
May 10: "Something clearly doesn't smell right":
Ray Richmond of The Hollywood Reporter
writes about "Danny Gans death mystery"
May 11: "Health rumors swirl": Las Vegas media
play catch-up in Danny Gans death mystery
May 11: Finally, the Danny Gans mystery is on the national Radar
May 12: Why was Danny Gans planning his obituary?
May 13: John Birch Society honors Danny Gans
May 13: EXCLUSIVE: Las Vegas Review-Journal won't publish
what it knows about the death of Danny Gans
May 14: Did we force their hand? Las Vegas Review-Journal
goes with two Danny Gans items
May 14: Under scrutiny, Las Vegas Review-Journal
publishes a third story on the Danny Gans case
May 15: Two weeks after the death of Danny Gans,
Las Vegas writer Steven Friess admits he knew
of steroid rumors, confesses to covering up death theories
May 15: Las Vegas writer Steve Friess comes clean,
tries to explain his involvement in sick spreading
of “false rumors” about the death of Danny Gans
May 16: The Las Vegas columnist who suggested
Danny Gans used "supplements" continues to avoid
the subject but returns to the story to crown Gans' successor
May 16: Why no follow-up on the "insurance issue involving
Danny Gans and his deal with Encore at Wynn Las Vegas"?
May 17: The invitation to Danny Gans' memorial
May 17: Danny Gans' final golfing partner was one
of many evangelist pastors surrounding
the Born Again Christian whose father was a Jew
May 18: Coroner says Danny Gans death verdict "still pending”
May 18: Alicia Jacobs' poignant farewell to her friend Danny Gans
May 19: Coroner's office reports great interest
in Danny Gans death mystery--
but not from the local Las Vegas news media
May 19: Major tour group is still selling Danny Gans
May 19: Danny Gans coverage tale of the tape:
Tabloid Baby vs. Las Vegas Review-Journal
May 20: ????

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.

Fit to print? New York Times report on Danny Gans' death by Dilaudid is penned by compromised comp queen and cover-up conspirator Steve Friess

Eerie: Danny Gans with Elvis on his shoulder (and a monkey on his back?)

Despite the current taste for full disclosure of journalistic conflicts of interest, readers of the New York Times received no such disclaimer on page A22 of yesterday's paper when the report on the Clark County Nevada Coroner's controversial findings in the death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans came with the byline of Steve Friess.

Friess (right) is the Las Vegas freelance writer, author of the Gay Vegas guide and comp queen whose sexual relationship with a local television news producer led him to dangerous conflict of interest and clear ethical lapses in his attempts to derail the investigative reporting into Gans' unexplained death on May 1st, an untimely passing at age 52 that was revealed this week to be the result of an overdose of Dilaudid, also known as "drug store heroin."

Friess' cover-up attempt began after we wrote him a private email on May 6, asking why Las Vegas journalists were not covering the Gans story, and he responded with a public Internet posting, calling us "a**hole," "Perez Hilton wanna be" and "vermin," and accusing us of "Danny Gans hate," among other things.

Within days, in a post titled "The Danny Gans Daisy Chain: Steve and Chip and Alicia and Norm and Miles and--," we reported on a tangled web of interpersonal dealings among Las Vegas media figures, including the revelation that Friess shares a bed with Miles Smith, executive producer of KVBC TV news, colleague of beauty queen-turned-local TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs. Jacobs had gained notoriety as Danny Gans' close and personal friend for more than a dozen years.

She not only broke the story of Gans' death, but worked with Gans' manager to spin and obfsucate the facts in such an obvious manner that the Las Vegas Review-Journal TV columnist lambasted her for her "reverse bias." Steve Bornfeld wrote "there's a difference between professional relationships and personal friendships, especially one as strongly and publicly evident as Jacobs and Gans... it creates an appearance of potential bias -- viewers/readers wondering if a reporter-friend would conceal unflattering or damaging information."

"A.J.'s boundary-breaching closeness"


Today, in his Medialogy column titled "Except for Jacobs, TV stations play Gans news straight," Bornfeld again singles out Jacobs' career-damaging conflict of interest in reporting the coroner's slippery Dilaudid announcement:

"Efficient, yet elusive.

"Such was the level of coverage and nature of the story as the cause of Danny Gans' death was disclosed Tuesday, leaving local media to present question-riddled reports of a 'drug toxicity' reaction from the painkiller Dilaudid, the coroner refraining from terming it 'drug abuse.'

"And -- except for an Alicia Jacobs commentary with an Alice-through-the-looking-glass effect of seeming completely right while being thoroughly wrong -- coverage was responsible...

"Then there was A.J.

"Her statement on the 4 p.m. news, in part: 'I'm sure there will be much focus on the drugs in Danny's system, but it's important to remember that since his baseball days, Danny dealt with endless injuries. ... On a personal note, I hope we can go back to remembering the great man and the amazing entertainer and the wonderful friend that was Danny Gans.'

"That's the response of a personal confidant who should have been a detached observer, the modest leeway of familiarity she's granted as an entertainment reporter abused long ago.

"In case news reporters, unsatisfied with ending the story with this toxicology finding, investigate further, Jacobs nudges us toward Gans' injuries as justification for his use of Dilaudid. While that's a legit element of the story as stated by neutral reporters, from Jacobs it's clearly a request for compassion from a protective pal.

"Then she plants a big wet smooch on his memory that out-Mary Harts Mary Hart. Her 11 p.m. 'Stage 3' was essentially an encore...

"Jacobs' boundary-breaching closeness to Gans oddly inoculates her -- she's so known as his buddy that withholding a heartfelt tribute would flummox fans conditioned to consider the relationship acceptable, seeming like a friend's betrayal when it's actually a professional requirement.

"...Yes, she's on the showbiz beat where sympathy might seem harmless. But when soft features turn into hard news, credibility counts in every corner of this craft."

Jacobs' conflict of interest is taken into account by local viewers.

Tried to shut us down

Friess (left), who writes for a national audience who may not be up on the local towel-snapping scandals of which he's part, should have recused himself from the story as soon as he admitted on May 15th that he was involved in sending us false information about Gans' death in effort to discredit our news team and throw us off the scent. (He also took action to shut down TabloidBaby.com after we posted his photo. We have since been forced to rely on reasonable facsimiles.)

Instead, it's the Steve Friess byline that appears on a story that is given the full authority of the New York Times. The story, of course, does not mention that the coroner refused to address what other drugs Danny Gans may have had in his system, pointedly refused to answer our question of possible steroid abuse, and arranges the words in a way that, like Alicia Jacobs, excuses the use of the powerful opiate in the name of sports injury:

The New York Times
Nevada: Entertainer's Death Is Ruled Accidental

"The Clark County coroner, Mike Murphy, ruled that the death of the popular impressionist Danny Gans, left, on May 1 was an accident brought on by a toxic level of the pain killer hydromorphone, which led to heart failure. Mr. Murphy refused to characterize the death as a drug overdose or disclose the level of hydromorphone, marketed as Dilaudid, in Mr. Gans’s system. Mr. Gans’s manager, Chip Lightman, said that he was unaware Mr. Gans, 52, was taking Dilaudid, but that Mr. Gans had shoulder surgery early this year before opening at the Encore Las Vegas resort and had follow-up surgery in March to remove scar tissue. Mr. Lightman previously told reporters that Mr. Gans had a family history of heart disease and for many years had been on medication for high blood pressure. Mr. Gans became a widely celebrated mimic known for his George Burns impression after his minor-league baseball career was cut short by a foot injury. He was prone to other injuries as well, canceling hundreds of performances over the course of his 13-year headlining career on the Strip because of shoulder, back and knee surgeries."

There have been many reasons suggested for Friess' involvement in the Danny Gans death, from the mundane-- Alicia Jacobs is supporter of same sex marriage and was the "celebrity" guest at his unofficial second marriage to Miles Smith at the Palms Hotel-- to his allegiance to Gans' employer, casino magnate Steve Wynn.

Friess picked up the Gans story on his own Vegas-boosting website on Tuesday and spoke as an authority on at least one radio station without mentioning his embarrassing missteps.

He did not post again until late this afternoon when he wrote about Englebert Humperdinck.

That Darn Norm

Then there's Norm Clarke, the colorful, nationally-known Las Vegas Review-Journal gossip columnist who has printed much of Jacobs' and Friess' planted stories that led the public farther from the truth about the life and death of Danny Gans.


In the days leading up to the coroner's hastily-called and carefully-worded news conference, Norm had been in Washington D.C, merrily Twittering his every move, from meals to exhibits at the Smithsonian.

His pure joy at reporting gossip and his evident innocence in the cover-up planning was exhibited in his Wednesday column about Danny Gans, when, hours after we drew the comparison, he guilelessly put a most sunny, even excited spin on the news that Gans had overdosed on drug store heroin:

NORM: Presley and gans linked by Dilaudid

"Danny Gans and Elvis Presley had something else in common, besides dying young.

"Both entertainers were linked after their deaths with Dilaudid, a highly addictive opiate nicknamed 'drug store heroin.'

"...According to numerous published reports, Dilaudid, said to be two to eight times more potent than morphine, was Elvis' favorite drug.

"Gans, a vocal impressionist, included a karate-kicking overweight Elvis among his spoofs of musical greats.

"Gans, a Las Vegas headliner since 1996, was 52.

"Elvis was 42 when he died Aug. 16, 1977, in Memphis, Tenn."

Viva Las Vegas...

Danny Gans photo: Ralph Fountain/Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Danny Gans daisy chain: Steve and Chip and Alicia and Norm and Miles and--

To quote Aretha: Who's zoomin' who? With those closest to the late Las Vegas headliner Danny Gans amending their stories of what they knew about the state of his health when he died in bed on May 1st at the age of 52, and with the relationships among the major media players-- the ones who are parceling out the "official" information, reporting it, and protecting it -- coming into a more clear focus, we're not sure what to to believe.

We've been called conspiracy theorists, and much worse, as we look for answers to what killed this supposedly healthy entertainer, but now, who knows? As the Las Vegas media waits patiently for the "official" report from the Clark County Coroner, did Gans manager Chip Lightman and Gans friend Alicia Jacobs toss up the "high blood pressure" story as a way to explain away drugs they know the toxicology report will list in Gans' system? Why is Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Review-Journal transcribing whatever they say, only to retract it days later when they tell him something else? Are they and supposed freelancer Steve Friess hiding something more sinister? Are they hiding anything? Was Danny Gans just a good guy with a bad ticker?

We're not saying. We're still trying to keep track of the players, and their connections:


Steve Friess is the Las Vegas freelance reporter and writer (for publications including The New York Times and USA) who went ballistic and began posting obscene insults about us after we asked him why local reporters weren't investigating the events leading to, and speculation regarding the possible cause of Gans' death.


Chip Lightman was Danny Gans' manager for most all of 18 years. He phoned a local TV reporter with news of Gans' death in the early morning hours of May 1st. He's been working the media, while working with hotel-casino magnate Steve Wynn to book acts into Gans' showroom, ever since.


Alicia Jacobs is the woman who got the 4 a.m. phone call from Lightman. She's a beauty queen-turned-television entertainment reporter who boasted a close, 13-year friendship with Danny Gans. She broke the Gans death story on KVBC-TV News.


Norm Clarke is the Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist who often quotes Steve Friess and has run several stories about Alicia Jacobs and Chip Lightman since Gans' death, including their claims that they had no idea what caused the former athlete and "health nut" to pass away prematurely.

On Thursday, Norm Clarke wrote that his paper had entered into a deal with Chip Lightman to publish Gans' autobiography. Today, one day after we interviewed Alicia Jacobs about Danny Gans (and the day after Steve Friess increased his attacks on this news organization), Norm Clarke went online with the exclusive story that Chip Lightman and Alicia Jacobs both knew all along that Danny Gans was a ticking time bomb, with high blood pressure and a family history of "heart problems."

Miles Smith is the executive producer of KVBC-TV News. He is Alicia Jacobs' boss. And he brings us full circle to Steve Friess.

How?


Miles Smith, Alicia Jacobs' boss, is Steve Friess' "husband" (in quotes because Smith and Friess were wed by a rabbi at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas-- same sex marriage is not legal in Nevada).

(UPDATE: We originally ran a great punchline photo of Steve Friess and Miles Smith in bed together. But Steve Friess has claimed ownership of many photos we've run and demanded we remove them. Mr. Friess, a journalist, has also taken action to have TabloidBaby.com shut down... )

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTO OF STEVE FRIESS LITERALLY IN BED-- UNDER THE COVERS-- WITH KVBC TV NEWS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MILES SMITH.

Developing...

Two weeks after the death of Danny Gans, Las Vegas writer Steven Friess admits he knew of steroid rumors, confesses to covering up death theories

It's been two weeks since Las Vegas headliner Danny Gans was pronounced dead in his home of still undetermined causes.

From the first we heard the news of the passing of this great, historically significant and unique entertainer, the Tabloid Baby team has pursued the story day after day, while being struck by the fact that Las Vegas journos didn't find the story worth pursuing beyond adulatory quotes from the likes of Carrot Top (Nothing against Carrot Top. We think he's cool and he makes us laugh). The official excuse was that there was no news to report until the officials released the official cause of death with the official toxicology report, since the official autopsy could not determine what caused this ox of a man's heart to stop at the age of 52.

The first solid clue there was something amiss came when we were attacked, threatened and insulted online by a character named Steve Friess (above & left), a local booster and comp queen who authored a book called Gay Vegas and writes for a number of national publications.

Friess' online hissyfit when he learned of our dogged pursuit of the Gans story was puzzling, until it was revealed that his conflicts of interest only began in his bed, which he shares with Alicia Jacobs' executive producer, and that this self-promoting freelancer exists at the pleasure of the casino kings to whom the words "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" are more than a catchphrase.

Well what a difference two weeks, or as he writes on his blog, a "fortnight," makes.

Today, Friess continues his name-calling:

"Some gay-obsessed lunatics -- well, he refers to himself in the plural, anyhow -- believes anything said about the matter at this stage is thanks to his 'vigilance.' I've since realized that Internet nutjobs will say and do what they wish regardless of accuracy, propriety or basic common sense and never back down even in the face of contrary evidence or reasoning..."

Friess goes through his usual motions: attacking RadarOnline, The National Enquirer and Perez Hilton for covering a story that he could have made a bundle on had not his freelance status been so compromised; denying there's "public appetite" for the story; insisting that "short of those tests being completed, there's not a lot for legit reporters to do."

But then Steve Friess (above left) does something more. While apologizing on behalf of the ones who tried to obfuscate the facts, he admits that he realizes a coverup took place. And while making excuses all along the way, he even slips up and admits he was part of it.

Most spectacularly, Steve Friess admits he has been covering up the story of the real Danny Gans for at least, well, at least... a "fortnight":

"...Gans' suspected steroid use has been out there for years."

He also prints the alternative theories that are out there, though carefully labeling them "bizarro":

"Danny Gans was (a) actually killed in a DUI hit-and-run; (b) was having an affair with a local news personality who has tried to get Mayor Oscar Goodman and Wayne Newton* and Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce (!?!) to help cover up Gans' actual cause of death or (c) committed suicide because Steve Wynn booked Whoopi and Beyonce..."

Read Friess' entire column here.  It is an incredible document of self-righteousness, delusion and ass-covering.  Bottom line: Everything Steve Friess denied, he now says he knew all along.

Real Journos

Meanwhile, real journalists, like the ones at The Las Vegas Review-Journal, responded professionally to our prodding. Insiders tell us they feel bound by "rules," and are hamstrung to do much before an official report is released.

But they admit our prodding has had an effect.  Mike Weatherford's chilling account of Danny Gans' depression on his final day was published after sitting around for more than a week. And Norm Clarke's hastily-added one-liner begs a followup:

"No one's willing to discuss it, but there's an insurance issue involving Danny Gans and his deal with Encore at Wynn Las Vegas that suggests Gans had concerns about his health."

Sure, they say we at TabloidBaby.com seem to be "obsessed" or even "insane." And there are those who'd try to lump Tabloid Baby with the new generation of bloggers who conjure fantasy and post whatever comes into their heads.

They're wrong.

Danny Gans was an Old School entertainer.  We're Old School journos.

This is the Old School talking.

Decades of newspaper and broadcast journalism experience. Contributors on four continents. Experienced two-finger typists who've taught a generation of journos to follow a good story where it leads.

Murder?

The case of Danny Gans should have been, and should be covered from all its angles. That's how important it is, and as uncomfortable and ad-revenue endangering some of those angles may be, those are the angles that manage to be covered up as time passes.

Was Danny Gans murdered in his bed? We'd not pose that question, but thanks to the wait-and-see attitude of the Las Vegas media, that story is floating around the Internet as we type.

Will the toxicological report close the book on the Danny Gans case?

Probably not, no matter what is revealed, because the ones who should be on the front line of finding  the truth are content to wait for an official report from a controversial coroner's office.  It's these paid professionals, sitting around their news meetings debating whether a story's worthy of coverage, who've allowed the story to spin out of control.

A Review-Journal reporter said it himself when he wrote the lede to yesterday's coroner story that was copied somewhat inaccurately by every news station in town:

"The mystery of Danny Gans' death remains almost two weeks after he died in his home, leaving rumors to fill the information void."

Steve Friess confessed to it in his column today.


* The "Wayne Newton" reference, never made public, was part of a tip emailed to TabloidBaby.com offices. Friess' inclusion of it indicates that he was part of a deliberate effort to mislead journalists investigating the Gans story.
(Comp queen Steve Friess threatens us every time we post his picture, so we're forced to used fascimiles. Help us get it right by sending us a nice photo of Steve Friess today!)

Tabloid Baby's 2009 Journalist of The Year

Steve Friess

We had our first encounter with Steve Friess a week after the death of Danny Gans. He'd written a column in the Las Vegas Weekly explaining why the sudden, mysterious passing of the Strip superstar was not a story worth covering. We emailed him to ask why he and his fellow Vegas journos were not doing the basic legwork on what, to all appearances, was a major cultural, economic and news story.

Within minutes, he emailed back:

""Uh, because until the toxicology reports come back it would be irresponsible and inappropriate for legitimate reporters to write baseless speculation? Because a man is dead and a family is in mourning and the state of the nation is not dependent upon exacerbating their grief? Because Pulitzer Prize winning newspapers have better uses of their resources than to 'investigate' something that public documents will reveal soon enough anyway?

"I looked over what you've been 'reporting.' It's all beneath contempt. Ginning up Robin Leach's 'rumors' when the rumors he's referring to have nothing to do with Gans' death, implying an inappropriate relationship with Alicia Jacobs, attacking the local press for having a modicum of dignity and restraint on a story that will come out anyway ... I need to go take a shower now. Blech.""

Then he whipped off a blog post that referred to our editor as an "asshole" and "vermin."

And so began our relationship with the Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, hearing-impaired music reviewer, Gay Vegas author, comp queen and concert producer that culminates in our naming Steve Friess Tabloid Baby's 2009 Journalist of The Year.

In the weeks and months to follow our first correspondence, Steve Friess made an attempt to close down our site because we ran his photo (forcing to use fascimiles), began a disinformation campaign to lead us and other journos off the track, and was revealed to have close ties to many figures in the Gans story, including Gans' boss Steve Wynn and Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen-turned-local entertainment reporter who was Gans' close friend and the first person informed by Gans' manager of his death.

Then there was the Michael Jackson story. After writing that "Michael Jackson’s untimely death was the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson’s music," and while covering the Vegas angle of the criminal investigation into Jacko's death for The New York Times, Friess inexplicably announced that he was producing and promoting a Jacko birthday "tribute" concert at the Palms Hotel, where he and his local NBC producer husband had honeymooned.

“In Las Vegas, when left to our own devices,
we do things a little differently.”
--Steve Friess, Las Vegas Weekly

In both the Gans and Jackson cases, Friess attempted to cover his tracks with unintentionally hilarious apologias in the Las Vegas Weekly.

So why does it matter?

Steve Friess, with his tendency to hurl insults, hold grudges and get himself into local gossip columns, is not merely a Vegas combination of Perez Hilton and Louella Parsons.

He is perhaps the most powerful journalist in Las Vegas.

As a freelance correspondent for major news organizations including The New York Times and USA Today, he is the filter through which distant editors can determine whether a story in Las Vegas is worth covering. In the case of Danny Gans, Friess made it clear that the story was not worth covering. And if his relationship with Danny Gans' boss Steve Wynn, or his even closer relationship with staffers on the local NBC affiliate (including his second "husband" and their BFF Alicia Jacobs) created a conflict of interest, so be it.

Steve Friess has no qualms about swinging his conflicts of interest in public, whether it's his political activism, favoritism, foul insults or kneejerk shouts of homophobia against anyone who questions his intentions or positions.

When local Greenspun Media laid off many reporters, editors and columnist earlier this month, Steve Friess, who attends fancy openings of hotels, gets himself and his family members free admission into any show on the Strip whenever he wants, squirrels away opening night mementos and souvenirs that one day will be worth thousands on eBay, kept his job. But then again, Steve Friess, who poses as a brave, independent journalist, is the ultimate courtier to the powerful whose blogsite always displays a link to his interviews with Steve Wynn.

Read our coverage of Steve Friess here.

Story of The Year:The Death of Danny Gans
Mystery of The Year:What ever happened to Down Charleston Blvd?
Top Trend: Dying

Steve Friess sends us a photo of himself. We think he's in love with us in a gay way. Meanwhile, the Danny Gans mystery is entering its FIFTH week.

Someone sent us a nice photo of Steve Friess (left) and you won't believe who!

The Las Vegas civics-boosting, casino-beholden comp queen, Gay Vegas ("Vegas as a queer fantasyland? You bet!") author and freelance writer attacked us in public a few weeks ago when we emailed him privately to ask why no local journalists were investigating the mysterious death of Strip superstar Danny Gans... he tried to have our site shut down when we ran his photo... he actively attempted to stop us from covering the Danny Gans story in collusion with his "husband" the executive producer of Gans' close friend and legend spinner, beauty queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs... and he admitted being involved in a conspiracy to spread false rumours about Danny Gans' death simply to throw us off the scent.

He threatened and harassed us every time we ran a picture of him or his "husband," so for weeks, we've been using facsimiles whenever we run a story on Steve Friess, while asking you to please send us in a nice Steve Friess photo so we don't have to keep using shots of Paul Lynde, Liberace, Peter Allen, Charles Nelson Reilly or Richard Deacon.

And now someone has sent us a photo and giving us her blessing to use it:

Steve Friess.

We're not making this up. We got an email at the Tabloid Baby office this afternoon from stevefriess@aol.com, titled "a gift from me to you."

We were hoping it was the Danny Gans toxicology report, but it was this note:

"I know you've been wanting an authorized photo. And I happened to see a cool little show last night at the Liberace Museum and they happened to have a Tussaud's wax figure on loan there. So here you are. Use it to your nasty conspiratorial irrelevant gay-baiting/hating heart's desire. Sorry it's a little blurry, my camera's not behaving right these days."

...and this photo:


We thought, hey, Steve Friess has a sense of humour! Until we saw that he'd x-rayed our heart and concluded that we are gay-baiting and hating! Then our note of appreciation was returned because Steve's blocked our email access and ability to reply! It seems that Steve Friess gives, but he won't receive (and to think we took him for a power bottom!)

What is it with this guy?

We think we've figured it out. Either Steve was on an amyl nitrate poppers bender, deep in a K-hole or had too many Cosmos when he sent the giddy email-- or he's flirting with us because he loves us. And in a gay way. Sorry, Miles, but the evidence is there. The teasing comments... the insults... the photos!

We only wish the little minx would spend more time looking into the Danny Gans case and less time bothering us.

Tomorrow begins Week 5 of the Danny Gans mystery and no one, in the Las Vegas news media from the rootin' tootin' Review-Journal editor in the cowboy drag to Richard Abowitz, Steve's competitor at the Las Vegas Weekly, gives a hoot. We'd figure today's issue of the "alternative" weekly might at least mention the fact that the promised two-to-four week wait for toxicology tests on Gans is now four to twelve weeks, but instead we get more Gans tribute-- and this time it's a week old.

Abowitz, the hipster Penn Jillette fan who publicly called us insane for asking questions about the Gans case before the officials hand over the answers, has taken an elite public stand against deigning to touch the Gans story, so it was surprising to see him in the Weekly this morning with a piece on the Gans memorial that took place a week ago, and not only buying but promulgating the evangelist Christian idea that the angels simply carried away a great man:

"Gans... believed in immortality and eternity. He just never thought they came from a performance on a Vegas stage. But according to his preacher, Gans felt eternity came from his religion and how he lived his life up until the last of it no matter how long or brief."

Four weeks of hosannas. What would Penn Jillette think? When's someone in Vegas going to pick up one of the threads in the story of the year? With every passing week, it's more evident that the Vegas media is not only lying down on this story, they're bending over. Sorry, Steve. There we go again.

Danny Gans photo: Las Vegas Sun

Las Vegas media's Danny Gans death coverup mob join forces to promote Michael Jackson birthday "tribute" concert

The group that allied to mislead the public about the life and death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans is joining forces for the August 29th Las Vegas “tribute” concert to Michael Jackson.

The benefit show at the Palms Hotel and Casino (where Jackson last recorded) on what would have been Jacko’s 51st birthday is produced and being promoted by Steve Friess, the New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, local entertainment blogger and comp queen, who attacked Tabloid Baby, and made attempts to have this site shut down, because we were investigating the mysterious death of Gans on May 1st, and who, in the days following Jackson’s death, applauded the tragedy as “the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson’s music.”


According to a press release issued yesterday, the 3 pm show at the Pearl showroom will feature video montages and “cast members of Jersey Boys, Lion King, Peepshow and Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular.”backed by a 10-piece band comprised of musicians led by Las Vegas’ own Joey Melotti.”

Tickets, which go on sale Saturday, are $29, $54, $79, $104 and $129, “plus applicable box office fees. A VIP package is available for $504.” Proceeds are said to go to “Music Education programming in Clark County Public Schools.”


Details of the show were promoted on television this week by Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen turned entertainment reporter who was Gans’ longtime close personal friend and who, with Gans’ manage Chip Lightman, led a spin campaign to divert attention from Gans’ drug use that led to his death by overdose of the powerful painkiller hydromorphone. Jacobs’ boss, KVBC News executive producer Miles Smith, is Friess’ unofficial husband (the couple were married at the Palms, though same-sex unions are not sanctioned in Nevada).


Friess’ show was announced last week by Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke. (whose paper has deliberately downplayed the Gans story). In the weeks before the cause of Gans’ death was announced, Clarke was used by Jacobs and Lightman to plant items that painted Gans as a clean-living, drug free, and spiritual figure.

Friess came to our attention in the days following Gans’ death, when he launched a vicious public attack against Tabloid Baby (and took steps to have this site shut down) after our correspondent emailed to ask why the local news media was not investigating the circumstances of Gans’ tragic death. Friess later admitted he knew of rumours that Gans was a steroid user, and that he was involved in spreading false stories about the tragedy to throw reporters off the scent.

Not Michael Jackson, but Danny Gans in an incredible simulation

While Friess has switched his “journalist” hat for one of show promoter, most of the talk in Las Vegas media circles concern his motivations for celebrating Jackson’s birthday, since he has expressed a disdain for the life of the late singer.

Some suggest it would be more appropriate for him to take the time to plan a tribute to Danny Gans, whose birthday is October 25th.

(Tabloid Baby classic: Click here to read "The Danny Gans daisy chain: Steve and Chip and Alicia and Norm and Miles and--")