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?
There has got to be more to this story than just protecting the squeaky clean image from revelations of steroids or drug abuse. To justify such a conspiracy of silence requires a far more damning secret and since Gans is dead, somebody with a considerable amount of power is going out of their way to keep a lid on this.
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