Vegas is coming up Vargas!

"Swingin'!" "Smokin'!" "Great!"

Those were only a few of the superlatives tossed toward entertainer Art Vargas after last weekend's triumphant return to Las Vegas in a showcase bound to get the singer and his classic, retro-flavoured act his own showroom on the Strip where, among magicians, impressionists, tributes and comics, there is definitely a lucrative niche awaiting.

The heat from the three-night stand at the Rampart casino at the Summerlin Resortis already evident as Team Vargas has announced another show on Saturday night at his favourite haunt, The Bootlegger Bistro on Las Vegas Boulevard.

This time it's only five minutes from the Strip.

He's getting closer!

Art Vargas & The Swank Set
Live at The Bootlegger Bistro!
Sat Aug 28th
Bootlegger Bistro
(702) 736-4939
shows at 9:30 pm and Aug. 29 12:30 am

The Bootlegger Bistro
7700 Las Vegas Blvd. So.
Las Vegas, NV

The answer is "D"

The Las Vegas Weekly is filling summer pages with The Vegas IQ Test.

This is Question #10:

Las Vegas Weekly celebrates Danny Gans' special friend Alicia Jacobs-- but doesn't get into that 4 a.m. phone call or all those texts he'd sent her

The Las Vegas Weekly and its editor Scott Dickensheets have rolled out another cover story on a major figure in the Danny Gans case. Following up on last week's confessions from Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, concert promoter and comp queen Steve Friess, comes a laudatory profile of controversial beauty queen-turned-television entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs.

Jacobs was a close personal friend of Gans, and on May 1, 2009, the the first member of the media to learn of Gans' death, getting a 4 a.m. phone call from Gans' manager Chip Lightman. The article touches upon the incident without exploring the details of the morning or her relationship with the musical impressionist:

"Jacobs defends her reporting of Gans’ death last year. The two were genuinely close. They dined together and, sharing an interest in physical fitness, worked out together. Jacobs was the first journalist contacted by Gans’ manager, Chip Lightman, after he learned of Gans’ death.

"Danny Gans and Alicia Jacobs became close friends during her career in Vegas. Jacobs sobbed through her segment announcing Gans had died and spoke emotionally of their friendship. It was a unique moment in broadcast news for the emotion displayed on-air by the reporter. Local media critics pounced.

“'I have thought about that and re-lived it many, many times in my head. Honest to God, I would not have done anything differently,' says Jacobs. 'I thought I could get through the story. But I remember seeing b-roll of Danny on one of the monitors, singing and dancing, and losing it. To this day I don’t believe he is gone … So, yes, I got a little emotional on the air. You know what? It was real. We are real. Sometimes it’s okay to be real on the air. People cry, hurt and feel pain. I wouldn’t change it.'”

"But what about--?" No, there is no follow-up.

The profile, From Beauty Queen to Extra: The Journey of LV's Top Celebrity Broadcaster, is written by Las Vegas Sun columnist John Katsilometes, a journalist who touched on Gans' rumoured drug use in his initial story about Gans' sudden passing at 52 (the powerful opiate Dilaudid would be named as a cause), but who backed off immediately along with the rest of the Las Vegas media pack. Perhaps that's why it celebrates Jacobs' role as a correspondent on the syndicated television infotainment show, Extra, and is full of sympathetic, humanizing notes about her adoption, disfiguring car crash and career-threatening love of animals, while not pressing her on the issue for which she's gained the most notoriety.


An accompanying photo of Jacobs as "Mrs. United States," however, does reveal that she is not a natural blonde.

Those texts? Click here to read all about them.

And click here to read Kat's fascinating article. Even with his hands tied, he's a great entertainment writer.

Meanwhile, we look forward to next week's cover story on Chip Lightman.

The Friesster tweets about his uncle

This Mother's Day Twitter post shows that Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, concert promoter and comp queen Steve "Friesster" Friess is having a fine old time continuing to milk the publicity and notoriety he received from his self-aggrandizing Las Vegas Weekly cover story about turning in a family member (albeit a black sheep) who was a fugitive on a kiddie porn rap.

The Friesster goes nuts again!

Oh, that silly goose Steve Friess. Tabloid Baby's 2009 Journalist of The Year is having a hissy fit and throwing around words like "slander" once again because we reported on his very controversial Las Vegas Weekly cover story, A Snitch in the Family, in which he explains why he crossed journalistic and familial lines to help US Marshals snare his uncle, who'd fled from a plea bargain and sentencing on Internet kiddie porn charges.

In response, Steve Friess, stringer reporter for The New York Times and other national periodicals (as well as Las Vegas blogger, Gay Vegas author, concert promoter and comp queen), calls us:

"Pro-child porn"... "Sad"... "Treacherous"... "Sick"... and "Desperate for attention"... while even more disturbingly, refers to himself as "The Friesster."

As we reported earlier this afternoon, this arrest escapade was only Friess's latest ethical quandary of the past year, and only the latest that he made public by using the Las Vegas Weekly to explain himself. We did not pass judgment on Steve's pickle. In fact, we posted a link to the story and suggested to our readers: "You be the judge."

Within minutes, however, the hysterical "Friesster" posted an anonymous comment on our site, in which he congratulated himself for his action.

Then he wrote a second comment, which he deleted.

And then he sent an email to our office:

"So you're pro-child porn now! How thrilling for you!

"Also, I own the copyright on the image you've used. Please remove immediately. Then you can lie about being threatened to be shut down again when, of course, I'm simply suggesting that you not steal. If anything you said was of consequence, I'd rebut your lies, but in a full year of attacks, not a single person in any serious manner has ever noticed or cared what you say. God, you're so sad.

"-sf

"P.S. Yes I deleted my own comment from your blog. I did it because I have had a long-standing policy of not reading or commenting on your treacherous site of slander. I just couldn't believe anyone would attack for something like this, so I had to click. Then I realized: I don't need to react to show how sick and desperate for attention this "person" is. Everyone already knows. Frown face!"

This is The Friesster's deleted comment (which he'd posted inadvertently under the name of his blog):

"So you're pro-child porn? Kinda undermines ur bitching at tmz but oh well! Bravo to the friesster! Cross what line? Journalists aren't above the law. Are you saying you would harbor a porn pusher?"

Frown face? Now really, was there anything we'd written that would warrant such an attack? Remember, this is a reporter for The New York Times, a man who's made himself a public figure by airing his laundry across the Internet while toeing the line that "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

Would a trusted, objective reporter suggest someone is "pro-child porn" for reporting a story that he himself promoted on his blog (in a post that begins with the line, "I lied to you people a couple of weeks ago...")? Oh, right. He called us much worse for daring to ask questions about the death of Danny Gans.

Richard Abowitz opens Gold Plated Door

Richard Abowitz is not wasting any time getting back into the game after having the distinction in recent weeks of losing both his blog on the Los Angeles Times website due to cost cuts and his print column in the Las Vegas Weekly due to the impending death of the newspaper industry.

The Dean of Las Vegas pop culture writers has started up a new site called Gold Plated Door (see Sin City) which he describes as "an honest broker reporting on all things Vegas," and which will include his unique take on Vegas news, show business, media, and hopefully, anything else he wants to write about.


The site's first "test post," which gives an idea of his style and what's ahead, focuses on Tiger Woods:

"...the most boring celebrity I ever interviewed. I should not be surprised, the connection between a VIP host and a louche celebrity, remains typically Vegas, even if for Woods, Vegas turns out to be only one geographic stop of globetrotting infidelity.

"I interviewed Woods for Tiger Jam, his annual charity concert at Mandalay Bay, a few years ago, and I was given 5 minutes with the golf legend. I have turned down a couple interview offers since. We were done at 3 minutes. He was nice and all, but the money was not worth the time. Woods is boring. When I had no golf questions he was without anything to say. He mentioned that he had little to do with the acts that were playing his concert. He could not name a single song he liked by any of the bands that were performing unless you count 'All of them' as an honest answer and not an expression of total ignorance... Woods did offer to me that his favorite song of all time was 'Eye of the Tiger' and then he explained the pun with his name in case that could be missed. The most memorable thing about the interview was that it is the single time a publicist has asked to search me before I entered an interview room. Did he think I was dangerous? No, he wanted to make sure that I had no golf memorabilia on my person for Woods to sign..."

He refused to be searched.


Abowitz is known not only as the most knowledgeable journo in town, but for his taste for classic literature, self-revelatory writing about his fascinating life and obsessions and an ability to be totally immersed in Vegas culture while remaining somehow above it. He was one of many axed from The Las Vegas Weekly, a fake alt-weekly filled with leftover and expanded articles from Las Vegas Sun columnists like Jon Katsilometes and recycled blogwork from local hacks like New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, comp queen and concert promoter Steve Friess.

It's the LA Times cut that's the head-scratcher. The national paper with the most confusing, behind-the-times website must know that the Internet is where operations must move, and Abowitz' The Movable Buffet blog was not only one of the first LA Times blogs but among the most distinctive and informative in the entire business. Idiots.

We first corresponded with Abowitz after he commented on our initial coverage of the Danny Gans death mystery (he suggested that we were insane), and after a series of collegial and thoughtful exchanges (unlike the hysterical attacks from Friess), we count Abowitz as a Tabloid Baby pal.

Now that he's gone solo, we're glad to see the compromised Friess has a competitor in the Las Vegas blog arena-- and only urge that Abowitz get on that Danny Gans story!

Click here for Gold Plated Door.

Steve Friess keeps his column

A lot of the Las Vegas print journalists who shied away from covering the very important Danny Gans story have little to show for their obedience, now finding themselves suddenly out of work. Greenspun Media, which runs the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Weekly, laid off many reporters, editors and columnists this week, the latest nail in the closing coffin of the print news business.

One person who's kept his job is Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author and comp queen Steve Friess, who used his Las Vegas Weekly column this year to explain why the still-developing Danny Gans story (the sudden, unexplained death in his prime of the top star of the Vegas Strip) and later his blatant conflict-of-interest in producing a "birthday tribute" to Michael Jackson while covering the Vegas angle of the police death investigation for The new York Times. Friess' crush and partner in the project, a star of the Vegas production of Jersey Boys, lost his job over the spectacle. Friess did not.

Friess, as readers of this site are aware, is the Las Vegas media figure who not only attacked us in the most obscene terms, but made an active effort to have TabloidBaby.com shut down after we emailed him privately days after Gans' death to ask for his take on why the Las vegas media was not investigating the mysterious tragedy.

In the months to come, we learned more about Friess' various conflicts, including his relationship with Gans' boss Steve Wynn, that seemed to explain his extreme position.

With his many freelance gigs, including that of music reviewer (despite a hearing impairment),, and the probability that the Weekly columnist gig doesn't pay much if anything, Friess is able to pose as a tough guy on his blogsite, listing the names of the newly jobless, criticizing his bosses for the way they were let go, and bragging, "I write all this knowing full well I may offend the powers... But I have been fired before and I feel a great kinship for the folks who have lost their jobs..."

The crusading journo has not yet announced that he'll produce a benefit concert for the group. It's an idea, though

Exclusive: Breakdown? Las Vegas writer Steve Friess says his ridiculed Danny Gans apology column was directed toward us!

“Here's a piece that's sure to make
a certain angry, delusional,
thoroughly discredited kook
out there go NUTS..."
--Steve Friess' intro to "A Fine Restraint"

There’s a very interesting yet sad postscript to yesterday’s gobsmacking, mind-blowing astonishing column in the Las Vegas Weekly, in which local writer, comp queen and New York Times freelancer Steve Friess defended his and his colleagues’ failure to cover and determination to cover up the drug overdose death of local superstar Danny Gans.

According to Friess’ own casino-boosting website, the column was written expressly for the staff of TabloidBaby.com!

Friess’ column was a bizarre, poorly-reasoned apologia that inadvertently tore back the lid on the everyday corruption of the Las Vegas media establishment and the twisting of journalistic values in an environment where free meals and show tickets are the norm, casino magnates and criminals call the shots and the mantra “What happpens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is more than an ad slogan.

Beginning with an attack on working journalists that lumps phone calls to pubic officials with bribery and searching through trash, Friess’s self-righteous screed takes all of three sentences to get to the nut graph:

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

Anyway, click here to read the column and our annotations.

Friess reprinted the article on his Vegas-boosting blog and added to it an introduction that's almost as incredible as the piece itself:

“Here's a piece that's sure to make a certain angry, delusional, thoroughly discredited kook out there go NUTS, which I admit I will enjoy immensely and can't wait to see what histrionics result. Don't know what I mean? Ah, well, you're not missing much. But, seriously, I am quite proud that the Vegas press didn't devolve into the gutter universe that could easily have devoured coverage of the Danny Gans story and so I said so..."

Friess’ unsteady mental and emotional condition are evident in his assertion that this site has been “discredited,” when even mainstream Las Vegas journalists admit we were right from the start, and that their hands were tied by their superiors and outside forces alike.


Friess censors any negative or critical comments that appear on his site and stack sit with friends and cohorts to boost his unsteady credibility. Yet on this posting, in which Friess and his friends continue their childish name-calling (“kooks,” “nutcase,” “crazies,” “crazy people,” etc.) even his supporters warn that he may have gone too far in his cover-up excuse, and may indeed be teetering on the edge of some kind of emotional breakdown:

"Michael said…
"While I'm not in the kook's camp. And I understand your point about the Vegas media not going tabloid over it. I think you are leaving out some important parts of the situation... This is typical for Vegas media, skeletons in the closet whether imaginary or real aren't reported by the Vegas media as a whole. Negative happenings for casinos, performers, and incidents that happen are not in most cases reported on to their fullest extent. So in many cases this could be construed as business as usual for the Vegas media..."

"Branden in Vegas said...
"Steve: I think you've gotten a little bit too emotional in all of this because all of the absolutely ridiculous things that your nemesis has said about you. I do think the Vegas media should've been harder on this if only for Danny Gans' sake..."

Stay tuned. New details about the life and death of Danny Gans are emerging by the day...

Steve Friess photos: Las Vegas Weekly

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.