Steve Friess rips off our Pete Rose story

Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, concert promoter and comp queen Steve Friess, always hustling for an article idea, has found his latest inspiration here at TabloidBaby.com.

Yes, the media figure who attacked us publicly and attempted to have this site shut down because we asked for answers about the mysterious and untimely death of local superstar Danny Gans (and later joined with local media friends to misdirect the investigation), has ripped off one of our exclusive stories for his latest space-filler in the Las Vegas Weekly.

The (self-proclaimed) Friesster has a story in this week's Weekly about baseball legend Pete Rose earning money by signing autographs in the Forum Shops mall at Caesars Palace. The article, apparently jammed out so he'd have something in the can while he was on a vacation road trip, echoes our exclusive July 18th post, Pete Rose in Hell, which revealed that the disgraced baseball great, banned from the game for his gambling, was earning bucks signing autographs in a Las Vegas casino mall.

Friess, who often accuses us of "stealing" when we run his photo (and who this week filched a TMZ shot of Paris Hilton's arrest for his blogsite), didn't even offer us a tip of the hat!

Naughty, naughty!

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.

Alicia Jacobs claims that "certain powers" tried-- and failed-- to stop her interview with Danny Gans' ghostwriter

The controversy surrounding the May 1st death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans continues to expand as his close friend, beauty queen turned TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs, claims that "certain 'powers'" tried to stop her from taping a TV interview with the co-author of Gans' upcoming autobiography.

Jacobs, who transmits her hourly activities on Twitter, kept a running tab of her journey to visit RG Ryan at the Starbucks where he and Gans met to write the book, "The Voices In My Head," which Ryan claims was completed the day before Gans' died.


She posted yesterday:

Just arrived @ the Starbucks where Danny Gans met weekly w/ the writer of up-coming book, "Voices in my Head." About 2 interview @rgryan.

She followed with:

"Just interviewed co-writer of Danny Gans' book. Very emotional 4 both of us. Many tears.Certain "powers" did not want the int.2 happen."

and

"So sad that certain people didn't want @rgryan 2 do interview..he is lovely & has so many touching stories 2 share re: time w/ Danny Gans"


Gans' book became the topic of journalistic controversy when, days after Gans' death from an overdose of Dilaudid, the Las Vegas Review-Journal made a deal with Gans' family to publish it. The Review-Journal's publisher had planned to rush-release the book in June, but publication was delayed unexpectedly by negotiations between Ryan and Gans' family. Ryan gave a hint of the sticking point when he told Tabloid Baby, "The book will be published, I am still credited as co-author."



Alicia Jacobs has been the target of much criticism ever since, by her own account, Gans' manager Chip Lightman phoned her within minutes of Gans' death to tell her firstof the tragedy and she went on the air waving a Bible she said her dear friend of 13 years had given her. In the weeks to follow, before the official cause of Gans' death was announced, she, Lightman and New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, Michael Jackson "tribute" concert producer and comp queen Steve Friess waged a campaign to spin coverage of Gans' life and legacy away from the inevitable verdict that he'd died from taking too much of the powerful opiate hydromorphone, also known as Dilaudid or "drugstore heroin."

Even the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which maintained a hands-off approach to the Gans story even before it becmae partners with Gans' family, accused her of "bias-in-reverse" in covering the story and insinuated she had lost all credibility in her Gans reports. (The controversy deepened when it was revealed that her executive producer at KVBC-TV News, Miles Smith, is Friess' unofficial husband.

The identity of the "powers"... the reasons for their objections... and why they were unsuccessful in stopping Alicia Jacobs? We have sent those questions to Alicia Jacobs and RG Ryan, and will let you know the responses.

New York Times' man in Las Vegas makes shocking Britney Spears death joke as tickets go on sale for his Michael Jackson birthday "tribute" show

Tickets have gone on sale this weekend for the Michael Jackson birthday "tribute" show produced and promoted by New York Times reporter, Gay Vegas author and local comp queen Steve Friess, who celebrated Jackson's death as "the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson's music" and led the media coverup in reporting the similar prescription painkiller death of local superstar Danny Gans.

In celebrating the queue at the box office, Friess also added a sick Britney Spears death joke to

Friess (right), who is the primary Las Vegas freelance reporter for a number of national and international publications, took the highly unusual step of profiting off the subject of his reportage, jumping at the chance to be the first to exploit Jackson's death with an August 29th 3 pm "tribute" at the Palms Hotel, where Jackson had recorded and where Friess participated in an unofficial wedding ceremony with local television news producer Miles Smith.

"I would never do anything like that. I would never lend my name to anything that charges readers money-- no matter the cause," one Las Vegas-based journalist told us.

Yet, with memories as long as Dory the Fish's and investigative curiosity lagging slightly behind that of the members of the Warren Commission, the Las Vegas news media have been happily hyping the unusual money-procuring brainstorm without question.

In a post on his casino-promoting blog with a headline that squeals, People On Line At Box Office!!!, Friess previews the sale of tickets that top out at $504, and includes YouTube videos of various local news reports on his endeavour.


Primary among them is a report by Alicia Jacobs (top) the beauty queen turned TV entertainment reporter who used her longtime close personal friendship with Danny Gans to help distract the media and public from the unpleasant facts about his reliance on the drugs that killed him, and in the process diminished her credibiity even in a gladhanding, palm-greasing media environment like "Sin City."

After our coverrage showed the links between Jacobs and Friess in the deliberate campaign to stop coverage of Gans' tragic death, one would have expected her boss at KVBC-TV News to insist that she remove herself from the Jackson concert story. Her boss, however, is Friess' unofficial husband, Miles Smith.


In a shocking footnote to the concert ticket sales posting, Friess makes a sick joke about cashing in on the potential death of troubled popstar Britney Spears.


Under a YouTube video of his co-producer Erich Bergen "singing Britney Spears at the Liberace Museum" (we don't make this stuff up, folks), Friess adds:

"Memo to Erich: If something awful happens to Britney Spears and you decide to do one of these things, you're on your own. :-)"

Friess has ignored repeated requests by Tabloid Baby for an interview or clarifications of his intentions.

Vegas writer Steve Friess pays tribute to Tabloid Baby while disclosing his connection to Danny Gans coverup TV gal

Our dedicated coverage of the overdose death of Danny Gans and the Las Vegas news media's failure to investigate it like a truly responsible, curious, resourceful and independent entity has begun to pay off.

The writer who attacked us publicly for investigating the mysterious passing of the musical impressionist, is not only disclosing his connections to the heart of the Danny Gans death coverup-- he's paying-- perhaps unconsciously-- tribute to Tabloid Baby, by copying our style!

Steve Friess, a local stringer for The New York Times and other national publications, best known as author of the Gay Vegas tourist guide, went on the attack against Tabloid Baby the week after Gans' untimely death, calling us "beneath contempt, vermin and a Perez Hilton wannabe"-- all for trying to get a few answers about why a clean-living, athletic, Christian family man who billed himself as the antithesis of Vegas sin would die in his sleep at 52!


And that was only the start of our troubles with Steve Friess continued. After we ran his photo, he contacted our web host in an attempt to have our site shut down and harassed us to the point that we were forced to use fascimiles!

It didn't take long for tipsters to clue us in as to why he was on the Gans coverup campaign: Steve Friess is in an unofficial marriage with Miles Smith, executive producer of KVBC News, where Danny Gans close friend Alicia Jacobs is employed as an entertainment reporter. While the local media waited for an official toxicology report to confirm hat they knew about Danny Gans' drug use, the former beauty queen was working tirelessly with Gans' manager to cloud the truth, claiming they knew Gans was clean as a whistle.


Steve Friess later wrote a mind-boggling defense of the local news media's failures in the Gans case, yet apparently, or his freelance editors, have decided full disclosure would be most healthy for his future. In one of his latest postings on his Vegas-promoting blogsite, Friess fesses up to his Alicia Jacobs bond:

"Finally, it must be said that my pal (and Miles' KVBC colleague) Alicia Jacobs provided some really cool coverage via Twitter. Say what you want about her as a journalist-- it seems to me she occupies a unique netherland between being a reporter and being a celebrity who uses her connections to take the public into worlds we don't usually get to go..."

Anyone notice the wording of Friess' condemnation of his pal's journalistic credibility?

Here's another clue:

"Another tip of the hat is due to the Review-Journal's Jason Bracelin and Mike Blasky..."

Our readers know that the word "pal"-- as in "Tabloid Baby pal"-- has been part of the Tabloid Baby lexicon for years.

And the phrase "A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat" has become world-renown (click here for the proof!)

Steve Friess might shout that our coverage has had no influence in Las Vegas, but it's evident we've had a major influence on him! And for that, we offer our troubled pal a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat!

Coroner is holding Danny Gans death results; once again, Gans' close friend Alicia Jacobs has the inside track on the information

Six weeks after the mysterious death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans, The Clark County Coroner is holding on to the toxicology report that could reveal what killed the musical impressionist-- and once again, the controversial beauty queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter who was Gans'close personal friend has the inside track on the information and how it will be revealed to the public.

Alicia Jacobs of local television station KVBC reported last night that "all of the key information has been compiled by the Coroner's Office.

"The coroner will likely release the manner and the cause of death for the legendary entertainer within a couple of weeks. Experts are currently sifting through the results from the standard scientific tests."


Jacobs broke the news of Danny Gans' sudden death at his home in Henderson, Nevada on May 1st. She also let on that she was informed of the tragedy by Gans' manager Chip Lightman "around 4 a.m.," which would have been within minutes of the time paramedics arrived at the home to declare Gans deceased.

Jacobs thrust herself into the story with her very first report, talking emotionally about a 13-year personal friendship with Gans and showing off a white Bible she said Gans had inscribed for her (in an exclusive interview with TabloidBaby.com, she denied that she and Gans had ever had an affair).

Her close relationship with Gans and his manager Chip Lightman led to criticism here, and later in the Las Vegas media, as it became more and more evident she and Lightman were "spinning" the information and clouding details of the mysterious death in an effort to protect Gans' image and legacy.


While rumours of steroid abuse spun beyond Vegas, the pair insisted that they had no inkling whatsoever of what may have struck down the 52-year-old clean-living, eggwhite-eating, teetotaling Born Again Christian athlete in his prime.

It was only after our interview with Jacobs, in which she repeated the claims and we pressed on the steroids issue, that she and Lightman did an about-face. Within 24 hours, the pair had given an exclusive to Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke, both claiming they'd known that Gans had been treated for high blood pressure and had a family history of heart problems.

The Jacobs-Gans connection got murkier after this site-- the only news organization to provide constant coverage and updates of this major story-- was attacked publicly by Vegas booster, writer, gay activist and comp queen Steve Friess (right) for asking questions or even covering the story. Friess' motivations came into focus when we revealed that he was in an unofficial same sex marriage with Miles Smith-- Jacobs'executive producer.

It should also be mentioned that the rest of the Las Vegas news media failed miserably in their responsibility to cover a story that had great social, spiritual, economic and historic impact on the city. No news organization investigated the circumstances or history of the paramedic responses to Gans mansion, the talk and rumours that have been flying all over town, or the many leads dangled in front of them.

And now, entering the sixth week of the mystery surrounding Gans' death, the information from the coroner's office is apparently again being directed through Alicia Jacobs.

Developing...

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.

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