Editor Thomas "McCloud" Mitchell and the gang at the Las Vegas Review-Journal must be proud this morning. A look at their website and a scan of their archives reveal that they've posted more stories about Paris Hilton's cocaine arrest in the past three days than they'd posted about local superstar Danny Gans in the three days after his sudden, shocking and untimely death.
Las Vegas Review-Journal on the arrest of Paris Hilton:
No special treatment for Paris Hilton, police say Posted 08/28/2010
'Vapor trail' leads to Strip arrest of Paris Hilton, nightclub mogul Waits Posted 08/28/2010
Arrest report states Hilton had rolling papers, prescription pill Posted 08/30/2010
PARIS HILTON -- A LITTLE FREAKED Posted 08/30/2010
PHOTOS OF PARIS HILTON'S ARREST Posted 08/28/2010
PARIS HILTON HOURS BEFORE ARREST Posted 08/29/2010
Club operator on up-and-down ride Posted 08/29/2010
RJtv FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL and FOLLOWING THE PARIS HILTON CASE Posted 08/30/2010
Las Vegas Review-Journal on the death of Danny Gans:
May 4, 2009Gans friends share feelings, memories
May 3, 2009Gans has final word in life story
May 3, 2009Gans looked ahead
May 3, 2009WEEK IN REVIEW: Top NewsThe deaths of two local icons, both in their early 50s, bracketed a sorrowful week for Las Vegas.
It was a year ago today that the world learned of the death of Las Vegas musical impressionist, Strip superstar and uniquely American show business legend Danny Gans. One year later, the feature-length articles on the unexplored areas of his life and the unanswered and uninvestigated aspects of his death that more than one Las Vegas journalist had promised would be written have yet to materialize. And neither of the two daily newspapers has posted any mention of the tragic anniversary on its website.
And click here to visit the official Danny Gans website, which includes performance footage and other Gans, including his favorite recipes, cooked by his wife Julie, who reported his death at age 52 in his bedroom in the early hours of May 1, 2009, to police.
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced this afternoon and the National Enquirer was not among the recipients.
The Pulitzer committee was duty bound to accept the Enquirer's nomination, as the weekly's coverage of the John Edwards sex, love child and potential Constitutional scandal was exemplary, achieved against great odds and in the face of disdain from the mainstream media.
Readers of this site will not be surprised by the slight, however. Somewhat beneath the mainstream radar but fiercely debated in Internet and journalism circles was the Pulitzers' summary rejection one year ago of Tabloid Baby's nomination for its coverage of the post season travesties of the Israel Baseball League. Pulitzer gatekeeper Sig Gissler wouldn't let our nomination across the threshold.
The tabloid banner waves high, however, and we expect that Barry Levine and his colleagues at the Enquirer will one day get their due.
(And we can at least take heart in the fact the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal, so lax and deficient in their coverage of the death of local superstar Danny Gans, also came up empty-handed.)
"Throughout the paper today you'll find our annual Top 10 lists -- top news, top sports, top business and entertainment. It is that time of year. Time to reflect on the past and contemplate its lessons for the coming New Year."
--Thomas Mitchell, Las Vegas Review-Journal editor
Around a week before the end of every year, newspapers fill space left vacant by vacationing reporters with the year's Top 10 lists, ranging from notable deaths to top stories-- lists almost always written even farther in advance of the end of the year, and always missing some major passing or event that takes place in the weeks after the space-filler was written.
The Las Vegas-Review Journal is no exception. This morning's Sunday edition would have gone directly into the fireplace, if not for a bizarre anomaly among its list of the Top 10 Local Stories of 2009: The #6 story is one they barely covered and never investigated!
"Impressionist Danny Gans had been a fixture on Las Vegas marquees for more than a decade when his wife found him unconscious and not breathing in their bed in the early morning hours of May 1.
"Despite the efforts of his wife and paramedics to revive him, the 52-year-old never regained consciousness.
"Entertainers and fans mourned Gans, who had just begun a run at Encore after eight years at The Mirage, while medical examiners tried to determine what killed the star.
"Five weeks later, the coroner's office blamed the accidental death on a combination of heart and blood diseases along with a powerful prescription painkiller used to treat chronic pain, hydromorphone. Gans had battled a painful chronic shoulder injury that required surgery five months earlier."
Odd that editor and McCloud impersonator Thomas Mitchell, (who doffed his Stetson in respect to the holidays and womenfolk for this edition) would choose for the Top 10 a story that his rootin' tootin' team avoided covering or investigating in such a deliberate and embarrassing manner. The paper's obvious complicity in a coverup was even made public when the Review-Journal's publisher, Stephens Media, made a deal with Gans' family within a week of the local superstar's death to publish his autobiography!
Odd as well that "The King of Pop"-- the death of Michael Jackson --would rank two slots above Gans' death on the list. Not only was Jacko's passing an international story, but the initial coverage in the hours and days after he died showed how good, hardworking journos can investigate and answer questions about a celebrity's (and in Gans' case, business and religious leader) unexplained death without having to wait for a coroner to sort out the official story-- in direct contrast to the lax coverage of Gans' death led by Mitchell and his crew.
From the morning Gans' death was announced by his manager Chip Lightman and boss Steve Wynn, the Review-Journal (and other local media outlets) remained at a distance from the story, as if the unexplained death of a seemingly healthy, athletic, prominent Born Again Christian family man who was a decade-long major economic force and most unique Vegas showman was somehow a private matter that did not even warrant a chat with the responding paramedics.
And then we get to that problem of compiling Top 10 lists while there are still weeks left in the year, because the Review-Journal's neat encapsulation of the story misses the latest, explosive chapter: Lightman's recent interview, in the "competing" Las Vegas Sun, in which he contradicts the official timeline of what occurred on the morning of May 1st and opens the door to the possibility of a new inquest and investigation.
It was a timeline that the Review-Journal took at face value. It will be interesting to see whether the journalists at the paper will follow this latest lead, or if the Review-Journal is even in business to compile next yar's Top 10 list.
In the Las Vegas news media’s first examination of Danny Gans’ posthumous autobiography, a veteran newspaper columnist is challenging the accuracy of the book, blasting it as a "grudge" and the attacking abilities of Gans’ co-author.
Las Vegas Review-Journal entertainment columnist Mike Weatherford's scathing column and supporting blogpost appears today-- on the six-month anniversary of Gans’ death by Dilaudid.
Weatherford challenges the facts in Chapter 34 of The Voices In My Head, claiming that he is the unnamed columnist who appears in the chapter, allegedly telling Gans on their first meeting that he was not his friend or fan, that Gans needed topless dancers in his show, and broke a promise not to review Gans' opening-night gala at The Mirage.
Writes Weatherford:
“The first mostly wasn't true. The second I can only figure was a joke... The third issue is fuzzier. I don't remember what was said about reviewing the gala.”
Weatherford attributes the jab in the chapter to the fact that he had given Gans’ Mirage opening a less-than-perfect rating.
“Gans' manager, Chip Lightman, called to raise hell about the letter grade, which was an A-. Apparently that minus sign bothered them. ‘The No. 1 show in town should be an A plus-plus-plus, you should like everything about it,’ Gans later told the Los Angeles Times.”
Weatherford gives a detailed blow-by-blow rebuttal of the chapter on the Review-Journal blog page. He also throws in a punch at Gans’ co-author, RG Ryan:
"I didn’t have room for the details, which if sloppy co-author R.G. Ryan had bothered to ask me about, might have kept the chapter out of the book to begin with.”
Weatherford characterizes the issue as “sad.”
His characterization of the chapter as a “grudge” gives promise that the book will be a no-holds-barred response to the local media who disparaged Gans’ talent, much in the style of fellow Strip legend Wayne Newton’s classic autobiography, Once Before I Go.
Weatherford’s blast is all the more extraordinary because the Gans book is published by the Review-Journal’s parent company. The publisher made a deal with Gans’ family in the days after his death on May 1st, and perhaps coincidentally, its reporters did not follow up on or investigate the mysterious circumstances of his death at 52.
Weatherford, for example, never followed up on his column in which he reported that Gans was “down in the dumps” and “in unusually low spirits” the day before he died.
We at Tabloid Baby are still waiting our copy of the book from Amazon.com, which signaled a three-to-five week wait.
The ghostwriter for the upcoming autobiography of the late Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans insists the book was completed the day before Danny Gans died, and that Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke was "wrong" in reporting on September 6th that he had only completed a "rough draft."
R.G. Ryan, the musician, poet and, according to Norm, former minister, who collaborated with Gans on his memoirs before the musical impressionist died suddenly at age 52 after taking the powerful opiate hydromorphone, emailed the Tabloid Baby offices to insist that this Danny Gans legend is true:
"Just read your report regarding my interview with Norm Clarke. Contrary to what he said, and what you subsequently reported, the final draft was, in fact, completed at eleven AM on Thursday, April 30, 2009. It is a well-documented fact that Norm, unfortunately got wrong. I'd appreciate a correction in your report and wished you would've asked me about it. I've been pretty open with you, don't you think?"
Ryan has indeed responded to our questions on more than one occasion, and gave his blessing for us to post the prologue to the Gans book, The Voices In My Head (we used screen grabs of the chapter from Ryan's site, which he has since removed. He also told Tabloid Baby that he finished the book at 11 am the day before Gans died.
Although he's failed to answer several queries we've emailed him in the time since, we're happy to publish anything he's got to say.
The story that Danny Gans had completed his autobiography hours before his shocking death was one of several image-burnishing stories that were circulated by his friends in the days after the tragedy. The book is set for October release. Norm is on vacation in Spain. No word whether he's issued a retraction, as he's done for past Danny Gans myths that he had floated.
Interesting to see this morning that once again the Las Vegas print media is not exactly providing blanket coverage of its most far-reaching news story of the day. The police investigation into celebrity drug addiction and the issuing of fraudulent prescriptions is the biggest of its kind, is receiving international coverage and is centered on Flamingo Road in Las Vegas, where investigators searched the offices of Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray.
One Los Angeles detective only hinted at the scope of the scandal when he said:
"It’s long been suspected that friendly doctors have been enabling celebrities in Hollywood to feed their habits. However, the real extent of what’s been going on is truly shocking. We are uncovering a massive trade in fraudulent prescriptions.”
So where are the Las Vegas newsmen? The Las Vegas Sun is on its third day of covering prostitution at the Rio pool, The Review-Journal notes that Wynn resorts profits freefell 91 percent in the second quarter (the one during which his star attraction Danny Gans died), but they continue to shy away from the big embarrassments.
In fact, Vegas McCloud impersonator and Review-Journal editor Tom Mitchell has yet to assign a reporter to follow upon his gossip columnist's July 11th item about a local doctor aproached to provide drugs to Jacko: "How widespread has the practice of doctor-shopping become in Las Vegas? Will the investigation into Jackson's prescription drug abuse lead back to the Las Vegas medical community, given Jackson spent a good deal of time here in recent years? Will the intense scrutiny uncover more leads in Danny Gans' drug-related death?
"Doctor-shopping 'has become very common'...
"The physician felt pressured to accommodate a VIP. He treated a high profile casino executive who wanted sleeping pills. A week later, the executive wanted a refill and a week after that he requested another refill 'and I said no'...
"The sad thing, he said, is that someone else filled the void."'It's Elvis Presley all over again.'"
As we'd predicted, the Danny Gans story has become a watershed moment for the news media in Las Vegas. How long can they run? And what's their excuse this time?
(UPDATE: The Sun posted a brief story on the records seized from Dr. Murray on its website at 2:55 pm. The Review Journal ran five sentences at 3:12 pm.)
Is the Drug Enforcement Administration entering the investigation into the drug overdose of Las Vegas superstar entertainer Danny Gans?
After all, the musical impressionist died at 53 after ingesting a powerful opiate he did not have a prescription for — "drug store heroin” that was given to him by an associate or pusher, or acquired by a doctor under an assumed name. Such illegal activities are currently being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department in the apparent drug overdose death of superstar entertainer Michael Jackson. The LAPD has reportedly asked federal drug agents to help them find out who was feeding painkillers to 50-year-old Jacko.
But will the enablers, pushers and Dr. Feelgoods who helped grease Danny Gans’ skids to oblivion at 53 be brought to justice?
Not very damn likely.CASE CLOSED
Police in Henderson, Nevada closed the case on the same day Jacko died, despite glaring clues and questions raised by their incident report, and after eight weeks in which the lead detective apparently did the same thing the corrupted Las Vegas news media did: sat back and waited for a politician to give him the news.
We decided to give the Las Vegas news media a week to let the police report sink in, and react in some investigative way to the fact that police closed the case with minimal investigation. With the events unfolding in the Michael Jackson in such stark contrast to the secrecy and palm-greasing so evident in the Gans aftermath — and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which still has not reported what its journalists know about Danny Gans’ habits and lifestyle, reprinting Associated Press reports that detail allegations and findings about Jackson’s drug abuse (even though the toxicology report is still pending), they’d be bound to come up with something.
They didn’t.
Danny Gans is past history in Las Vegas now, swept under the sand like those bodies in the desert. The Vegas journalism ambassador and symbol of all that’s wrong in “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” local media scene, national freelancer, comp queen and Gay Vegas author Steve Friess (above right) celebrates Jacko’s death in today's Las Vegas Weekly, stating that “Michael Jackson’s untimely death was the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson’s music” because “a dead Michael Jackson provides show producers in Vegas… no more surprises.“
Enough (for now) with these bozos with buffet coupons.
NEVER MIND THE 911 CALL
Ponder this line from the skimpy police report typed up by Detective Chad Mitchell, of the Henderson Police Department, the lead investigator in the Danny Gans death case:
“Julia told me at the direction of the Henderson Police she had gathered and placed all of her husband’s medications on a table located directly outside of the master bedroom doorway so that they could be examined."Henderson Crime Scene Analyst Jennie Ayers then responded to the scene to complete the procesing and collection of evidence...”
"Julia" is better known as Danny Gans' wife Julie, and with all due respect to her, in the case of a premature death in the initial hours of investigation, especially one as high-profile as that of Danny Gans, the wife is often regarded as “the first suspect.”
Yet in this case, she was allowed to go alone into what we’d assume would be the bathroom, and come out on her own with a selection of medications to be examined.
What, if anything, did Julie Gans choose to not show the police officers?
Detective Chad Mitchell also indicates he did nio further investigation while awaiting the autopsy:
"ENTERED DATE 5/5/2009“Upon conducting the autopsy, (pathologist) Dr. (Gary) Telgenhoff was unable to determine the cause of death and told me that he would need to wait for the toxicology results to rule the cause and manner of Daniel’s death. Dr. Telgenhoff did not feel that foul play was involved in the death. This case will remain open until the results of the autopsy are available.”
By all indications, Detective Chad Mitchell did what the Las Vegas news media did in the six weeks between Danny Gans’ mysterious, untimely death and Mike Murphy’s press conference: He waited.
When Tabloid Baby’s man in Las Vegas tried to obtain a copy of the police report on June 22nd, he was told, and we broke the news, that the case was still open. As it turned out, Detective Chad Mitchell was not out doing shoe leather research all that time-- he was on vacation. At our prodding, he typed out the final entries in the report and Henderson police released the report and the long-withheld 911 tape on Thursday, June 25th, only to be overshadowed by the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson the same day.
"ENTERED DATE 6/25.2009“The Clark County Coroner has ruled the death iof Daniel Gans an accident. The case will be closed non-criminal.”
The autopsy on Michael Jackson was inconclusive, as well, but in the week since his body was found unresponsive in his bedroom, journalists and police alike have worked to uncover leads in the case without waiting for a toxicology report from the coroner. Friends and associates have been interviewed, property has been searched, and most important, the hunt is on for the person or persons who supplied Michael Jackson with the drugs that killed him.
One of Danny Gans’s doctors stepped forward shakily after the coroner’s findings to insist he wasn’t currently prescribing Danny Gans any hydromorphone and that his own search of computer records showed no doctor in Nevada or California was either.
Despite the doctor’s cockamamie single-bullet theory that Gans was done in by an accidental dose from a five-year-old prescription, the revelation should have been enough for Detective Chad Mitchell to strap on his shoulder holster and do some investigating.
Detective Chad Mitchell’s not talking. Neither is the crime scene analyst. But it has been stated that Julie Gans and her family do not want to know more, and do not want the public to know more, than the scant details released by the coroner.
JUSTICE
From the start, we've been talking about "justice" for Danny Gans. It doesn't matter that he didn't practice the clean life he preached. He was an entertainment giant who employed many people, added a new facet to the Las Vegas scene and chose cannily to market himself to two of the biggest niche audiences in the Western world: tourists and evangelical Christians.
It's the police's job to find out who gave him the oxymorphone that killd him-- as well as all the other drugs in his body that the politician coroner wouldn't reveal. It's the job of the news media to be the watchdogs and sniff out evidence on their own.
For now, there is no justice for Danny Gans. His killers remain at large.
We'll leave it to the mayor of Las Vegas, and his words on the day Danny Gans died-- and the comments from our readers on the day the Dany Gans case was closed:
"He lived the life he preached. It was always a clean show, it was always a wholesome show. That's the way he really lived. That's unusual in and of itself. Most people are a little bit phony about that, but Danny Gans was not a phony,"
--Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman
Anonymous said...I find it odd in the 911 call that the wife is clearly talking directly into the phone (not on speaker)-- how was she able to do that while using both hands to do chest compression? Couldn't hear any of the children's voices or the son's when they were moving him from the bed to the floor but you can hear her direct in the phone when she is compressing with both hands - huh?? No background voices, no emotion, very odd.Thursday, June 25, 2009 5:02:00 PM PDT Anonymous said...I know people respond differently to a crisis, but honestly, could she sound any more bored or like this was routine?Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:52:00 PM PDT Anonymous said...You mean that the Gans death gets a pass on drug enablers, unlike Michael Jackson ? Wow, the Vegas Press and Police really CAN be bought off by casino owners ! In the wake of the Michael Jackson death, they are going after the drug "enablers" or "drug peddler" that surrounded Michael and caused his death. This is a manslaughter charge in any state...except, apparently, in Nevada. ...It is a disgrace that this case is not being investigated.Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:36:00 PM PDT
“In New York and Los Angeles, when a major star drops dead of unknown causes, there is a repulsive ritual that takes place. 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.
“In Las Vegas, when left to our own devices, we do things a little differently.”
Someone asked us about the parallels between the deaths of Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. We're more interested in the parallels between the news media's respeonse to the deaths of Jacko and Danny Gans (who imitated Jacko in his show): the biggest star in the world (consummate showman and Christian), and the biggest star in Las Vegas (consummate showman and Christian).
The actions of public officials and the Fourth Estate in each case reveal a stark contrast in transparency and fulfillment of responsibility:
Michael Jackson, genius performer, dead at 50. Danny Gans, genius performer, dead at 52. Michael Jackson, found not breathing at home in his bed Danny Gans, found not breathing at home in his bed. Michael Jackson, pulled to the floor for CPR as a 911 dispatcher gives instructions. Danny Gans, pulled to the floor for CPR as a 911 dispatcher gives instructions. Prescription drugs are immediately suspected as the cause of Michel Jackson's death. Prescription drugs are immediately suspected as the cause of Danny Gans's death. Police say they want to speak to Michael Jackson’s many doctors immediately. Police do not seek out Danny Gans’ many doctors. Police impound the car of one of Michael Jackson’s doctors in search of drug evidence. Police allow Danny Gans’ wife to gather “all of her husband’s medications” for them to examine. The world media swarms onto the Michael Jackson story. The Las Vegas media tiptoes around the Danny Gans story. Michael Jackson’s “secret” dependence on prescription drugs is immediately laid bare by journalists and their editors, who can finally publish what they’ve known for years. Danny Gans’ “secret” dependence on prescription drugs is immediately covered up by journalists and their editors, who decline to publish what they’ve known for years or to investigate further. Michael Jackson’s family members, friends, doctors and colleagues say they knew about his drug problems, but were helpless to save him. Danny Gans’ friends and colleagues lie about him and claim ignorance, and the gullible and cynical local media print and broadcast what they know is not true. Respected publications like The New York Times and Los Angeles Times go with major front-page splashes on Michael Jackson’s death, with details about his final hours and many sidebars about his secret life and speculation about what killed him. Publications like the Las Vegas Review-Journal publish major front-page splashes on Danny Gans’ death, but report only the information that was handed to them. The Michael Jackson 911 tape is released immediately and analyzed by police, journalists and the public. The Danny Gans 911 tape is kept under wraps. Journalists investigate the actions of the paramedics who treated Michael Jackson and get immediate answers, erasing any mystery. Las Vegas journalists go with the official statements, with one (who is a stringer for The New York Times) stating that it is improper to “harass” the paramedics who attended to Danny Gans, adding to more mystery. Police and the coroner hold a press conference in which journalists ask many obvious questions about Michael Jackson’s habits and cause of death. Police, the coroner and Danny Gans’ boss Steve Wynn issue terse statements regarding Danny Gans’ death. Police and the coroner answer all of the questions they can in the case of Michael Jackson. Local journalists ask no questions at all in the case of Danny Gans.
Newspapers and media cover every aspect of Michael Jackson’s life, art, influence and legacy, filling column inches for days with fascinating detail about the troubled superstar. Local newspapers and media get reactions from people like Carrot Top and run out of Danny Gans coverage in a day and a half. Newspapers and media offer forums for fans to vent their grief and confusion over Michael Jackson. Las Vegas media outlets censor any correspondence criticizing their performance, publishing only letters that demand the Danny Gans details be kept private. The coroner says it will take four to six weeks for the toxicological report to reveal exactly what killed Michael Jackson, but with all bases covered and all secrets laid out, there will be no shock or mystery when the details come out. The coroner says it will take as long as six weeks for the toxicological report to reveal exactly what killed Danny Gans, and the local media close their notebooks and walk away, claiming they are helpless to report or publish any of the easily-verifiable information about the superstar until the government official hands them his statement. When the coroner’s report turns out to be a politically-parsed, incomplete, confusing explanation that only deepens the mystery, the local media whine for a day and then drop the story. In the Michael Jackson case, members of the news media show what they do best, clearing away mystery, cutting through the spin and laying out the unpleasant truth. In the Danny Gans case, members of the local news media reveal their corruption, adding to the mystery, clouding the truth and holding back what they know to be true. Fans understand that the great Michael Jackson was only human and love him only more. Fans wonder if the great Danny Gans they loved was actually a fraud, and their perception of him darkens amid the coverup. Revealed as myth and man—thanks to the news media-- Michael Jackson’s legacy is burnished. Transformed from man to mystery—thanks to the local news media-- Danny Gans’ legacy is tarnished.
Yes, in Las Vegas, when left to their own devices, they do things a little differently. But is the public or the subject well-served by their fear to offend? It seems that the responsible and aggressive coverage of the newspack in the Michael Jackson case puts the lie to Steve Friess' excuses and proves there's a big difference between Reporting 101 and bribery. What do you think? And can you think of other contrasts in the case? Add your own!
COMING SOON: Analysis of the Danny Gans 911 tape and investigator’s report... They closed the case after this??
"The Danny Gans case is still an open investigation."
A spokesman for the Henderson, Nevada Police Department told a TabloidBaby.com producer this afternoon that the investigation into the Dilaudid overdose death of the Las Vegas strip superstar has not yet been closed, despite the "acidental" tag plaxced on Gans' May 1st demise by the Clark County Coroner.
Our man on the ground in Clark County visited the police headquarters on Water Street in hopes of getting hold of the police incident report that's been held from public view since Gans' untimely death at his home on Ricota Court in the Roma Hills estates. It was then that he was told the case is "still an open investigation."
The police report was again withheld.
The lead detective, the police spokesman said, is "on vacation." Whether he's been away the thirteen days since the Coroner and Las Vegas news media closed their books on the case, or is investigating other leads into how the supposedly clean-living, athletic Born Again Christian showman wound up dying from too much "drug store heroin" remains to be seen.
The bigger question is why no one in the Las Vegas news media has gone after the police and paramedic incident reports or questioned why the death is still open thirteen days after it was supposedly officially deemed "accidental."
We don’t mean to harp on compromised Las Vegas writer, comp queen and New York Times freelancer Steve Friess (we wouldn't harp on him at all if he hadn't attacked us first and then kept it up), but the signs of the name-caller's public breakdown are getting more obvious and deserve attention.
Now the man who accused us of being tabloid “vermin” and "a**holes" for asking why the Las Vegas Review-Journal was not providing any new reportage two days after the tragic, unexplained death of Danny Gans, is criticizing the Review-Journal for the very same failure in the seamy tabloid story of Senator John Ensign’s adulterous affair!
“…The Las Vegas newspapers and national gossip and magazine media continue to troll for star tributes to the Vegas-only star, while none has yet published a follow-up on the breaking news story…his morning, there's a news vacuum regarding the death of Danny Gans-- which is odd, considering the talk around town.
“If we were running Las Vegas newspapers we'd be running fresh stories on Day Three."
“I did have to make a quick note that the Review-Journal, on only the third day of the John Ensign sex scandal, used the Associated Press' report on its front page and had no staff-generated material on the drama other than a 360-word commentary by columnist John L. Smith.
“That is really strange… the R-J had nothing at all to report today?”
It's all too easy to call Friess a blatant hypocrite. We fear it's something much worse. Like Susan Boyle, he appears to be crumbling under the pressure of public scrutiny.
We should note that the lead to Freiss’ Ensign story is again directed toward TabloidBaby.com:
“I've laid off on the local media criticism in this space for a while in part because I've learned what it's like to have some half-cocked nutjob misread and distort every little thing that happens and/or that you do.”
Again with the name-calling.
We also note that although Steve Friess and his cohorts have insisted that our coverage of the Gans overdose and criticism of the local media have been “discredited” and have gone unnoticed in Las Vegas, he has been referring to our site constantly and, sources say, is very worried about the consequences of his involvement in the media coverup.
We find it all very worrisome. The entire TabloidBaby.com staff wish Steve Friess the best, and hopes that his second unofficial husband, KVBC News executive producer Miles Smith, gets him the help he so obviously needs.
They won't admit it in the newsrooms and corporate boardrooms of Las Vegas, but people are paying rapt attention to our coverage of the death and post mortem coverup of the life of Danny Gans, the evangelical Christian headliner who died from an overdose of the powerful opiate Dilaudid.
If it were up to Tom "McCloud" Mitchell, editor of the sinking Las Vegas Review-Journal, fellow journalists would follow the lead of Gans' tragic family and leave the details of his drug use and secret life a closed book.
Steve Friess (left), the local New York Times stringer and comp queen, would have us believe that an investigation into the details of a life that one prominent Las Vegas journalist now calls "a fabric of lies" is somehow not fit to be printed.
But people are paying attention: powerful people far beyond Clark County who are looking at the players in Las Vegas and shaking their heads. The Hollywood Reporter's Ray Richmond was the first to point it out on his essential Man Bites Tinseltown site.
The latest resource spreading the news about Danny Gans and what the Las Vegas news media is not reporting is Rumor Rat, the entertainment news and gossip site that caused immediate shockwaves when it suddenly appeared a few weeks ago with shots across the bows of Perez Hilton and the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com.
Writes the Rat:
"There's an interesting story that's, oddly, NOT surfacing in Las Vegas, but which seems to have a great deal of journalistic merit.
"Apparently entertainer Danny Gans, one of few Sin City entertainers with a squeaky-clean family image, had been hooked on pain killers for years prior to his death.
"Despite this, his overdose is being portrayed in the local Las Vegas media as a freak accident of sorts...
"But the website Tabloid Baby is reporting that Gans had recently been seeking medical treatment for hearing loss - the kind of hearing loss suffered by Rush Limbaugh and others as a result of chronic Vicodin and/or Oxycontin use.
"Tabloid Baby has been on top of this story since news of Danny's death first broke, and the webber's account of what's not being reported by the Las Vegas press is an eye-opening read."
There is one Las Vegas newssite that's been fearless in its reporting of the Danny Gans case. We'll have their story next.
Click the photo for our complete coverage of the death and legacy of the Las Vegas superstar
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"Sad, funny, undeniably authentic, Tabloid Baby tells the tale of what befell too much of mainstream television news over the past couple of decades as the bad drove out the good."
--Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes
"Burt was there for the birthing of tabloid, he became the heart of the genre, and now he's written the bible."
--Maury Povich
"... the boozy, Vegas-stomping, strip-club-hopping, Sammy Davis Jr.–fawning life he describes, in vomit-in-the-office-trash-can detail, is emulated by mainstream media personalities today!"
--LA Weekly
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GREATEST HITS
Click the photo to see how a corporate porn-pushing gossip site fooled the world by reporting Michael Jackson's death before it was confirmed
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"Dear Burt: While you always had quite a flair for the dramatic, you never had much regard for the truth... Apparently you can't be bothered to read anything carefully. Maybe that is why you, like O'Reilly, make half your crap up.
Glad to hear you finally got sober." -- Barry Nolan, 04.12.08
"Hey! Who said Burt got sober?" -- Tabloid Baby, 04.12.08
May 2, 2009 CELEBRITY MEMORIES 
May 2, 2009 CELEBRITY MEMORIES 
