Last night PBS aired the first of a two part documentary on Las Vegas. The second part runs tonight. A small controversy has broken out over one of the sponsors of the film being the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, a quasi-government organization funded by the room tax, yet run by a private sector board charged with promoting tourism. I have no opinion on this controversy and have not seen the documentary yet. Obviously, PBS is a special case. But people should regard most television coverage of Las Vegas with a grain of salt particularly on the cable channels that rely heavily on the casinos for access and promotional footage. Requests to film in casinos generally get granted only under heavily controlled conditions. Sponsorship is just another tool. A few months ago a documentary producer for a major cable channel told me that he was making Vegas specials because ten hours of sponsorship had been secured for Vegas coverage and after the fact the shows were being created to go with it.