Living the City: Entertainment, Culture, and Journalism in Las Vegas

Episode 001

Living the City: Entertainment, Culture, and Journalism in Las Vegas

Featuring: John "Johnny Kats" Katsilometes

Award-Winning Entertainment Columnist | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Published: July 2026

INTRO:

[Male VO] In every great show, there’s the moment everyone sees.

[Female VO] The spotlight, the applause, the performance!

[Male VO] But beyond the lights, beyond the curtain, there’s another world unfolding…

[Female VO] The stories, the sacrifices, the secrets behind the stage.

[Male VO] From the people in the wings…

[Female VO] To the machinery behind the spectacle.

[Male VO] This is where the realities behind live entertainment reveal themselves.

[Both VO] This is The Headliner & The House.

[Sina] (Pre-recorded)

Welcome to The Headliner & The House. I'm Dr. Sina Foley.

My inaugural guest is award-winning entertainment columnist Johnny Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

For decades, Johnny has chronicled the people, productions, and personalities that shape entertainment in Las Vegas.

Here's our conversation.

[Sina]

Welcome! My guest today is Johnny Katsilometes, extraordinary journalist and just a well-respected icon in Las Vegas entertainment. Anybody who's anybody knows this guy here, this gentleman here, he can be found at events across the town and more. Just - I feel like you never sleep.

[Johnny]

I – I get that a lot. People ask me when I sleep, or they tell me that they don't believe that I do sleep.

[Sina]

24-7.

[Johnny] (0:54 - 1:18)

It's the column is a daily column that is a “man about town” by definition. So you can imagine - you live in Las Vegas. It's a nonstop city and a nonstop destination.

And the world comes here. So, you really do put in a lot of hours doing, you're either out a lot, or you're writing or reporting a lot. It's how the city is.

[Sina] (1:19 – 2:18)

You must split your time, like you said, attending events, networking with industry folks, and looking for leads, and then behind your laptop, or however you like to work, maybe taking notes on your phone, or...

[Johnny]

Sina - is interesting about this job is most people just see you out all the time and they think, oh yeah, that's a great job. And it is a great job. I've got the best job in the world.

But what the challenge is, is to spend enough time and effort and attention on the actual journalism end of this, because there is a lot that goes into covering the city of Las Vegas. So, there is a lot of events. There are a lot of, as you said, networking opportunities.

They're set up as networking opportunities, or just that happen to be. There's a lot of time that is spent researching, interviewing, gathering, and then writing. And I write every day in print, and more so online.

So it's a demanding job in terms of volume.

[Sina] (2:19 – 2:44)

Yeah. Do you have a favorite part of the process?

[Johnny]

Um, you know, I do a lot of multimedia now, I will tell you. I do a lot of video. I'm frequently a radio or podcast guest.

I do a lot of that kind of stuff myself. I like to write. That's my thing.

I like to write. That’s where - I like to observe things that are happening that are very interesting and come back, and I just love to put it down in writing. It's still my favorite thing to do.

[Sina] (2:45 – 3:44)

That's wonderful. And you are quite an award-winning journalist. You've got a long-running history here in this town, for sure, and elsewhere, I know.

Let's see, you've got a podcast, 113 episodes, did I hear? Did I read?

[Johnny]

Yeah, we have, it's called a “PodKats!”, and it's right now, it’s..

[Sina] Brilliant!

[Johnny] yeah, I love the title! We had to stop doing PodKats! just after COVID, you know, I hate to use that as the benchmark for everything. But once that happened, we did some episodes during the COVID shutdown, but in early 2021, PodKats! was just - stopped, and we're going to bring it back in some form, but I don't know how it's going to be.

What I've done since then is I've done a whole series of - season three of “Mobbed Up: The Fight for Las Vegas.”

[Sina]

I love that.

[Johnny]

It's the mafia culture podcast we did, and my season that I did was a whole stretch of interviews with Oscar Goodman.

[Sina]

Oh, wonderful.

[Johnny] (3:45 – 4:32)

He was the entire season, and we won a big award for that statewide, myself and Kerry Roper, and Larry Muir also was our tech on that show. And we spent - I spent 14 afternoon sessions with Oscar at the Plaza, at Oscar's Steakhouse.

[Sina]

Wow.

[Johnny] 17 hours total.

[Sina]

Nice backdrop.

[Johnny]

Yeah, yeah, he likes it there, and it was not video. It was just audio, but we wanted him to be in a comfortable place, so he was down there anyway, so... That was a whole chronicle of his life and career as a mob lawyer and mayor of Las Vegas, and after, and his life today. And talked all about his relationships and his clients and everything in that process. That's been my podcast hosting over the past couple of years, was putting all that together. So, I do it all, yeah, mm hmm.

[Sina] (4:33 – 5:52)

Well, I mean, that's wonderful. I'm looking at your list of accolades. You've had a long-time running column and many awards, Nevada Press Association's Journalist of the Year in 2013, four Best of the West awards for column writing, you were inducted into the UNLV College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame in 2019, and I'm sure the list just goes… on and on and on.

[Johnny]

It sure is interesting to hear it all, you observe that and you're like, did I do all that? I think when you've been in the same position over a period of time, eventually you get those kind of notices. My friend Al Bernstein, the boxing broadcaster,

[Sina] Oh yeah, he’s great!

[Johnny] He's in like nine or ten “Halls of Fame,” and I tell him that I'll never be in as many “Halls of Fame” as Al Bernstein.

The guy’s got so many “Halls of Fame” recognitions, he can't even remember them all. But - I'm very much - it's great to be recognized, but I'm very much - my recognition is day-to-day through my editors at the Review Journal, through the public, and you're only as good as your last column, and you're only as good as your next piece. And right now, you know, we're talking right now, and I'm thinking, you know, I've got to write about Carlos Santana, who I just interviewed today.

You know, that's the thing I'm focused on, is the next big thing and what's going on this weekend. So, I think that keeps me fresh, that keeps the whole thing alive for me.

[Sina] (5:53 – 8:14)

I love that you say it keeps you fresh and things, and I want to talk to you about what you consider your own journalistic brand, you know, having such a wide-spanning career and a broad depth of incidents and topics you've covered and crazy, wonderful people and events, you know.

[Johnny]

They are crazy. They are wonderful.

[Sina]

What do you think sets you apart, you know, as a journalist in this town? I mean, you're so widely known, and you're a Vegas royalty, a Vegas icon, and you've been “Portnoyed,” I know.

[Johnny]

I've been “Portnoyed,” yeah. I was one of the first Portnoyed, yeah.

[Sina]

That's the mark of success. Yeah, I know.

[Johnny]

You got me early. It's a caricature.

I still have it on my coffee mug. You know, I think I don't see myself outside very much, you know. I think that what sets us apart with this adventure that we're doing with the Kats column is that we do it every day, regardless.

I mean, I'm very proud of the fact that we have something about Las Vegas in play every day in the print edition on page 3A, and I think that's the start of it. When you are committed to that, and, you know, even on days when I'm off, technically, I have enough material online to run and print, but we just, we have to tell the public at some point that I take days off. So, you know, it's just what we need to make that message. But I think, you know, what it is is I'm, it's very much a participation sport for me in Las Vegas.

I watch a lot of things and I observe a lot, but I'm in the field all the time, you know. Most of what I write about is something that I've observed personally or I'm about to, and, you know, and I live the city, and I think what I'm trying to achieve and what we're going after at the RJ is to have a person who really reflects the city, who's a walking example of what Las Vegas is. That's what we're trying to do.

There have been, you know, city columnists in other cities who have done this. I was a big fan of Herb Cain, a man named Herb Cain of the San Francisco Chronicle, when I was growing up in Northern California, in Chico, California, north of there. And he was like - the San Francisco guy.

You got San Francisco when you read Herb Cain. And that's what I'm trying to be. You know, I'm a person who is all about Las Vegas, and I am proud of my close affiliation with Las Vegas.

So that's what we're trying to do.

[Sina] (8:15 – 8:48)

I love that. And you want to share the pulse of what you feel captures Las Vegas with the outside world and of course with our local community here. One thing I want to know about what your process is in particular is, you know, is story development.

Like how do you know when you hear something that that's a story or that, you know, separate from your “Cool Hangs” bit, that's just kind of a nod to scheduling or who you should see around town. How do you know that an event is about to be a story or is it, is it intuition? Is it journalistic experience?

I mean, what's your process like?

[Johnny] (8:49 – 11:24)

It's all that. Well, if it catches, if I hear something that piques my interest in having the baseline knowledge about Las Vegas, if I come across something or somebody tells me something that's very interesting, I will pursue it because if it's interesting to me, it's probably going to be interesting to somebody out there. Very good example.

A very recent example. I'll give you, Sina - it that, I'd heard about, there was this title floating around the community for a while called the “Empire Strips Back.”

[Sina]

Oh..

[Johnny]

Okay?

[Sina]

It’s intriguing, yeah!

[Johnny]

Star Wars spoof. And I've been hearing about this. You know, it was just kind of floating around.

Everyone wants to know, somebody's saying the Empire Strips Back is maybe coming to Las Vegas. And it's a, it's an adult parody of Star Wars. A burlesque type show. And I did, and I'm like, you know, I gotta, so I kind of, you know, chiseled my way through it, and I found out the two guys who were bringing it to Las Vegas are former Absinthe and Spiegelworld.

[Sina]

Oh, wonderful. Yeah.

[Johnny]

Creative minds.

[Sina]

I love the brand.

[Johnny]

Yeah. Daniel Kells and David Foster are their names.

And I've known them over the years. They were part of Absinthe, you know, that's got pedigree, amazing show. And it has brand recognition.

It has a quirky approach. It's sexy. It's funny.

And this is all stuff that I've known about it. It's run in other cities, successfully. And it's taking over what used to be the Chippendales theater at the Rio. So, when I heard about that, it was just a kind of a nugget of a thing.

It was just kind of like.. Then I heard the Chippendales were leaving the Rio. And I was over, I happened to be at the Rio walking across, and I texted the GM over there, Patrick Miller, who's a buddy of mine. And so, I'm walking across the Rio right now, and I'm looking up at that Chippendales theater and I go, I want to know what's going on up there.

And through this whole conversation, I started to realize that it was going to be the “Empire Strips back.”

[Sina]

Yeah.

[Johnny]

So, and I know the guys, I know David and Daniel from their days in Spiegelworld. So it became that I broke this story like a month ago, and we're going to announce it this week.

[Sina]

Oh, wow. Yeah.

[Johnny]

That is an example of what, you know, where you dig. That's a show example, but we've had, you know, headliners, we've had resort executives who are moving. Another really good example of what it's like to live in Las Vegas.

A few months ago, they had the ribbon cutting of the Jason Aldean's Kitchen and Bar at City Center and it's on the upstairs.

[Sina]

I haven't been yet.

[Johnny]

What are they called, The 63? I think it is called, up there that overlooks Harmon and the Strip. It's a beautiful place.

[Sina]

Probably a corner.

[Johnny] (11:25 – 14:00 )

Right. And Aldean was there and I'm going to interview Jason Aldean. I've been trying to interview him one-on-one for quite a while, since Route 91, since that whole tragedy.

And he's had a history of Las Vegas extensively beyond that. I talked to him before, Route 91 one time, at the Duck Commander musical opening, speaking to [inaudible]. Anyway, so they had this ribbon cutting and out walks a man by the name of Jim Murren.

You know. And he used to be the chairman of MGM Resorts International and used to oversee City Center. And he comes out, and I'm like, my jaw dropped. He saw me, and I saw him, and I waved at him, and I pointed at him.

Now, Jim had just two days earlier, I think, taken over as chairman of Resorts World.

[Sina]

Okay. Oh wow, yes.

[Johnny]

Big deal.

[Sina]

Big deal!

[Johnny]

To take over as chairman.

And I looked at him, and I'm like, I'm trying to figure out why he's cutting the ribbon at Aldean's, but his company is still a partner, or he was still a partner in, I believe in City Center at some level. And his past affiliation with City Center... So that's why he was there, because it was a City Center thing.

[Sina]

Right.

[Johnny]

And so I texted him, I said, I went up and hugged him, you know, and he's like, hey, Kats, it's been a while. I said, oh, man, I said, I'm really happy to see you here. And then the thing kind of broke up a little bit.

And then I texted him. I said, "Do you want to do an interview about your latest move?” He goes, "Yeah, come up to Ocean Prime, the bar.”

[Sina]

Oh yeah.

[Johnny]

And we went up there and did an interview. And everybody in the gaming side, in the gaming industry, I'm talking worldwide, was like, how the hell did you find Jim Murren? I'm like, being in the field!

[Sina]

Being in the field.

[Johnny]

You know, sometimes having recognition and a past with him.

I've interviewed him before. It was at the ribbon cutting of Park, MGM in the Park. You know, he was at that years ago.

So that's the example of having some history and having an institutional knowledge and knowing where the news is. That's a really good example, because everybody else, that was a slammed event, hundreds of people were hanging around, but nobody really understood what his presence there meant. And I was really happy with that.

We were laughing up at the bar, you know, when I was talking to him, and I'm going, of all the gin joints, we finally connect this way. I was shocked. And then I told Aldean the story, that I had to go talk to Jason Aldean right after.

I go, you're not going to believe this one. He was busting up. He's like, man, only in Vegas, huh?

[Sina] (14:01 – 16:10)

But I'm sure, you know, instinct plays a role, too. I mean, and that's maybe stems from your experience as well. I mean, you've got to have something that, you know, that that piques your curiosity and makes you go like, you know, I'm going to watch this person or watch this group of conditions or circumstance.

I mean, so do you ever get assigned to things, or are you just pretty autonomous and independent?

[Johnny]

Mostly I'm autonomous and independent and self-assigning. There are some things that we know I'm going to have to cover, you know, that aren't directly assigned. But, you know, you know what they are - New Year's Eve - I'm going to be expected to be somewhere on New Year's Eve, when I'm on.

You know, the big shows at Allegiant Stadium is kind of a given. Beyonce, the Rolling Stones, you know, those are givens.

Everything that happens at Sphere. You know, they don't have to assign me to these things. It's just going to be baked in.

But there are some things that I know I'm going to get material out of regardless. Ribbon cuttings are a good example. Groundbreakings are a good example because they assemble all the executives.

[Sina]

Yes, all in one spot. Yeah.

[Johnny]

Are right there.

[Sina]

Right.

[Johnny]

Yeah. So, I'd like to be at those. It's not because I need to take a photo of people with gold shovels.

[Sina]

Yeah.

[Johnny]

You know, just brought up Carlos Santana. He was at the groundbreaking of the Raiders Stadium at Allegiant Stadium.

[Sina]

Oh, yeah.

[Johnny]

It was him and Brian Sandoval at the time. You know, there were a whole bunch of newsmakers at that event. And Sisolak was there, a couple of owners.

Robert Kraft from the Patriots, I got to interview him. And only because I was there for the groundbreaking.

[Sina]

But it's a nice opportunity for you to rub elbows and perhaps overhear conversations.

[Johnny]

Yeah, you know, all that. Yeah. Yeah.

I get to, you know, I ask the questions from Caesars Entertainment executives, MGM Resorts executives. And you can spend a lot of hours trying to go through the channels of somebody's assistants and somebody's PR to try and get a conversation with somebody like Jim Murren. But if you see him in the field, you're right there.

[Sina]

You're right there.

[Johnny]

And that's where it pays off.

[Sina] (16:11 – 19:05)

Yeah. Got a direct line of sight.

[Johnny] Yep.

[Sina]

And so I know you were saying, you know, people chirp in your ear and things like that. I kind of wanted to ask you about sources and things like… How do you feel when you're dealing with perhaps a sensitive subject or sensitive event, or, or a question mark: How do you work with sources who are maybe a little reluctant to share things with you or are bound by – corporate propriety or any number of other disclosure issues.

Yeah, how do you how do you work with that and try to extract the story?

[Johnny]

You know, I always say that I'm on a fact-finding mission. Facts are are not personalities. Facts - and they don't have motives. Facts - and you know if I know something is going on - if I can - if somebody tells me a fact on background, or even off the record, and I can go pursue it somewhere else… That's okay, as long as I trust the individual that is telling me the truth about - and is accurate about the facts. I always say that this is almost a scientific process - like I'll hear… What's a good example…

I'd heard the Killers were coming to town. And I dug and dug and scratched and scratched to find out if that was fact yeah. And you can imagine there's a lot of - there are a lot of things that happen around a show like that, and eventually, we've - we figured it out. I figured it out definitively, and they announced that the Killers are coming to the Coliseum in Caesars Palace. But that started in you know - It's interesting with them, or like Imagine Dragons is another good example. They're local band has a lot of really hardcore local fans who really follow.

[Sina]

Oh sure. Yeah.

[Johnny]

I mean they know everything. They know more about what the band is doing than some members of the band sometimes, and so that's the short answer is - I just need facts. Not tying your name to it. If I know this is happening and I can report it as such, then I'm good. But it you know every once in a while - I had a thing not too long ago when we were - I was convinced Harry Styles was going to be announcing his residency. We'd heard that so much from people in Las Vegas,

[Sina]

I like that idea!

[Johnny]

And it had been reported by the New York Post - a very sensitive thing – and I was taking it around the horn, and they're like, you know 100%. You know, this is, you know, it's gotta, it’s gotta be announced soon. And I confirmed that way the reporting of the New York Post and immediately - after I had gone to the Sphere too - and they had no - no comment about it their stack - their stock comment about “we don't we don't comment about people who aren't performing here.” They broke that to say, “Harry's not coming.” And I don't know - I think what had happened in that instance was that the negotiations with Styles had just broken after the New York Post reporting like they did completely fractured.

I'm not a hundred percent sure on that. But that's an example. I have to be really, really, really careful.

Yeah, it’s not an exact science.

[Sina] (19:06 – 20:39)

Have you ever like missed out on a scoop or a story because you just couldn't substantiate the claim?

[Johnny]

Yeah. Yes.

[Sina]

That's gotta be heartbreaking in a sense, or like a missed opportunity. Not heartbreaking, but a disappointment.

[Johnny]

It is - you want to be first - you want to be right.

[Sina]

Yeah

[Johnny]

A lot of times - I have to think of an example, you know, there's - there have been maybe - I Think Celine was one… Her, her terms of coming back to Resorts World... I didn't quite have when they announced it, but I did talk to her right after that. But they're, they’re - generally it does happen, you know.

[Sina]

Oh I’m sure, yeah.

[Johnny]

Like you just don't - don't you know, so I'm not a hundred percent sure on this enough, but there's all - there are always ways to get - state that these things are going on as you understand them, but they're not confirmed.

I don't like doing that. I don't like saying, you know Adele, “We heard Adele's gonna come to Encore theater.” That's a classic example from years ago. Like oh yeah, well we gotta check on Adele going to Encore, going to Resorts World, where there was so - it was like every couple of years we'd hear a rumor that Adele was gonna play somewhere here, and I'm like, oh, here we go again. We - usually from the UK would start and spill over here. But I try to independently - I do really try to independently verify and confirm things from everywhere. I don't care if somebody's shouting at me across the room, or it's just something you see on social media. Or whatever it is.

You take this whatever-information, and you have to run it through your sources.

[Sina]

Mm-hmm.

[Johnny]

And if you can do that, you've got it.

[Sina] (20:40 – 22:40)

That's responsible reporting anyhow, yeah?

[Johnny]

It's responsible behavior.

[Sina]

Yeah, I like I like how you framed it saying that you approach things from a fact-finding position, and I think that's the –

[Johnny]

It's a scientific process –

[Sina]

…Tenets of good journalism, but having said that - What would you say in this context, and the journalistic context, is the definition of truth? Like because you know, obviously there's multiple stories, multiple perspectives and voices. How do you determine whose side of the story is most accurate, or what does mean truth mean to you?

[Johnny]

You have to start with what is absolutely verified: times, dates, things that were performed, or behavior, or whatever, in entertainment. It's you know, what's-what music was played. What's the run of show? You know - where somebody was personally present.

[Sina]

Measurable things.

[Johnny]

Yeah, exactly like if we think somebody's going to be interested in a residency at some theater, and we hear that that person is/has visited the theater. Like a Katy Perry, for example. If you see - if you hear something like Katy Perry's over at this place walking around with people who represent Katy Perry - that's a fact. If you know that, you know, like you can okay - Then you ask why was Katy Perry hanging around backstage after somebody else's show? What was going on? And there's been reporting that she is apparently interested in doing a residency in Los Vegas.

We know she was there, if you can fig...

[Sina]

Ahh, yeah.

[Johnny]

So that's truth! What motivated her to be there is she can say that - whatever she wants, but if you can say that there's been reporting in whatever publication that Katy Perry's been in talks with this company that books shows in that theater - and you know Katy Perry was there hanging out and talking to people around the theater - something's up.

[Sina]

Mm-hmm

[Johnny]

You know, and the truth part of that is that it was what she was doing. That's the simplest answer.

[Sina] (22:41 – 23:50)

I can appreciate that.

[Johnny]

Measurable.

[Sina]

And - and the flip side to that question, I think, is you know, so you get the facts and you get the measurable things that are verifiable. And at some point it's up to your license to frame - frame the story. And at what point, or what kind of interpretation spin do you ever put on your - is it - it's not all facts and numbers and dates and times and schedules, is it?

[Johnny]

You assemble the facts as you know them and what what has happened in previous - you contextualize what's going on?

You know, this, this is a person who's had this various interest in Las Vegas before - that you check tour dates. You check dates for the facility that might be on sale, if we're talking about a residency. We need to know if - if they're open dates for this and the rest of the year, and I'm - you know, I'm always about that, you know like well if she was here and there is - there are - you do this with the Sphere a lot… Kenny Chesney is coming into the Sphere, and you have to figure out what dates are open for him. And those are - that's also facts.

[Sina] (23:51 – 27:50)

I want to talk shortly about safety. But before I - before I go into that… So we talked about fact-finding and truth-finding and - and framing stories. I also want to know in a town like this, where bigger is better and everyone's going for the “wow” factor in entertainment is - Is there a role for sensationalizing news? I mean, is there a time that you as a journalist want to hype the town, or you want to - impact the story in a special kind of way.

[Johnny]

I think that sensationalism can be interpreted in the titles on-online. If you notice - Start their titles or something that people will look at and - and that's the way we get people to get interested.

[Sina]

Yes, like a hook. You need a hook.

[Johnny]

It is - so you have to make sure there - you're not over-sensationalizing. I have to make sure of that. And so you have, you know, something has happened. There's a fire. Or there's a disaster, or there's something crazy-good happening. You have to put in the title as succinctly as possible. What is the - what is the “grab” about this? Why are people - you have to catch people within 10 seconds pretty much online.

I try not to do that. I, I have to live under the assumption that people are gonna read all the way through, and I have the analytics that people do get to the bottom of my column. So, you have to make sure that you're responsible putting all your facts together and an assessment and contextualizing this thing that happened as well as you can. But there are times, you know, when you your title has to be, you know like… You know we had a recent incident like when Vince - a plane Vince Neil owned - crashed in - or had an accident on the runway in Scottsdale, Arizona, okay? And Vince Neil is in Motley Crue. Motley Crue has a residency coming up at Dolby Live. Vince Neil has - used to live in Las Vegas. So, when I see reporting of Vince Neil-owned aircraft crashes in Scottsdale, and one person reportedly dead, which the AP had reported. So, there was a person who was killed. Two people injured, one of whom happened to be Vince's wife, Rain, whom I know. You get into this and the headline is going to be, “Plane Owned by Rockstar Crashes” or “Has accident in Arizona - One Dead.”

[Sina]

Factual!

[Johnny}

Some version of that. But when you go to write it, you just have to say okay, this is why this is important: It's Vince Neil of Motley Crue, but know that Motley Crue was supposed to come in for 14 shows - like now. It delayed him - but like coming up. They have a long history in Las Vegas. Vince Neil has had business interests in Las Vegas - a lot of them - tattoos and football and all that - Tattooado and the Mexican place - all that… Has had residency performances in Las Vegas before… Then - you start drawing it out. Then you start saying, okay it's more than just this thing that happened in Arizona. There's a lot of appendages here. And when you tell a story that way, people kind of get – okay, this is a responsible piece.

[Sina]

Yes.

[Johnny]

This is an interesting piece. It has a lot of history in it. We now know that this isn't just the thing that happened. You can write in three paragraphs, you know: two planes

[Sina]

What happened.

[Johnny]

You know running into each other on the runway, and one was owned by Vince Neil's company, and there's this big thing. And I happen to be in a place in the world where I know Vince. I've known him for a long time. What is happening in Arizona? I was like, I know this is touchy, but what is happening?

[Sina]

Friends in high places.

[Johnny]

Yeah, you know, and are you okay? Is Rain okay? You know, you know, you have to keep - get it into a conversational thing. I said, I'm just looking for information right now. And of course if there's anything that through my reporting or elsewhere that can be done to - if there's a way to help with the recovery of this is, let me know, because I'm that type of person. So, yes, there is what you'd call sensationalism, but there's also a way to do it responsibly and get the news across that is newsworthy and put it in proper context, yeah.

[Sina]

Johnny, thank you so much for joining me and for sharing your award-winning perspective.

In this first conversation, we've explored the craft of entertainment journalism and how context, credibility, and lived experience help audiences better understand a city as dynamic as Las Vegas.

In our next segment, we'll turn that same lens toward entertainment safety, workplace risk, accountability, and the media's influence in bringing those issues into public view.

I'm Dr. Sina Foley, and this is The Headliner & The House.

Let's continue the conversation.