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Party down up on Capitol Hill!
Posted By katie allison granju
WSMV in Nashville did a little poking around, and found an East Tennessee legislator with what appears to be his own personal man-cave-party-room at Legislative Plaza in Nashville:
According to an I-Team report, those who want to get around the smoking ban inside Legislative Plaza need to know state Rep. Joe McCord, R-Maryville, and if they’re really connected, they will be invited back to a room set up for smoking.
McCord would not speak with the I-Team’s Jeremy Finley on the record.
About two years ago, the state Legislature passed a law that banned smoking in any state buildings.
The effects of smoking hit home for lawmakers when state Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, announced that his sister had died of lung cancer.
McCord was among the lawmakers that cast a “yes” vote to the legislation, which passed with an overwhelming majority.
But this week, when the Channel 4 I-Team sat outside McCord’s office in front of everybody smoking outside, there was someone smoking inside while McCord was in the room.
A source also told the I-Team that inside Legislative Plaza, an entire conference room designed for official business had become a room to skirt the smoking law and not get caught.
“This is the third day that we’ve be in here, and just standing in here, you can smell that someone’s been smoking,” the I-Team’s Jeremy Finley reported.
Over the course of several days during business hours, the I-Team checked out McCord’s conference rooms.
In one, there was an air purification system, a sandbag to seal the space the below the door and a homemade sign reminding people not to open the door to the outside hallway.
Finley said he found one ashtray in the corner of the room and another ashtray in a drawer alongside 12 bottles of booze.
KAG media criticism moment: I find the choice of the word “booze” rather casual and inflammatory for a straight news report like this. And who wrote this for the WSMV site? The reporter? Then why is he referring to himself in the third person, as in “the I-Team’s Jeremy Finley reported.”
May 6th, 2008
