Das Wall Street Journal hat den «Second Annual Legal Outdoor Smoke» im Paley Park, New York, besucht. Im Freien Rauchen ist in New York überhaupt erst möglich, weil der Park einem privaten Besitzer gehört, und zwar der Familie Paley, welche auch das CBS-Netzwerk besitzt. Die Verbindung zwischen CBS und dem Zigarrenrauchen im Paley Park liefert die Gründungsgeschichte:

Mr. Paley’s father started working at La Palina, then owned by his grandfather, Samuel Paley, fresh out of Wharton Business School. Founded in 1896, by 1910 it was manufacturing 10 million cigars a day. «Ninety percent of men smoked cigars at the time,» he explained, when I questioned his numbers. «He was put in charge of advertising for the company,» Mr. Paley went on. «He produced ‹The La Palina Hour.’» It was a radio show that so helped increase cigar sales that it convinced William S. Paley of the potential of that new medium. In 1927, he bought five radio stations in the Philadelphia area that he called «United Independent Broadcasters.» They became the genesis of CBS.

Am Event nahm auch «Cigar Rights of America» teil. Wie es im Artikel heisst, hat die Organisation eine Gesetzesinitiative zum Schutz der Premium-Zigarren-Industrie auf den Weg gebracht:

Mr. Loope advised me about legislation currently wending its way through Congress—the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act—that, to the best of my understanding, is designed to get the FDA off the backs of quality cigar makers and smokers. «The FDA has posted four times their intention to regulate cigars,» he fumed, no pun intended.