RALEIGH ? First it was addressed on MSNBC’s ?The Abrams Report? and Fox News Channel. Two weeks ago ABC’s ?Good Morning America? ran an in-depth segment on the story.

This week CNN and ?NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw? will tackle the controversy over how states, and particularly North Carolina, have misused money won in the 1998 tobacco lawsuit. Forty-six states settled for $246 billion from the tobacco industry because of the health-related costs they incurred for the care of smokers.

The national news organizations have discovered that several states, rather than using the money to offset health costs related to smoking or campaigns to prevent smoking, have instead used the revenue on questionable projects.

On Monday, CNN’s ?NewsNight with Aaron Brown? (which airs in primetime at 10 p.m.) zeroed in on projects in New York and North Carolina as examples where tobacco settlement money was misused.

?No one really believed the states would spend all of their billions on health care and anti-smoking ads,? Brown said, opening the segment. ?Politicians and the tobacco industry didn’t believe that, and I guarantee you reporters who covered the story didn’t either.

?But golf courses?? wondered Brown, who was referring to New York’s Niagara County public golf course, which received $450,000 in tobacco settlement money for two capital projects.

?NewsNight? then cut to a video clip of Washington state Attorney General Christine Gregoire in 1998, making claims about how tobacco advertising would change after the settlement. ?Those eyeing what became known as the Master Settlement Agreement back in 1998 hoped the public health initiative would become as habit-forming as tobacco itself,? Brown said in a voice-over.

?Of the estimated $30 billion handed out to date nationwide, experts say a little more than 5 percent — 5 percent — has been used toward tobacco prevention,? he continued.

Later in the segment Brown turned the focus to North Carolina. He said the state’s allocation of funds to cut teen smoking ?falls way short of what needs to be done,? according to ?critics.?

?There is also a lawsuit which has been filed against the state for the way it’s distributed millions of the big tobacco settlement dollars,? Brown said, adding, ?monies in part that went toward the funding of an equestrian center and a tobacco processing plant.?

The Golden LEAF Foundation, which was established by the state to distribute half of North Carolina’s $4.6 billion share of the settlement for economic development concerns in ?tobacco dependent? communities, gave the Five Points Horse Park in Hoke County $200,000. It also provided $400,000 for a tobacco processing plant’s water and sewer lines in Nash County.

Brown said Gov. Mike Easley provided a statement to ?NewsNight? which said ?he’s disappointed with the way some of the money has been spent, notwithstanding some investments that have helped attract good jobs to North Carolina.?

After a commercial break Brown interviewed Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore, whom Brown said ?spearheaded the tobacco settlement.? Brown asked Moore if it was realistic to expect states to spend all the settlement money on tobacco prevention and health programs.

?Yeah, of course, you know, we didn’t sue to build highways,? Moore said. ?We sued because tobacco kills more people than anything else in this country.?

?I assume you find it a little galling to know that North Carolina spent it on a tobacco processing plant,? Brown said.

Moore responded, in part, ?Yeah, my friend Mike Easley up there of course was very helpful to us with this tobacco settlement, but he’s having some tough times, and the tobacco lobby is pretty strong…up there in tobacco land in North Carolina.

?Yeah, that’s a little galling,? Moore continued. ?I mean, we don’t need to do anything to help the tobacco companies. Believe me, they have plenty of money. So I wish they wouldn’t do things like that. That’s kind of crazy.?

To read a complete transcript of the July 29 ?NewsNight? program, go on the Internet to http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0207/29/asb.00.html.

Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal.