A Florida county commission unanimously denied a library’s request for additional funding in order to pay for a subscription to the New York Times.
The Citrus County committee denied the request for $2,700 annually at a hearing last month. The hearing occurred the same day the Trump administration announced plans to end federal agencies’ subscriptions to the Times and Washington Post.
One of the five commissioners who voted against providing the funding, Scott Carnahan, called the Times “fake news,” and added that he agrees with President Trump and said, “I will not be voting for this. I don’t want the New York Times in this county,” according to the Post.
Ron Kitchen Jr., a different commissioner, asked, “Do we really need to subscribe to the New York Times?” Another commissioner, Jimmy Smith, wondered, “Why the heck would we spend money on something like that?”