November 5, 2019
The librarians of Citrus County, Fla., had what seemed like a modest wish: A digital subscription to the New York Times. For about $2,700 annually, they reasoned, they could offer their roughly 70,000 patrons an easy way to research and catch up on the news.
But when their request came before the Citrus County commission last month, local officials literally laughed out loud. One commissioner, Scott Carnahan, declared the paper to be "fake news."
"I agree with President Trump," he said. "I will not be voting for this. I don't want the New York Times in this county."
In a move that is generating intense online backlash, all five members of the commission agreed to reject the library's request. The discussion took place Oct. 24, the same day the Trump administration announced plans to
cancel federal agencies' subscriptions to the Times and The Washington Post. While there's no apparent connection — the Citrus County meeting began several hours before the
Wall Street Journal broke the news of the new edict —
the controversy unfolding in central Florida highlights how politicians nationwide are parroting the president's disparaging rhetoric about the media.
At the Oct. 24 meeting, the proposal to budget several thousand dollars for a Times digital subscription was met with immediate disapproval and suspicion.
"Do we really need to subscribe to the New York Times?" asked Commissioner Ron Kitchen Jr.
The other men seated at the dais chuckled.
"I actually was going to say that," responded Carnahan. He had seconded a motion to hear the item only so that they could have a discussion about the Times, he said, eagerly volunteering his opinion: "I don't agree with it, I don't like 'em, it's fake news, and I'm voting no."
Suggesting that a lack of resources wasn't the problem, Carnahan said that the library could take the thousands of dollars that an institutional subscription to the Times would cost and ″do something else with it." And community members who really wanted to read the paper could simply sign up for home delivery. "I support Donald Trump," he concluded.
Flanked by a county flag depicting frolicking manatees, all four commissioners who were present agreed to turn down the request.
When a fifth commissioner, Jimmie T. Smith, returned to his seat and learned what he had missed, he took no issue with denying the library funding.
"Why the heck would we spend money on something like that?" asked Smith, a former Republican state representative.
The commission moved on to other topics, approving a janitorial contract, issuing a proclamation recognizing Toastmasters and declaring October as "Friends of the Library Month," seemingly without any sense of irony.
Afterward, two commissioners who hadn't spoken up during the meeting told the Citrus County Chronicle that they worried that agreeing to pay for the Times would lead to requests for subscriptions to more "radical publications."
"I don't feel like the county is obligated to subscribe to every major newspaper or every point of view," Jeff Kinnard, the commission's chairman, told the paper. "At some point you draw the line."
Another commissioner, Brian Coleman, said that his concerns were also political in nature. "I support President Trump," he told the Chronicle. "I would say they put stuff in there that's not necessarily verified."
The Chronicle noted that the four commissioners who agreed to be interviewed said that they did not read the Times.
