On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) stated that whether taxpayer money should be spent on media subscriptions is “questionable.” And “We’re trying to save money, let’s look at it, is it necessary?”
Host Chris Cuomo asked, “Should taxpayer money be used to buy subscriptions to media companies?”
After Lynch asked for clarification, Cuomo said, “The allegation of POLITICO and The New York Times getting money from different agencies, mostly Health and Human Services, it was reportedly USAID, but I think that was a leak that was opportunistic to a bunch of people who aren’t held to account on digital media, but if it’s coming from Health and Human Services, it’s still tax dollars being used to buy subscriptions to different outlets. Is that something that you think should be allowed?”
Lynch answered, “It’s questionable. I can say that we get probably two dozen subscriptions at the House reading room, The New York Times, the general POLITICO, all these others. There’s another angle of this too, that, since Benjamin Franklin, we have been subsidizing newspapers and print because we thought that was a good idea. So, there’s a subsidy going out there generally from the government on top of these different agencies taking it upon themselves to order these subscriptions. So, we can look at it. We could look at it. We’re trying to save money, let’s look at it, is it necessary?”
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