When Congress defunded its cash cow on Friday, Houston Public Media (HPM) launched a “Resiliency Fund” campaign – using some of the same false claims that prompted Congress to defund public media.

On Friday, the House passed a Senate-amended bill rescinding $1.1 billion of taxpayer money authorized for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funnels federal funds to state and local public media, including Houston Public Media (HPM) and Texas Public Radio (TPR).

As a result of the defunding, Houston Public Media lost $2.2 million of taxpayer funding (10% of its annual budget) that it would have received over the next two years.

In response, Houston Public Media announced a $4.4 million “Resiliency Fund to Protect Trusted News and Emergency Services,” claiming that it provides “fact-based journalism” and “emergency alerts” that are “indispensable” to local communities:

“We are calling on everyone who values fact-based journalism, educational programming, emergency alert systems, and content that reflects and informs our local communities to support the Houston Public Media Resiliency Fund.”

….

“Now more than ever, it is vital that communities stand with public media to ensure these indispensable services continue.”

But, public media’s infamous bias and propaganda (presented as “journalism”), flawed emergency alert system and dispensability are three of the main reasons Congress saw fit to spare taxpayers from being forced to continue footing the bill for public media.

In Texas, for example, when this month’s deadly floods were devastating parts of the state, private media provided emergency alerts and live, on-the-scene, reports hours before the local public radio station and Texas Public Radio’s social media got around to it.

Likewise, public media has proven to be overwhelming biased – not balanced “fact-based journalism.” Numerous examples of public media’s left-wing bias and commentary disguised as news were presented by Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) at Senate hearings leading up to his chamber’s defunding vote.

“Now look, you don’t have to be a Latin scholar to see that these articles are biased – every single one of them – at the federal level and at the state and local level in Louisiana,” Sen. Kennedy said in a Senate speech after displaying a host of headlines from publicly-funded news organizations.

“They have the right to say this stuff – but, they don’t have the right to say it with your money,” Sen. Kennedy said.

Finally, with today’s plethora of information sources – ranging from the internet to private broadcast, cable and print news – taxpayer-funded public media have become anything but “indispensable.”