GOP lawmaker takes aim at Texas nonprofit media

A Texas lawmaker has proposed a bill that would ban colleges and universities in the state from supporting nonprofit news organizations such as NPR, PBS or the Texas Tribune, which touts itself as the largest statehouse news team in the nation.

The bill would insert into law that “an institution of higher education may not use funds from any source to provide financial support, including through the purchase of a membership, sponsorship, or advertising services, to a (nonprofit) media organization.”

Colleges and universities around Texas frequently pay media companies to advertise their campuses or programs. Specific schools or institutions within universities also often partner or sponsor with news organizations to host events. There are many nonprofits, such as policy groups or charities, that are not primarily focused on producing media content, but still do so through blog posts, social media videos or other medium. It’s unclear how this legislation would affect them.

Rep. Jared Patterson, a Republican from Frisco, filed the measure: House Bill 845. In an interview last year on the Chad Hasty Show, Patterson sounded off on the Tribune’s coverage of the GOP elections bill that tightened mail-ballot requirements in the name of election security.

“You’ve got trash outlets like the Texas Tribune ... that are mouthpieces for far-left liberal institutions like some of the big universities and big major corporations that are very far left, way far left, further than most Texans. And you’ve got them as a mouthpiece, dogging Republicans, calling us ‘racist’ for wanting to enforce the laws, and having free and fair elections,” Patterson said.

The bill inspired a Democratic quorum break at the end of the 2021 session, as well as a walkout to Washington from a number of House Democrats to delay a vote on the legislation. It was eventually passed and signed into law during a special session last fall. Mail-ballot rejection rates spiked as the new law was enacted, and a nonpartisan study found it led to “massive disenfranchisement.”

The Texas Tribune, based in Austin, has collected about $5.75 million since its 2009 launch from Texas colleges and universities, according to the Tribune’s online tracker of corporate sponsors. And a spokeswoman for the Tribune, Natalie Choate, wrote that the news organization has raised about $120 million in total over13 years to fund its journalism and its events, which are often forums for public officials or figures to discuss policy and politics.

“A small percentage of those funds come from Texas colleges and universities promoting their work in research, workforce development and innovation to our millions of readers — as they do by advertising in for-profit papers like the Houston Chronicle,” Choate wrote in an email. “All support from our sponsors is clearly identified and they play no role in our journalism. This bill would severely limit the freedom of higher ed institutions to spend their marketing and advertising dollars as they wish.

“Additionally, HB845 would also impact Texas NPR and PBS stations, which provide critical nonpartisan news and information and often operate from the campuses of Texas colleges and universities. It would have serious implications for Texas’ urban and rural communities alike,” she added.

Patterson has pre-filed 23 bills so far ahead of the legislative session starting early next year.

Many of them are unlikely to become law, but function as way-posts for his conservative beliefs, including policies that would dissolve the government of the city of Austin, classify hormone treatment for transgender children as child abuse, force any business that hosts a drag show to register under the same category as a strip club or porn shop and allow election workers to carry handguns at polling places.

Patterson’s office did not respond to requests for comment. edward.mckinley@chron.com