Local Houston Media Influencing Mayoral Election by Censoring Candidates 

(TMU) — For local municipalities like Houston, Texas, there is an FCC requirement for television and radio news broadcasters to provide candidates in local elections a chance to explain their positions, regardless of how controversial or outside of the mainstream they may be. This is known as the FCC Equal Time Rule.

Oddly enough, this is not required for federal elections, in which the national media has a longstanding reputation of only focusing on the most establishment-friendly candidates.

Supporters of some of the more radical presidential candidates like Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard have seen just how much power the media can have during elections, not to mention how third party candidates receive little to no airtime at all, rendering them almost invisible to most of the United States.

According to some of the most recent polls, less than half of the people living in the U.S. actually trust the national media.

However, many people still have faith in local news, just as they still hold out some hope for local politics. Unfortunately, as the residents of Houston and a few mayoral candidates are now finding out, the same corruption permeates throughout local media and politics as well.

Activist, journalist, and contributor to the Mind Unleashed, Derrick Broze is surely one of the most radical candidates in the Houston mayoral race. He was motivated to run for office to give citizens a say over the city’s controversial 5G rollout, in addition to ending the drug war, reducing surveillance in the city, and is endorsing other liberty-minded measures that would make his Democrat and Republican rivals cringe.

Despite what his running mates may think of his platform, according to the FCC Equal Time Rule, Broze is entitled to airtime along with the other candidates. While he has taken full advantage of this opportunity, Broze has still faced roadblocks every step of the way. And despite having managed to qualify and participate in a vast majority of the mayoral debates and live events, Broze and other less establishment-friendly candidates are being entirely ignored by the local media.

While Broze expected to experience this very thing, he is doing his best to point it out when it happens. Broze has now faced a few incidents like this during his candidacy, most recently at the hands of FOX 26.

Broze was reluctantly interviewed on a FOX 26 show called “What’s Your Point?” with host Greg Groogan, which airs Sunday mornings. When Broze arrived for the interview, he got the impression that he wasn’t being taken very seriously. Out of concern that the station wouldn’t actually air the interview, Broze recorded a copy of his own.

As he expected, FOX 26 didn’t air the interview, but instead spent a month dodging him and giving excuses.

FOX 26 eventually informed Broze that they wouldn’t be airing the interview because he was not a “viable candidate.” However, all candidates are entitled to make their case on television regardless of viability, thanks to the FCC Equal Time Rule.

In an exclusive interview with the Mind Unleashed, Broze explained:

“Mr. Groogan finally showed his true face and told me that the interview would not be airing because I was not viable. When I told him he was violating FCC rules, he told me that was my opinion and do what I felt I needed to do. Essentially, Groogan and his boss Susan Schiller gave me the run around for 4 weeks before finally releasing the interview. I never wanted anything special, I only asked Fox 26 to fulfill their legal obligations.”

Broze then released his own copy of the interview online and promised to file a complaint against the station for violating the equal time requirement. Shortly after, the station posted their copy of the interview to their website, and claimed that they aired it on TV last Sunday. But Broze says that he couldn’t find it in the show’s archives.

Watch the interview below and decide for yourself if Derrick Broze is a viable candidate for Houston.

By John Vibes | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com