Medina invited to appear in The Belo Debate

Great news from WFAA.com , Debra Medina’s popularity and chances for greater and much needed Texas and national exposure growing too much to be denied:

DALLAS — Debra Medina — the third candidate running for the GOP nomination for governor along with Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison — is being invited to appear in the statewide televised debate sponsored by Belo TV stations in Texas and The Dallas Morning News.
The debate is set for Friday, January 29.
Until now, Medina had not met the criteria to appear in the debate. However, a new Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday shows a shift among likely Texas GOP voters in her favor. The poll of 831 likely voters found:

Perry - 43 percent
Hutchison - 33 percent
Medina - 12 percent
Not sure - 11 percent

After reviewing the Rasmussen results, Mike Devlin — president and general manager WFAA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, the station that will host the debate — explained why Medina will now be allowed to appear.
“The Rasmussen poll released today shows Debra Medina is now at 12 percent, which is a substantial jump since the previous poll. Factoring in the margin of error ( /- 3.5 percent) and using reasonable news judgment, it appears Ms. Medina is a viable candidate and qualifies for the Belo Debate to be broadcast on January 29,” Devlin said.
As previously announced, the primary criteria used to determine which candidates are invited to participate in the debate include whether a candidate:
receives significant levels of public support in independent public opinion polls, e.g. 15 percent, which is the minimum used by the Commission on Presidential Debates

has received substantial campaign contributions from varied sources

has previously held significant public office(s)

has received a substantial level of votes in prior elections for the same or comparable office(s)

will be reported by news agencies in election night returns

has received significant news coverage from a wide range of media outlets

“The FCC and other bodies grant stations the right to exercise good faith news judgment in determining which candidates are invited to participate in televised debates, and to use reasonable news judgment in reaching such decisions, with the intent to neither promote a candidate nor create a disadvantage for a candidate,” Devlin’s statment said.

Let’s face it: the Establishment does everything it can to discriminate against the underdogs that aren’t on their leashes, until the roar of the crowd just becomes too much and too potentially damaging to their bottom line, then they give in to public opinion and outrage.