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Speaker 1: Dear, let you know USA listener.

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Speaker 2: Before we start, you should know that if you want

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Speaker 2: the episode description and after you do that, then click play.

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Speaker 1: Let's go to the show.

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Speaker 3: Turns out it is quite easy to sell out your

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Speaker 3: principles for pure profit.

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Speaker 1: That is Anna Gomez.

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Speaker 2: She's a sitting commissioner at the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission.

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Speaker 3: Unchecked and unquestioned power has no rightful place in America.

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Speaker 2: Gomez is speaking to a room of journalists who are

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Speaker 2: lined up in front of her. Directly behind her is

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Speaker 2: an American flag at just five foot two inches tall.

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Speaker 2: Ana Gomez's words pack a very mighty punch.

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Speaker 3: I believe the public has a right to know how

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Speaker 3: the government's First Amendment violations drove Paramount's capitulation.

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Speaker 2: The FCC just finished their monthly open meeting at their

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Speaker 2: headquarters in Washington, d C. And Gomez is expressing concerns

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Speaker 2: about a possible merger between Paramount and sky Dance. Paramount

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Speaker 2: owns CBS and CBS News and sky Dance Media is

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Speaker 2: an American production and finance company.

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Speaker 3: Paramounts payout and the approval of their transaction would only

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Speaker 3: embolden those who believe the government can and should abuse

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Speaker 3: its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment,

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Speaker 3: and secure positive media coverage. That's a terrifying thought.

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Speaker 2: Soon after the FCC approved the merger with two votes

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Speaker 2: in favor, Gomez, the only Democrat within the FCC's top ranks,

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Speaker 2: voted against the deal. Commissioner Gomez and other critics believe

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Speaker 2: that Paramount caved to several demands by the Trump administration

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Speaker 2: in order to get this deal approved. Commissioner Gomez has

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Speaker 2: become one of the strongest voices against the Trump administration,

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Speaker 2: regardless of personal risks.

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Speaker 3: I'm not worried about myself. When I was sworn in,

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Speaker 3: I swore to up pulled the Constitution. As I have

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Speaker 3: said before, if I get fired, it's not because I

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Speaker 3: didn't do my job. It's because I insisted on doing it.

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Speaker 1: From Futuro Media, it's Latino USA. I'm Marie Nkosa.

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Speaker 2: Today I sit down with FCC Commissioner Ana Gomez. We

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Speaker 2: talk about the Trump administration and it's ongoing to tax

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Speaker 2: on the First Amendment. The Trump administration's attacks on the

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Speaker 2: media have injected themselves in the cultural zeitgeist. They're popping

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Speaker 2: up everywhere.

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Speaker 4: The fallout continues after CBS announced that it's canceling The

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Speaker 4: Late Show after a three decade run, citing financial issues

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Speaker 4: at the network. The suspiciously timed cancelation came just three

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Speaker 4: days after show hosts Stephen Colbert spoke out against a

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Speaker 4: CBS settling a lawsuit with President Trump for sixteen million dollars,

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Speaker 4: calling it quote a big fat bribe.

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Speaker 1: The thing about him.

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Speaker 5: Is that he's so jealous of Obama, because Obama is

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Speaker 5: everything that he is not.

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Speaker 4: The White House chose to respond to that, and this

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Speaker 4: is what they said.

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Speaker 1: Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser.

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Speaker 4: She should self reflect on our own jealousy of President

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Speaker 4: Trump's historic popularity before her show is the next to

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Speaker 4: be pulled off air.

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Speaker 5: The White House is firing back at Comedy Central South

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Speaker 5: Park after the season premiere. The episode Wednesday included a

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Speaker 5: scene showing President Trump lying in bed with Satan. On Thursday,

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Speaker 5: a White House spokesperson issued a statement saying quote South

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Speaker 5: Park hasn't been relevant for more than twenty years.

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Speaker 2: The FCC under this administration has opened questionable investigations into

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Speaker 2: many of the big media giants in this country, from

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Speaker 2: Disney to NPR and PBS. The FCC does things like

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Speaker 2: set rules for radio and television stations and grant them

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Speaker 2: operating licenses. They also over see things like trying to

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Speaker 2: protect you from robocalls and spam texts, and to make

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Speaker 2: sure that emergency communications systems work properly during an emergency

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Speaker 2: or a natural disaster. And like in the Paramount and

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Speaker 2: sky Dance deal, the commissioners also vote on mergers between

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Speaker 2: media companies, and while the commissioners and the Chairman's votes

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Speaker 2: are equal, it is the chairman who sets the agenda

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Speaker 2: and the direction of the agency, a lead Gomez is

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Speaker 2: not willing to follow.

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Speaker 3: I am alarmed by this administration's campaign of censorship and control.

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Speaker 3: We need government to stop interfering in our freedom to speak,

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Speaker 3: our freedom of assembly, and in the freedom of the press.

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Speaker 3: We cannot let this become the status quo.

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Speaker 2: Gomez was born in Miami, Florida. Then she spent her

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Speaker 2: childhood in Bogodak, Columbia, where her father's from.

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Speaker 1: Eventually she moved back to the state to New Jersey.

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Speaker 2: She became a telecommunications lawyer and spent about thirty years

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Speaker 2: working in both the private and public sectors, and Gomez,

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, decided to retire.

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Speaker 3: I retired for six and a half glorious.

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Speaker 1: Months until the day when.

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Speaker 3: I did get a call from the Biden administration asking

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Speaker 3: me to do this temporary appointment at the State Department.

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Speaker 1: It was meant to be for only one year.

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Speaker 3: And then I'm about halfway through my appointment when I

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Speaker 3: get a call again from the White House saying are

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Speaker 3: you interested in being nominated to be a commissioner at

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Speaker 3: the FCC. And I was nominated and the Senate confirmed me,

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Speaker 3: and I was sworn in in September of twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: Gomez is the first Latina in more than twenty years

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Speaker 2: to serve as a commissioner of the FCC, and only

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Speaker 2: the second Latina in her role ever since the FCC

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Speaker 2: was founded almost one hundred years ago. Or now is

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Speaker 2: my conversation with Commissioner Anagomez of the FCC.

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Speaker 1: Commissioner Anagomez, Welcome to Latino, USA.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, Maria it's great to see you again.

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Speaker 2: So the FCC has approved an eight billion dollar merger

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Speaker 2: between Paramount and sky Dance. In your dissent, you wrote

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Speaker 2: that Paramount conceded to the Trump administration and that they

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Speaker 2: were cowardly capitulating. You also wrote, quote, this administration is

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Speaker 2: not done with its assault on the First Amendment. In fact,

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Speaker 2: it may only be beginning. Can you bring it down

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Speaker 2: to all of us why we should be concerned about

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Speaker 2: the First Amendment visa VI.

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Speaker 1: The big news about this merger.

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Speaker 3: The reason that this is so concerning is because what

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Speaker 3: this administration did was it leveraged the fact that Paramount

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Speaker 3: wanted to complete this transaction in order to get concessions

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Speaker 3: about how they report the news, and that is a

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Speaker 3: violation of the First Amendment. We can't have the government

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Speaker 3: interfering in the free press. We need a press that

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Speaker 3: is independent so that it can report without fear and favor.

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Speaker 3: It's about making sure that the CBS News organization reports

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Speaker 3: in this administration in a way that it wants it

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Speaker 3: to report on this administration. So what new Paramount, which

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Speaker 3: is the new entity that is going to exist, has

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Speaker 3: agreed to do is to appoint an ombudsman, and this

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Speaker 3: ombudsman will be reporting to the president of New Paramount.

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Speaker 3: It is going to be fielding any complaints about bias, which,

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Speaker 3: to be clear, in this administration, bias means anything it

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Speaker 3: doesn't like, because everything that the administration complains about is

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Speaker 3: about when there's reporting that it disagrees with that doesn't

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Speaker 3: put it in a good light. Of course, the ombudsman

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Speaker 3: is really worrisome and it's unprecedented and we've never had

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Speaker 3: before the FCC grant a transaction after a regulated broadcaster

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Speaker 3: agrees to a point, basically a self censor in chief.

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Speaker 3: That is self censorship by the owners of CBS, which

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Speaker 3: have the CBS News decision, and that is a direct

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Speaker 3: violation of the First Amendment. But it also has been

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Speaker 3: harassing Paramount and CBS in particular because of the sixty

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Speaker 3: minutes news segment that most people know about.

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Speaker 1: I just sued CBS today because of sixty minutes. You

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Speaker 1: know why I said them. They asked her a question,

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Speaker 1: she gave an answer. They call it a word salad.

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Speaker 1: They took it out in its entirety, and they took

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Speaker 1: another answer from someplace else and they put it in

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Speaker 1: CBO should lose its.

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Speaker 3: License, and that was the subject of the financial settlement

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Speaker 3: with the President in his private lawsuit against CBS.

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Speaker 6: Skovernight Paramount announcing they will settle President Trump's lawsuit over

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Speaker 6: a sixty minutes interview for sixteen million dollars. That interview

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Speaker 6: was with former Vice president Kamil Harris.

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Speaker 3: So it really is a lot of interference in news

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Speaker 3: content and in editorial judgments. But what is really problematic

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Speaker 3: here is the weaponization of agencies like the FCC to

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Speaker 3: tell these corporations how they can speak. And we need

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Speaker 3: more courage from these corporate parents to uphold journalistic principles

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Speaker 3: that have long upheld our democracy. What you're seeing is

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Speaker 3: an effort to control anything and eva everything that everyday

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Speaker 3: people here or see, whether it's on television, on the radio,

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Speaker 3: or on social media, and that influences them, and people

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Speaker 3: need to understand that that is what's happening and to

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Speaker 3: push back on it because we can't let that become

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Speaker 3: the new norm.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on let you know USAY, Commissioner Ana Gomez

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Speaker 2: from the FCC talks about her childhood and how this

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Speaker 2: shaped her into the woman that she is today. Stayed

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Speaker 2: with us Hey we're back. Let's continue now with my

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Speaker 2: conversation with FCC Commissioner Ana Gomez. So I want to

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Speaker 2: do a little backtrack because you and I are Latinas

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Speaker 2: of a certain generation, and there are a few of

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Speaker 2: us now who have come into power, most notably the

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Speaker 2: President of Mexico. But I'm also thinking of Supreme Court

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Speaker 2: Justice Son so to Mayor, and I kind of put

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Speaker 2: you also in the ranks. How does a commissioner like

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Speaker 2: you end up being so unafraid to speak up, in fact,

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Speaker 2: to use her voice, to use everything that is encompassed

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Speaker 2: in the First Amendment.

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Speaker 3: So, my father is Colombian American, and I was raised

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Speaker 3: in Colombia, South America and Boblata until high school. So

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Speaker 3: I've seen in South America democratic countries fall under regimes

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Speaker 3: that don't respect the freedom to speak, that want to

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Speaker 3: control how both their citizens and their companies lived there

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Speaker 3: everyday lives and conduct their businesses. This was watching our neighbors,

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Speaker 3: This was watching Venezuela. This was watching other countries and

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Speaker 3: what they were going through. Now, you know Bogotano's Bogatana's

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Speaker 3: love to talk about politics, So it's something that you're

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Speaker 3: exposed to in your family dinners and your parties. So

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Speaker 3: I grew up hearing about this, and I came to

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Speaker 3: the United States and my father was a naturalized citizen.

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Speaker 3: He really loved our country and he loved what it

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Speaker 3: stands for.

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Speaker 2: I love this notion of you being in Bogwada, the

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Speaker 2: whole family's around. It's Sunday dinner, middle of the day,

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Speaker 2: which means it goes on into the evening. What were

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Speaker 2: the conversations that you were hearing about politics?

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Speaker 3: What you heard a lot about was concerns about countries

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Speaker 3: trying to control or take over private businesses. You heard

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Speaker 3: about countries turning against their own citizens because of any

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Speaker 3: type of dissent, and that really does influence how you

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Speaker 3: see when you watch your own country start to turn

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Speaker 3: against a certain part of its population or to take

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Speaker 3: retalitatory action against its own citizens the way that we've

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Speaker 3: seen from this administration. So when I say that I

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Speaker 3: am trying to protect our democracy, that is exactly what

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Speaker 3: I am doing. I am very passionate about speaking out

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Speaker 3: against the abuses by this administration against our freedoms, and

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Speaker 3: we see it every day and it's really worrisome.

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Speaker 2: So Commissioner, you decide pretty early on in your career

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Speaker 2: that you want to become a telecommunications lawyer. That is

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Speaker 2: so wildly specific. Why and when did that revelation happen?

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Speaker 3: Well, I wanted to be a lawyer from childhood because

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Speaker 3: my mother used to always say to me Anna, Marie,

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Speaker 3: the way you argue, you should be a lawyer, and.

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Speaker 2: That's so you're nine years old.

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Speaker 3: Sobriquet ken't sorry, look they look as Yeah, I guess

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Speaker 3: I was very argumentative as a child, and yeah, my

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Speaker 3: mother used to say that to me. And you know,

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Speaker 3: this is why you have to be careful what you

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Speaker 3: say to your children, because I took it to heart,

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Speaker 3: and I knew from a young age I was going

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Speaker 3: to go to law school and I was going to

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Speaker 3: be a lawyer. I actually discovered communications law in law school,

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Speaker 3: and I really loved my communications law classes and I

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Speaker 3: was very inspired by my professors, and so that's what

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Speaker 3: made me want to become a communications lawyer.

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Speaker 1: So Commissioner.

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Speaker 2: When I was growing up, probably like for you, the

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Speaker 2: whole notion of the First Amendment, freedom of expression. It

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Speaker 2: was something that my family lived all around us were

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Speaker 2: the late nineteen sixties and seventies, there were protests, there

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Speaker 2: was CBS news, there were political assassinations, and as a

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Speaker 2: even though I knew I wasn't a citizen, I also

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Speaker 2: understood that in this country we did have freedom of assembly. Actually,

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Speaker 2: my mom took me, at eight years old to my

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Speaker 2: first protest. In my early teens, I heard public radio

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Speaker 2: and that changed everything. Talk to us about your concerns

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Speaker 2: right now regarding a very specific attack now against public

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Speaker 2: radio and public television.

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Speaker 1: Congress just voted to strip funding from public broadcasters. President

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Speaker 1: Trump is very much one of the forces behind those.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, public radio is very important in our country, especially

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Speaker 3: as we are seeing the demise of our newspapers and

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Speaker 3: we are finding news deserts throughout the country because these

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Speaker 3: newspapers are going out of business. Public radio public television

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Speaker 3: are often the last resort for a lot of areas

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Speaker 3: in this country where the major broadcasters just don't reach,

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Speaker 3: particularly in rural areas, and public television and public radio

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Speaker 3: are important for educational content. They are also important because

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Speaker 3: they are the backbone of emergency alerts. They are the

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Speaker 3: one that broadcast emergency alerts throughout the country that you

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Speaker 3: get on your radio and on your television, so you

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Speaker 3: are going to lose a lifeline for people throughout the

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Speaker 3: United States if these broadcasters shut down. Now, what the

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Speaker 3: Congress did and what the President signed into law was

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Speaker 3: the clawback of advanced funding for the Corporation for Private

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Speaker 3: Broadcasting and for MPR, which is distributed to these individual

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Speaker 3: radio stations and television stations throughout the country. And there

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Speaker 3: are some that will probably shut down because of this action,

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Speaker 3: and it is their viewers and listeners that will suffer

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Speaker 3: the consequences.

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Speaker 1: We will be right back. Yes, hey, we're back.

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Speaker 2: So when I heard that you were, one still employed

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Speaker 2: by the FCC and two while employed by the FCC

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Speaker 2: under the Trump administration, you've been going on a First

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Speaker 2: Amendment tour And I'm just like, wait, what's going on here?

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Speaker 2: We have a commissioner who's touring around the country, going

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Speaker 2: to different places, different cities and towns, to talk about

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Speaker 2: the importance of the First Amendment. How are you being

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Speaker 2: able to do this in the midst of being an

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Speaker 2: appointed commissioner.

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Speaker 3: We have seen this administration fire the Democrats at the

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Speaker 3: Federal Trade Commission, the Democrats at the Consumer Product and

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Speaker 3: Safety Commission, the Democrats at the Equal Employment Opportunity commission

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Speaker 3: and on and on. I don't know why I have

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Speaker 3: not been fired. I have a suspicion it's because our

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Speaker 3: Communications Act, which is our authorizing law, requires a quorum

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Speaker 3: of three commissioners in order to act as a commission

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Speaker 3: and there are only three of us right now. But

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Speaker 3: the way that I view all of these firings is

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Speaker 3: it's a sign of weakness. You have an administration that

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Speaker 3: holds so much power in government right now and they

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Speaker 3: cannot tolerate any kind of dissent, and that is what

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Speaker 3: you are seeing. So I check my email every day

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Speaker 3: to see if I'm coming into work, and so far

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Speaker 3: I am. And I will continue to speak out while

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Speaker 3: I'm a commissioner, and even if I'm not anymore, I

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Speaker 3: will continue to speak out because this is too important

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Speaker 3: to us.

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Speaker 2: Commissioner, the chairman of the FCC, essentially is the person

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Speaker 2: who wrote the chapter about the FCC for Project twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty five. This is your coworker, and I'm I'm just

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Speaker 2: wondering how you're managing this and what are your words

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Speaker 2: of wisdom regarding how we manage these situations where they

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Speaker 2: might happen professionally or it might happen in your personal life,

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Speaker 2: but you really are working with somebody who, frankly is

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Speaker 2: the antithesis of almost everything you represent.

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Speaker 3: So I actually have a very good relationship with the Chairman.

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Speaker 3: We speak quite frequently. I'm a very transparent and direct individual.

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Speaker 3: I am able to raise my concerns and to have

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Speaker 3: very good discussions with the Chairman and with my fellow

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Speaker 3: commissioner as well, So that makes it for a more

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Speaker 3: pleasant work environment. But also I think it's important that

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Speaker 3: I be transparent with them as well as with the

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Speaker 3: public about where I'm coming from, because my hope is,

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Speaker 3: of course, to be able to convince everyone that what

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Speaker 3: we need is a free and in the past press.

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Speaker 1: Which brings me to the question, how do you say

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Speaker 1: to a journalist like me, who is a Mexican immigrant

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Speaker 1: woman New Yorker journalist who's unafraid to speak, How am

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Speaker 1: I supposed to be completely objective quote unquote in covering

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Speaker 1: this administration that is openly attacking Mexicans, immigrants, journalists women.

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Speaker 3: So the first thing that I would say to you

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Speaker 3: is that the government has no place telling you how

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Speaker 3: you report on things. That is what the First Amendment

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Speaker 3: protects against. So whenever there is talk about the FCC

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Speaker 3: successfully getting rid of bias, that is, in and of itself,

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Speaker 3: the FCC violating the First Amendment because this administration, first

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Speaker 3: of all, thinks bias is anything it doesn't like or

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Speaker 3: anything that puts it in a bad light or isn't

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Speaker 3: reported the way they want it to be reported. But importantly,

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Speaker 3: because it's not the FCC's business what it is that

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Speaker 3: you report, we don't do content regulation other than in

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Speaker 3: limited circumstances like protecting children. And there's a reason for that.

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Speaker 3: Our Communications Act prohibits the FCC from censorship, and US

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Speaker 3: telling you how you report things, even if you have

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Speaker 3: bias in your reporting, is censorship. So I think you're

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Speaker 3: asking yourself the right question. Am I well sourced? Am

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Speaker 3: I sure that this is correct? Have I checked my facts?

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Speaker 3: That is your journalistic integrity, But that is not for

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Speaker 3: me the FCC to tell you how to do.

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Speaker 2: Do you have a sense of who which institution might

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Speaker 2: be the next target on Trump's list?

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Speaker 1: In terms of the media.

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Speaker 3: I think any media organization that is looking to have

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Speaker 3: any transaction before the FCC will be targeted by this FCC.

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Speaker 3: Because this administration is not done, they will continue to

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Speaker 3: demand some type of ideological purity and fair reporting by

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Speaker 3: their standards from anyone that tries to seek some type

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Speaker 3: of authorization before the FCC. I'm also concerned because these

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Speaker 3: complaints against CBSABC and NBC and against the public broadcasters

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Speaker 3: are still active here at the Commission, and that for me,

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Speaker 3: looks like harassment in order to reach a specific end,

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Speaker 3: which is the chilling of speech.

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Speaker 2: And finally, Commissioner advice to anyone who's listening who says

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Speaker 2: this matters to me, but I don't know what to do.

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Speaker 2: I don't know how to push back. What do you

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Speaker 2: say to them?

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Speaker 3: I think it's very important that all of us speak up,

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Speaker 3: speak out, and pushback when we see that our government

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Speaker 3: is interfering in our free speech, our freedom of assembly,

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Speaker 3: in our free press, and that includes the corporate parents.

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Speaker 3: As I mentioned before, capitulation breeds capitulation, but courage breeds courage.

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Speaker 3: When we see institutions being courageous and pushing back against

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Speaker 3: this administration's attempts to control and censor them, it inspires

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Speaker 3: others to do the same, and that is what we

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Speaker 3: need from everyone.

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Speaker 2: Commissioner Anagomez, thank you so much for taking the time

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Speaker 2: to speak with me on Latino Usa.

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Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, It's been a pleasure as well.

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Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Rinaldo Leanos Junior. It was

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Speaker 2: edited by Andrea Lopez Grusado. It was mixed by Gabriel Abayez.

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Speaker 2: Fact checking for this episode by Rosanna Aguire. Fernando Echavari

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Speaker 2: is our managing editor. The Latino USA team also includes

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Speaker 2: Julia Caruso, Psica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Stephanie lebou Luis Luna,

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Speaker 2: Jonivan Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales, Garcia, JJ Krubin,

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Speaker 2: and Nancy Trujido. Our intern is Diego Perdomo, Benni, Lee

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Speaker 2: Ramirez and I are co executive producers and I'm your

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Speaker 2: host Maria jo Josa. Latino USA is part of Iheart's

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Speaker 2: My Guldura podcast network. Executive producers at iHeart are Leo

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Speaker 2: Gomez and Arlene Santana. Join us again on our next episode.

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Speaker 2: In the meantime, I'll see you on all of our

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Speaker 2: social media. And don't forget, dear listener, It's so easy.

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Speaker 2: Do it right now.

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Speaker 3: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Anie

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