Friend,

Last week, we hosted another great event with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez. Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González moderated the discussion, which also featured speakers Ayinde Merrill of the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, Kenny Miles of the Trenton Journal, Cristian Moreno-Rodriguez of El Pueblo Unido de Atlantic City and Vanessa Maria Graber, also of Free Press.

Throughout the year, Gomez has strenuously opposed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s efforts to strong-arm media owners into replacing honest journalism with Trump-friendly propaganda:

“This administration is using ‘serving your local communities in the public interest’ as code for ‘you have to say anything I want and you can’t say anything I don’t like,’” Gomez said.

We know all too well how media consolidation and disinformation are deeply tied to the rise of authoritarianism.

Commissioner Gomez emphasized that there is a powerful public constituency that the FCC’s GOP majority isn’t listening to: “What I have heard today was the importance of independent media, public media and local journalism. We want community members engaged in their communities, and we lose that when we lose local control of our local media.”

As always, we’ll continue reaching out with additional opportunities for you to stay engaged in your community and advocate for stronger local news.

In the meantime, if you don't want to miss out on more great conversations like this one, sign up to make sure you're the first to hear about future Free Press webinars and programming.

I leave you with one more reminder from Commissioner Gomez: “[The First Amendment] marks the line between freedom and oppression. We must defend it without compromise.”

Thank you,

Jessica and the rest of us at Free Press

P.S. You can watch the full recording of our conversation with Commissioner Gomez here.