Gomez Condemns Paramount Settlement on First Amendment Tour
Paramount’s settlement with President Donald Trump over the editing of a 60 Minutes segment “should alarm anyone who values a free and independent press,” FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said Tuesday evening at an American Civil Liberties Union town hall in…
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Wheaton, Maryland. The event was the latest in Gomez’s “First Amendment Tour” series of speaking engagements. The settlement was a “desperate move,” and Paramount “would have prevailed [in court] on the facts and on the law,” Gomez said. “Instead of standing on principle, Paramount opted for a payout.” She told the 45 or so attendees that “now is the time to stand up and push back against this assault on free expression, because even when this administration holds so much power, it remains afraid of everyday citizens speaking up and using our voices.” The country needs the corporate parents of media organizations to support a free press, she added. “To have a free press, we need to have free journalists, free from corporate pressure that shareholders would prefer to settle with the administration than support their news organizations.”