A Visit From CBS: Fin Gomez Talks to Students
Courtesy of Hannah Yoest, from @finnygo on Twitter
By Renee Rasmussen
Fin Gomez, a White House producer for CBS news and former student at Catholic University, visited the Busch School of Business in Maloney Hall to talk about leadership and the influence of journalism. Known as a “facts reporter,” Gomez has covered three presidental campaigns, been a reporter for Fox News, and covered many international stories including the Venezuela crisis.
Gomez started the lecture to the management class by giving some background on himself.
“I grew up in a household that watched CBS News, so to be there, and to represent CBS in the White House,” said Gomez “was something I could never explain.”
While at Catholic, Gomez played baseball as well as lacrosse and spent much of his time interning on the Hill.
Currently, Gomez works on the Board of White House Correspondents’ Association and is proud to be the first Latino journalist to serve on its board. Although he worked hard to get to where he is today, Gomez said that he did not get the best grades.
“But I was eager, I was ambitious, and I loved politics,” Gomez said.
During his time as a campaign journalist, Gomez covered the campaigns of Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Mitt Romney. When explaining the leadership qualities that he saw in these presidential candidates, Gomez described a particular skills set all these candidates had.
“One of those [skills] to be honest is the belief that they can do it,” said Gomez. “It’s this confidence in themselves that they can do it. Sometimes it’s just a massive ego.”
But most importantly these leaders have a passion. “There is sometimes bigger than themselves they are pursuing. And you see that,” Gomez said.
He explained that these skills and passion, combined with a sense of gratitude, are the beginnings of a great leader.
Gomez then explained how working on these campaigns caused him to grow as a person and as a journalist. He described how each campaign made him see America in a new light. Growing up in Washington, D.C., Gomez had never truly experienced rural America.
Gomez also spent much of his lecture speaking on the importance of journalism in our modern society.
“Right now, because there is so much attention on the White House, and whether it be conservative or progessive I think a lot of news outlets understand that this is the most important story in the world,” Gomez said talking about the importance of journalism during an election year. “People should have all the information possible available to them before they make one of the most important decisions of their life.”
He also explained that, to him, covering the facts and getting the information to the public is the most important aspect of his job to him.
“As a journalist, I’m supposed to be fair, I’m supposed to be without bias. I work hard by that,”said Gomez.
Gomez also said that the best way to get ahead in the journalism industry is through networking. Calling journalism a “people’s industry,” he talked about how networking is why he is where he is today.
“People are not interested in the fact that you took this class or have this higher percentage GPA, they’re more interested sometimes that you row. They like that connection,” said Gomez. Sometimes, he explained, finding success is about the basic stuff and being able to make a connection and seem like a person to someone.
