A
Liz Gonzalez
ll news broadcasters serve their audiences by reporting the important stories of the day. But Emmy Award winner Liz Gonzalez and her colleagues at Telemundo 47 New York/WNJU see themselves as both reporters and advocates for a group that is often vulnerable and underrepresented. Immigrants and those in the Spanish-language community face obstacles and discrimination in their daily lives; they frequently don’t understand how American society works and they are distrustful of authority, Gonzalez said. Reporters like Gonzalez work to provide them with a reliable source of information. Currently the consumer investigative reporter at WNJU for Telemundo Responde (Telemundo Responds), a unit charged with standing up for consumers who have been wronged, Gonzalez has been with Telemundo for 16 years. Born in New York, she speaks fluent Spanish and English, as well as some Portuguese and French. Her proficiency with language led to her first broadcasting job even before she finished college. While pursuing a degree in television journalism at Florida International University of Miami, Gonzalez learned from one of her professors that a local news agency, Visnews, was looking for a bilingual student to assist the office, which was responsible for all news reports from Latin America. The office was so understaffed that her entry-level position quickly grew to include writing synopses of stories, acting as the assignment desk editor, editing videos, coordinating camera crews and booking international satellites. She was also sent as a field producer to Nicaragua, Peru and Guatemala. She was offered a staff position and took it. “It was an amazing learning experience,” she says. Gonzalez is especially grateful to the mentors she worked with at the station who invested in her, sharing everything they knew about journalism and broadcasting. After Visnews, Gonzalez packed up for Latin America to work as a freelance field producer. Admittedly “raring to go” and not always measuring the danger involved, she found herself in the middle of political upheaval and terrorism. Eventually, she decided to become a reporter, which began her association with Telemundo as the network’s national television correspondent in Peru. At the time, Peru was embroiled in conflict between the government and two violent groups, the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) and the Shining Path. Both groups frequently set
off car bombs, and one night a bomb went off just blocks from her house. She ran outside in pajamas and a coat to cover the story. By far the biggest story Gonzalez covered in Peru was the hostage crisis at the residence of the Japanese ambassador. The MRTA held hundreds of high-level diplomatic, government and military officials hostage for 126 days, and Gonzalez covered it from the moment it started until it ended. The high-profile story showcased her reporting skills and Gonzalez easily landed a freelance job at CBS when she returned to New York. It was in this position that Gonzalez joined AFTRA, an important moment for her because she needed health insurance and hadn’t yet been vested in a pension. Gonzalez served two terms on the AFTRA New York Board. Gonzalez returned to Telemundo as a general assignment reporter for WNJU, which is a SAG-AFTRA shop, and then moved to the education beat for four years, a position that fulfilled her desire to serve the community. Working now with Telemundo Responde, Gonzalez believes that everything she has done has led to this point in her career. She feels that there is a great need for advocacy reporting and she really enjoys doing it. “We show the news in a different light. We are the voice of the people who don’t have a voice,” she said. Gonzalez recently covered an announcement that Papa John’s pizza franchise had to pay more than $2 million after short-changing hundreds of mostly Hispanic delivery workers and shaving hours from their paychecks. Gonzalez also believes that SAG-AFTRA is an important advocate for those who are vulnerable. In addition to the health and pension plans, which are especially valuable to freelancers, the union provides a strong, unified voice at the bargaining table. Gonzalez was a shop steward at Telemundo during a protracted contract negotiation with the station and appreciated the commitment of staff and her fellow broadcasters. Gonzalez is the recipient of several awards, including a 20082009 New York Emmy for Outstanding News Special for Milagro en el Hudson (Miracle on the Hudson) and she has received various community recognitions, including the 2014 Latino Achiever Award presented by ASPIRA of New York. “I love what I do,” she says. “I enjoy it every day, and I feel lucky.” New Yorkers of all communities are lucky to have such a fearless, committed and compassionate advocate working on their behalf. TELEMUNDO 47
BROADCAST SPOTLIGHT:
“We show the news in a different light. We are the voice of the people who don’t have a voice.”
SPRING 2015 // SAG-AFTRA NY //
5