BEP Narrator:
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A Black Executive Perspective.
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Now presents need to know with
the award-winning hyphenated Dr.
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Nsenga Burton.
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Dr.
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Burton, what do we need to know?
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Dr. Nsenga Burton:
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Good afternoon.
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Welcome to Need to Know Dr.
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Nsenga Burton.
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It is she.
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Today I am talking to
you about censorship.
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Censorship is something
that is supposed to be.
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Outlawed illegal in the
United States, right?
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One of the First Amendment
rights is the right of speech.
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Um, and we are seeing that
eroded every single day.
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So for example, we have Bill Owens,
who is the executive producer
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of 60 Minutes, who resigned.
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He resigned because he said
he could no longer do his
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job without outside pressure.
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Um, coming from not only the
Trump administration, but
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also from corporate interests.
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Now, you know, media has always
been run either by private
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families or corporate interests.
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Um, eventually after the, the
private family sell, right?
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So even now, the Washington Post
is owned by Jeff Bezos, who's put
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forth these, um, mandates about what
can and cannot go in a newspaper.
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And why this is problematic
for people who don't understand
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it is newspapers, journalism.
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Online media specifically is supposed
to be what is called the fourth estate.
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The three, you have the three exec, the
three branches of government, right?
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Executive, um, uh,
legislative, and the judicial.
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The press is supposed to be the
fourth estate, IE, the checks and
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balances of those three branches,
and so that is why they report.
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On what is happening, even all the way
down to your local school board, right?
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They report on everything, even for
your animal shelters like the dog catch
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everything because there has to be not
only coverage, but they have to have
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the right to report things to operate
in what is called the public interest.
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So one of the reasons that you have
that available to you is because
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we have the First Amendment right.
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Right.
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Speech, press, assembly,
religion, protest.
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All right.
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So what is happening is the Trump
administration is making all of these
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demands on institutions that were
previously, uh, self-actualize, right?
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Self mandated, all right.
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And so the press is one of them.
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IE they hold those three branches of
government accountable, and 60 Minutes
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has been doing incredible work on.
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Pretty much everything, but
certainly this administration.
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And so Owen has resigned because he
thinks he can no longer do the work
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because the pressures are mounting
and it looks like, uh, CBS might
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go the way of other companies.
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Um, like, uh,
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NBC that's settled.
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I think it's NBC.
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I'm having a brain fart.
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It might be a, B, C, it's
um, NBC that's settled.
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Sorry.
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Tony's like, hurry up.
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Um, but, uh, other media
companies who have settled
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lawsuits, so they've been engaged.
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CBS has been engaged with the lawsuit
with Trump, um, since 2 20 24.
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And he's pissed about some
interview they did with, um,
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Kamala Harris, um, where they.
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Edited the interview, which they edit
everything that goes on television,
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uh, to make her look better.
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I don't know why it matters 'cause
he won the election, but whatever.
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He's still, um, mad about it.
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So it looks like CBS might settle.
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Plus there's a possible merger.
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Um, and they know, they have been
told that if they don't settle that
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they're not gonna be able to go through
with this merger, um, or acquisition.
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So at any rate, what you need to know is
that you have got to support your media.
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Outlets.
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You've got to support NPR, you've
got to support PPS, you've got to
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support, um, even the major outlets.
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They have to be able to tell you
the stories that are fact-based,
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fact checked, and evidence-based.
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They have to be able to do that.
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And we know media is not perfect.
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It's complicated.
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They have a lot of gatekeeping.
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A lot of it is racist, a lot of it
is sexist, all the things, right?
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I'm a media scholar.
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I have a PhD in the subject matter.
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Um, so I know it's complicated.
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I write a lot of stories about the problem
with media, the problems with media.
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Um, but what I have to say that is
that if you don't have the media,
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we are definitely going to be.
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In a fashion state, we
will not have a democracy.
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It will be gone by the end
of this, this presidency.
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I feel very comfortable saying that
some people will call me an alarmist,
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but based on how fast this is sliding
into that IE where you can't have
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a free press, IE, we're reporters
are already being banned from the
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White House covering the White House.
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Right where you can't say these things.
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Here's our handout of what you can
and can't say what you can and can't
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report on what you can and can't do.
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And if you do these things, we're
going to, uh, sue you, we're going
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to defund you, we're gonna take
all of these things away from you.
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And that is in no way, shape or
form for the public interest that
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is for the personal interest.
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So what I need you to know is.
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The president actually works for you.
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I don't know why people keep acting like
we work for Trump, like he works for us.
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Congress is supposed to work for you.
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Your news media is at all levels.
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I.
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Local, regional, fe, federal,
international, it's supposed
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to, uh, work for you.
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National International is
supposed to work for you.
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All right?
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So what you need to know is you need to
get involved and make sure that you can
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get verified information and that you can
continue to have stories elevated about
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the three branches of government so that
your rights are protected, and that is it.
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So tune in next Thursday to another
Black Executive Perspective podcast,
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which is an award-winning podcast
with Tony Franklin and Chris.
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Um, and tune in next week, um,
where you can hear me as well.
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I wish you a wonderful day.
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Stay vigilant, fight for
your rights and fight.
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For free press,
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BEP Narrator: A Black
Executive Perspective.
