Silencing the Watchdogs: How Power Is Crippling the Free Press

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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.