#RolandMartinUnfiltered - NABJ calls for firing of 2 CBS execs; Black ad agency files $100M lawsuit against DDB

Episode Date: January 26, 2021

1.25.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: NABJ calls for firing of 2 CBS execs; Black ad agency files $100M lawsuit against DDBGen. Lloyd Austin sworn in as the 1st Black SEC DEF; No Black women in Democratic House leadership; NABJ calls for CBS to fire two executives for sexism and racism; Black owned Ad Agency is suing a marketing company over an Army ad contract; House Dems deliver article of impeachment against Trump to the Senate.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Monday, January 25th, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the House soon will deliver their impeachment documents to the United States Senate for the impeachment of Donald Trump. We'll go live to Capitol Hill when that happens. Retired General Lloyd Austin has been officially sworn in as the first black secretary of defense. We'll show you that as well.

Also today, the White House announced they are fast-tracking the placing of Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. Also, there are no black women on the House Democratic leadership team. We'll talk with Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence about that issue. Plus, the National Association of Black Journalists calling for the firing of two top CBS executives after an explosive story in the Los Angeles Times dealing with racism and misogyny. We will talk with a reporter for the LA Times who broke that story.

And a black-owned ad agency is suing another agency for $100 million over a $4 billion Army ad contract. We will show you what happens in media when black ad agencies are frozen out of the billions of dollars that are being spent. Plus, Southern Baptist black leaders say they are feeling shut out by white leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention.

A number of them are leaving the convention. We'll talk to the Reverend Dwight McKissick out of Texas who says he may very well set a divorce with the SBC. And the grand jurors in the Grellon Taylor case are calling for the impeachment of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah

It's on for a royal Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Yeah.

Martin. Any moment, folks, House leaders are going to deliver their impeachment documents to the United States Senate for the second impeachment of Donald Trump. The House voted already. That was before the inauguration. But on today, they're going to deliver those papers to the United States Senate. And that impeachment trial is going to begin on February 8th. We were going to talk about Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence about another issue. We will talk about with her about that issue, the lack of black women among the House Democratic Leadership Conference. Let's go to her right now. She, of course, is Congresswoman out of Michigan.

Congresswoman, I got to ask you about this here. You have all these Republicans who are saying, oh, if y'all want to unify the country, we shouldn't do this. We should not go down the impeachment. But what Donald Trump did, he must be held accountable, not solely because of him, but to also send a message to any future president that if you incite an insurrection against the United States, you are going to be held accountable.

I want everyone to know what the president of the United States did was construct and organize an army and directed them to attack our government. In any other scenario, that's treasonous. In any other scenario. But in the reality, that was domestic terrorism. When we take our oath of office, we said to protect and uphold the Constitution against foreign and domestic terrorism. And that's what we saw. We must uphold our oath of office. This is not acceptable. I don't care if he was on his way out the door or on his way to California. This must be held accountable in due process. And I am 100 percent in support of doing the process that meets the crime. And what he

did was criminal. Well, then, of course, you have those Republicans who say, no, that's a little too much. We support our deal leader. And frankly, you cannot convince me that if any other group, if a group of black activists storm the U.S. Capitol, 10,000 folks, these people will be saying, ah, go easy. It's okay. You really shouldn't do this because we should be unifying. No, they want to make excuses for all these MAGA folks. That's what they want to do. They're attempting to do that, but I am so glad that there are some members of Congress

who still have the conviction of the oath of office that they took. We cannot let history write that we allowed a man, even though he had the title of president of the United States, to conduct an insurgence on our Capitol against our government. And what's so ironic, the Republicans who are standing up, he sent people in to get the vice president. He sent people in to go against the Republicans that were not giving him what he wanted. We cannot sit here and act as if, oh, you know, you're going to divide the country.

My goodness. What he did was more than divide the country. And I'm proud of Nancy Pelosi. Said that we were in a war. When we were huddled in that room, she said, we were in a war. When we were huddled in that room, she said we're in a war. And we will not allow them to win. We're going to go back to our jobs.

And you know who followed her? Vice President. That obviously was a huge deal there. I do want to talk to you about this, this issue that we actually booked you to talk about, and that is the House Democrats have elected their leadership. There are no black women. I'm sorry, you don't have Democrats in charge without the power of black women voters.

What is the CBC saying or doing about this? So what's the reality is since 1977, 44 years ago, was the last time a black woman was elected to leadership in our caucus. And the election was for Shirley Chisholm. So think about that. In 44 years, and it hasn't been a Black woman having run.

Every cycle, there's a Black woman on the ballot. But when the votes are taken, the Black woman never rises to the success of winning an election. And I stood before them and said, you know, there's a time when you have to take a look

at yourself in the mirror and ask the question. There is no black woman that is deserving of leadership. We must step up and do the right thing. And I applaud Nancy Pelosi because she has at various times appointed black women to positions of leadership. But had she not done that, we would have no one. So what are the actual positions? What are the actual positions here? We're talking about, obviously, Speaker of the House. We're talking about Majority Leader. We're talking about the whip position, head of the House Democratic Caucus. For folks who don't know,

how many slots are there when it comes to the House Democrat Leadership Conference? There's about 10 of them, 12 of them. So you have people who represent us in the media. They're called the DPCC. You have the five terms or less representative, which is what I was running for. You have the caucus chair. You have the Democratic vice chair. You have the leadership that represents us in the DNC. And these positions all come up for positions of leadership. So Terry Sewell, who is just a brilliant mind, has ran and didn't make it. The woman who now is doing the impeachment, she's an impeachment manager, and that is the amazing Plaskett, the representative from the Virgin Islands. We had, my goodness, Barbara Lee ran. You had Robin Kelly, who has run.

So these are women who are accomplished that I know very well. And then when they stand up to be counted, there's always the comes up short. And I want our caucus to stand up and look themselves in the mirror and say, what is going on here? You know, I can't blame you or call you a name, but I can definitely identify the behavior and the results of what's happening.

And obviously, look, I mean, I think with the numbers the CBC has, this is where folks withhold those votes because the CBC has the largest caucus among the Democrats. It's a slim majority. If they don't have the votes of black women, members of Congress, bills can't get passed. And so what's the plan to fix this? What's the plan to actually make this happen to to put a black woman in leadership position? So we as the Black Caucus have talked, and the next round, when the next Congress comes, we're going to have a full court press to elect a Black woman to be in leadership. And we are serious about this. And we don't need just the women. We need the Black men.

We need all of us. We're so proud of Hakeem Jeffery. We're proud of the other black men, our amazing leader for the Black Caucus in Clyburn. We have had Neguse, who is a new member, elected. And so we have black men who are being put into the position of leadership. We're saying now it's time for black women. All right. Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us.

Thank you. Thank you so much. And be blessed and stay safe. Absolutely. All right, folks, let's go to my panel to talk about this here. We're still awaiting for those impeachment documents to be walked over to the United States Senate. So let's go ahead. Joining me right now is Kelly Bethea, communications strategist. Kelly, glad to have you here. And Mustafa Santiago Ali, a former official with the EPA Environmental Justice Division. Let's start with you, Kelly. It kind of makes sense. It ain't that hard to figure out how in the hell you have 10, 12 positions and there are no black women. Again, who is the backbone of the Democratic Party? Black women.

Who votes for Democrats at a higher rate than any other group? Black women. Who voted for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at a higher rate than any other group in America? Black women. Kind of makes sense they should have some representation among the House Democrat Leadership Conference. Not only does it make sense, it is incredibly disappointing and frankly insulting that no black woman has been elected to any position in in the House in almost 45 years. I think she said 44 years. There is no Democratic Party as it

stands right now, frankly, without black women. And this is just yet another example of the Democratic Party taking black women for granted. You cannot expect us to, quote unquote, fall in line and get with the agenda. That is whatever the Democrat in the House want to do if you continuously exploit a Black woman's power, expertise, loyalty, and most importantly, work ethic. It is not going to stand anymore. I'm not saying that the Black people who are in leadership aren't qualified, but you can't tell me that there are no Black women in Congress in the past 40 something years that aren't qualified. So this goes to show just how deep and rooted misogyny and sexism is across the board, even in the elected, not appointed, elected, actually chosen by the

party to represent whatever capacity that they need this black woman to do. Mustafa. Well, you know, my grandmother always said, when you know better, do better, you know, and you shared that black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party. We take it a little further than that. I'd say the black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party. We take it a little further than that. I'd say that black women are the backbone of our country, if you actually understand, for those of us who understand the history of our country. And I think there are a number of opportunities so that we can address this devaluation

that currently exists on Capitol Hill. So not only in the voting of the current positions, but we can also make sure that we have a 21st century legislature that actually may need to create additional positions so that we can make sure that all the things that are needed to be handled are being handled with this new sets of opportunities and responsibilities that are coming forward. I think that we also got to give some consideration also to the fact that when you only have two black women as chairs of committees,

that there's work that needs to be done in that space also. And the reason that I raise that is because when you have those high-ranking positions, there is a lot of attention that's placed on those. And then it also probably would help as folks are deciding their votes if we had more folks who are in those positions and showing all the incredible work that they've been able to do in whatever that respective time frame is. And then the third and last point that I'll make

is that I'm not sure if we should have to wait until the next cycle. And the reason that I raised that is because there are a number of corporations and nonprofit organizations and others who are going through this re-evaluation of power sharing and making some significant changes to their structures. So maybe it is also time for those folks on Capitol Hill to follow suit with many of these nonprofit organizations and others who are trying to get in alignment where folks are asking 21st century organizations to be. Well, it only makes sense. And so, again, one of the things that I have consistently said, consistently said,

is that the CBC should be flexing their muscle the same way the House Freedom Caucus did. There are 59 CBC members. There were only 30 House Freedom Caucus did. There are 59 CBC members. There were only 30 House Freedom Caucus members. There is no bill that can pass the U.S. House without the CBC votes. Not one. This is where you flex your power. This is where you sit back and say, ain't a damn thing moving until this happens. It's the same thing I said to the

Maryland Black Caucus. They've reintroduced a bill for the funding of HBCUs. Same thing. They're the largest Black Caucus out of any state in the country. No bill can get passed in the Maryland legislature without Black people. And I said, y'all should tell them ain't no bill getting past anybody without this bill happening first. That's how you use your power. I agree with that. I absolutely agree with that. And that goes back to my original point of how insulting this is. Because the CBC is so powerful, why haven't they gotten behind those Black women who have run for these positions in the past 40-something odd years? This does not make sense. I understand that Hakeem Jeffries has a position,

Jim Clyburn has a position. But once again, you cannot tell me that Barbara Lee is not qualified. You cannot tell me that Ayanna Pressley is not qualified or any other Black congresswoman in the past 40-something years is not qualified for any of these 12 positions. That does not make sense. And frankly, if somebody tries to justify it, it would simply be untrue. So you are absolutely right in your sentiment that we should vote as a block to make sure this happens. But also keep in mind that we got to get rid of the sexism involved in blocking black women from these positions in the first place.

All I want is to flex power. That's what I want to see, Mustafa. And again, if you're the CBC, all you got to do is sit on your hands. And here's the other deal. You don't even need the whole CBC. You just need five. Because guess what? The Democrats only, they have a slim margin. What, 222?

You need 218 to pass? Five CBC members say, we ain't voting. Done. I agree with you. no you know i worked on capitol hill for two years for john conyers so you know it's really simple you know you have power unless you give it away we often talk about that on on this show and folks have to decide when they're actually going to cash in some chips so you know i know there's a huge amount of strategy that goes on but you know there's all a lot of strategy that goes on, but, you know, there's a lot of vote counting that goes on in what you're talking about, Roland. And if folks

don't have that backing, then it's not going to get done. So folks just got to decide when they truly want to utilize their power. And if they want to actually honor their power and honor the constituencies who continue to send you there, they expect you to stand up and they can expect you to actually push back against these types of, it's an injustice. Let's just call it out for what it is. It is an injustice. And the Democratic Party has got to do better. So like my grandmother says, when you know better, do better. They know better. It's time for them to do better. Speaking of knowing better, folks, the fact that here we are in 2021,

we're still talking about first. Today, Vice President Kamala Harris, the first black vice president, swore in retired General Lloyd Austin, the first black secretary of defense. Austin, a 41-year veteran of the Army who retired in 2016, served as the head of the U.S. Central Command from 2013 to 2016 under President Barack Obama, and the U.S. Central Command from 2013 to 2016

under President Barack Obama, and led U.S. military strategy in Asia and the Middle East. The retired general needed a waiver to bypass a seven-year rule that typically prevents military officers from serving in their capacity. He was confirmed last week by a 93-2 vote. During Austin's hearing testimony last week, he said he would fight to rid the military of racists and extremists. He also said he will tackle issues of sexual misconduct. He's already ordered for that particular review to happen as well. And so that is certainly a welcome sight right there to see the first black secretary of defense.

There's a whole lot of brothers and sisters in the military who have waited for a long time, Mustafa, to see this day. Yeah, you know, we've talked about it before. My family, you know, since World War II has been serving. And, you know, you often hear the various stories that they would share about what leadership looked like, what leadership didn't do. And to have someone who calls out the fact that sexism is a problem in the military and that they are going to do everything in their power to change it. And then also to call out the fact that, you know, many of these white nationalists,

these militiamen and militia women actually come sometimes from the military to begin to think critically and put some actions in place to better screen and to make sure that we are not feeding into this white nationalism and this violence that they perpetuate is incredibly important. And then, of course, just the symbolism of having someone like the general there for young black kids and others who are thinking about going into military service and seeing that once again that the military is actually becoming a 21st century organization, um, is transformational. Uh, Kelly.

I echo the sentiments of Santiago here. It's been a really great, um, relatively large day regarding, um, changes in the military, um, today. Uh, not only has he been sworn in as the first Black Secretary of Defense, but we also have an executive order signed by Biden today regarding reversing the transgender ban in the military,

which makes sense to me because there should not be a ban on qualified people in the military. We need all the help we can get. And as someone who is a strong proponent of LGBT rights, I find that this is a strong, positive step in the right direction for our military and and proof that things do change, can change, and will change. All right, folks, into this next story, the National Association of Black Journalists is calling for the immediate termination of two top CBS officials, the president of CBS stations, Peter Dunn, and his senior vice president of news, David Friend. These are their photos. Last night, NABJ held a meeting with top brass at CBS after an LA Times article was released Sunday morning detailing the racist and toxic work environment at the company,

including racist misconduct by both Dunn and Friend. Now, after confirming the reports with members who work for the network, for the actually CBS-owned and operated stations, NABJ, ordered this release. I was a part of that phone call. I'm the vice president for digital for the National Association of Black Journalists. And we laid out that nothing can happen until Dunn and Friend are both fired. We're going to talk about this story now with Meg James. She's a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times who wrote this story in a moment. Folks, it is a shocking and stunning story that lays out a number of issues, literally according to the story. One of that Dunn argued that he did not like the jive

talk. Dunn is there on the left. The jive talk of popular anchor Yuki Washington in Philadelphia. He is an institution in Philadelphia. He also complained that he danced too much on the air. He literally said that, folks, to officials there. Also, another disturbing story that really bothered us, you know, is someone you've seen on this show, Brooke Thomas. Brooke Thomas was hired to be a morning anchor there at the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia. Two days in to her tenure, Dunn was essentially saying, I want her off the air. They didn't like how she sounded. They didn't like how she looked. She had no idea why she was fired. And it was very shocking and surprising to a lot of people why that happened. I actually we know Brooke. We've had Brooke on our show on many times before.

And again, folks, it is it was a really a shocking and stunning story. And again, guys, let me know when we have Meg, because if you read this story, if you go to latimes.com, you can actually read the story. If you go to nabj.org, you can actually see our full statement and actually see the statement. In fact, pull up the NABJ statement. I'm going to read the full statement. Y'all should have that as a full screen graphic. Do we have it? Okay, I don't know why we don't have that as a graphic, folks. We should have that statement. Y'all should have that as a full screen graphic. Do we have it? Okay. I don't know why we don't have that as a graphic folks. We should have that statement.

So let me just pull up on their website. This is important for everybody out here because we understand how vital it is to have African-Americans in these particular positions. We understand what happens. But when you have managers, white managers who are literally freezing out African-Americans, not just from appointments, but also from advancement, they're stunting their career growth. That's what they're doing. This is the statement here that we released. The National Association of Black Journalists met Sunday night with CBS officials regarding disturbing revelations and allegations from the LA Times about the racism and toxic work

environment at the company, specifically the CBS television stations. Those stations operate under the leadership of Peter Dunn, president of CBS stations, and David Friend, senior vice president of news for CBS stationsations and VP of News at WCBS-TV New York. Based on the racist comments detailed in the LA Times story, as confirmed by two former CBS executives, NABJ is calling for the immediate termination of Dunn and Friend. The troubling issues raised in the story are not just confined to one TV station. NABJ has heard from numerous CBS employees across the country and has been made

aware of multiple lawsuits and investigations. It is clear that there is a massive problem among CBS-owned and operated stations, and in order for the company's culture to be transformed, it must begin with the firing of Dunn and Friend. The disturbing details that surface in Sunday's LA Times are consistent with multiple workplace concerns currently expressed by CBS employees and brought to the attention of NABJ and to CBS executives in two in-person meetings in the last 18 months. Many of these employees have told us that they are afraid to speak about their concerns out of fear of retaliation from their bosses, including Dunn and Friend. Participants in the Sunday night meeting included NABJ Executive Director Drew Barry, Vice President Broadcast Ken Lemon, Vice President Digital Roland S. Martin, CEO of CBS Branded Assets George Cheeks, who heads the CBS Television Network, CBS News and CBS TV stations, and Marva Smalls, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Inclusion.

NABJ President Dorothy Tucker has not been involved in any of these discussions with CBS because she is an employee of the company, and NABJ board policy prohibits anyone from taking part in discussions about their own company. Cheeks and Small agree with NABJ that there must be an external-led investigation and pledged to work with NABJ on a path forward. Now, there are a number of allegations that were in the story. We're going to talk with those in a second. But this was a quote here that came from Ken Lemon. First of all, this is what NABJ, we understand. WCBS in New

York has just one full-time black male reporter hired this year after going more than five years without one. WCBS in New York has just one black female full-time reporter. Mind y'all, this is New York City, where you have the largest group of black people of any city in America. WCBS has just one black manager that was promoted in February. KYW Philadelphia repeatedly passed over black freelance employees and gave full time positions to other journalists. Since our statement, I have received phone calls from people across the country. And I've I've been told that there is not a single full time black producer in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, y'all, not a single full time black producer.

That is unbelievable. Joining us right now is Meg James, staff writer for the L.A. Times, who wrote this, wrote the story on this, this unbelievable, unbelievable story here that that is unbelievable. And so, Meg, you detailed in your story. And I've already said it where Dunn made this that call Yuki Washington just a jive guy. Riddle cued his dancing. How Dunn and Friend criticized the accent of Brooke Thomas, her work, a few days into her new assignment. They fired another black female anchor of Ethiopian origin because Dunn, quote, hated her face. And a complaint was filed by a former CBS manager with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, expressing discriminatory behavior through the instruction of others, including pay based on race, gender and sexual orientation.

This was stunning, this report. What stood out the most for you? Well, thank you very much, Roland, for having me on. I think that and I appreciate that NABJ is taking up this cause because it's a very important topic. And I think that CBS needs to recognize the value of its people and its stations and also the importance of this matter. It was to sit there and in your reporting, it was the charters were leveled by two former CBS execs who worked under Don and a friend. They are both are both of them suing CBS or just one of them? The the I've talked to numerous people for the article. I talked to probably more than 25 people. And there was a

consistent theme. I think one of the things that I found in my reporting is that unlike other TV station groups like NBC or ABC, the CBS station group is very centralized in New York. So that was one of the things that I found. The people who are on the record are former executives. Although I spoke with many people who still work for the company, and those people obviously are afraid for their jobs. And so they were very tentative about me using their name. So we wanted to make sure that the story The story included, you know, very corroborated details. And those are the ones that that we included in the in the investigation. And they corroborated racist comments being made regarding staffers. And they said themselves they were shocked to hear that coming from the mouths of these two white male executives.

Yes, that is correct, that they felt that, you know, this was no way to treat any individuals. And in Philadelphia in particularly, it was no way to treat this prominent anchor, Yuki Washington. The individual that you mentioned who ended up leaving CBS for CNBC was not exactly fired, but what I was told was that they wouldn't continue her contract. And all of the people whom I spoke to, both on and off the record, and a lot of black journalists who spoke to me privately, said the same sort of things where they felt very undervalued. They felt like ornaments.

And it's really a situation that I think CBS needs to look at and look at seriously. To see these comments, and the two executives who spoke on the record, one of them was a former news director, one, Kennedy was a general manager, am I correct? Yes, that is correct. Also, there's one anchor whose parents are immigrants from Ethiopia where Don said he didn't like her face.

That is correct. I mean, it was appalling and I found it heart-wrenching because these are people who are really good employees. They're really strong journalists. And to treat anybody this way. But the level of just personal attacks was was really quite offensive. Another thing in the particular story that that I thought was interesting, where the general manager, Kennedy, when he arrived in Philadelphia, he said, we got a diversity problem. Not enough black people here. And then at one point, he had two black anchors who were on the air,

and then he gets called and says, yeah, you do have a diversity problem. Essentially, what that executive was saying is, where are the white people? Mm-hmm. No, that's true. And I think when the, um, station manager, Brian Kennedy, who is one of the sources for my story, arrived at KYW in Philadelphia in 2015, he was struck that they had two white anchors from Little Rock, Arkansas.

And Philadelphia is an area that has a lot of people who have lived there for decades. They grew up there. Their parents lived there. And he felt that they needed greater diversity. They needed on their air. But also they needed people from Philadelphia. And that was one of the things that he tried to do.

So yes, I mean, that was very eye-opening for me to see why would a station in such a large market be underplaying its very prominent anchors? And Yuki Washington is one of the probably the best asset that that anchor has. And he had been on the morning newscast for 19 years until 2015 when this new station manager arrived. Now, subsequently, I mean, the station manager was fired by Peter Dunn in 2019. And that's a case that I'm sure will be playing out, you know, in the weeks, months and years to come. This is not the first time that CBS has had to deal with this here with Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. was boycotting the CBS station WBBM in Chicago in 1986. That led to a major settlement.

First of all, I'm sorry, in 2000, the company settled an $8 million EEOC case brought against them. But the issue that CBS faces isn't just that of racism. They also, there's a lawsuit dealing with freelancers. And my understanding, I've talked to people, they reached out to us. More than 90% of those people, black and brown, in that particular lawsuit. They have other suits dealing with issue of pay equity, how folks are being paid different salaries based upon race and based

upon gender. And so when you combine all of these things, what you're dealing with is a system-wide problem where it's not just one station, it's not just Philadelphia, it's not just New York. My understanding, it is CBS-owned and operated stations all across the country because these two completely control who gets hired in these local markets. Yes, and actually, my reporting found that there was a case in Dallas, an EEOC case, and documented... It looks like we lost uh meg's uh skype there and so folks let me know uh when we have meg back i want to pull in uh i want to pull in kelly and uh mustafa uh so look like we've lost

your skype we'll get it right back um kelly this is the sort of thing uh that we have seen look nabj was founded 40 years ago in 1975. We've seen this. We've seen this constantly over and over, 45 years ago, I'm sorry, constantly over and over again. And this is the reality. We're talking about 2021 here. We're talking about what needs to be done. For folks who don't understand, George Cheeks, who runs all of CBS, is biracial. And so Marva Smalls, who heads diversity and inclusion for ViacomCBS, African-American woman. We had a very productive call with them last night. And we certainly certainly want to see things change. But this is what people need to understand that black journalists face, where you can't say anything.

If you sue your entire you are basically blackball in the entire industry so this goes back to what you've been saying on your show for as long as i can remember about us building our own networks us building our own um channels and making sure that we're in leadership and things like that. While we still need to do that, I'm not going to discredit that at all. We can't excuse others, such as CBS, from blatantly violating EEOC guidelines and blatantly violating anti-harassment policies and anti-discrimination policies and straight up being bigots in leadership. We cannot excuse that. But CBS has a history of this that spans decades. I mean, we can go as far back, even further, but from what I recall, even Oprah dealt with racism

under CBS leadership when she was in Baltimore. And that was one of the many reasons why she went to Chicago. So this is not a new thing. This is not a within the past five years thing. CBS has a rooted, steep history in racism and discrimination that needs to be rooted out. So reports like this and initiatives

such as what's happening right now within CBS in terms of flipping over leadership and making sure that these people are fired, that's a great start. But it is clearly a culture within the network. It is a culture within the corporation that needs to be rooted out. And steps like this, hiring more diverse leadership, hiring more Black people in their roles and making sure that people are seen, that's a step in the right direction. But we definitely need... It is a situation in which a culture

needs to be extracted out of the corporation. We have Meg back. Meg, you were making a point before we got cut off. I apologize for that. It's all good. I just said that this is a problem that CBS needs to take seriously. What was the when you reached out to CBS, what was their reaction to your reporting? I think that CBS took the reporting very seriously.

We reached out early last week and we told them the extent of the allegations that we had. They were very responsive. I got, I think, four statements from CBS over the course of the next few days. We asked them to challenge any of the reporting. We told them that most of the stuff that we were using all had cooperation. It was either in an email, there were, you know, notes from one of my sources provided me, you know, I got to see her contemporaneous notes. And then there were also, you know, second witnesses, eyewitnesses to some of these things. You talked about this. This is what you wrote regarding Dunn describing Brooke Thomas.

Quote, It was just immediate screaming on the phone, not constructive criticism, just venom and profanity. Cronin said he screamed, tell her to shut the I'm a soon F up. I was flabbergasted, said Cronin, who kept her notes from that conversation, which the Times has examined. I've never witnessed that type of behavior in the workplace. Friend followed up with an email also reviewed by the Times, quote, can you please tell her to stop shouting, stop talking in a fake Southern accent,

and stop sucking the air out of the show. Kennedy separately described messages he received from Dunn. According to Kennedy, the first of several emails from Dunn began arriving one morning that week, shortly after 4.30 a.m. when the newscast began. Kennedy said each message contained one word, unwatchable. Cronin and Kennedy were stunned the new anchors had been on the air just two days. The Brooke Thomas example really broke my heart. This was a young woman who moved across the country to take a job at KYW, and then after two days they decided they didn't want her.

They kept her on the air for another six months because they needed to line up another anchor. But here this poor young woman was working really hard. No one found anything about her reporting, about her on-air delivery. She seems to be a beautiful, poised young woman. And then she was, you know, just fired that fall and only given the excuse that it didn't seem to be working out. And I found her treatment to be among the worst. I mean, then, you know, what was she supposed to do?

Go to other employers? And then they would always ask, like, you know, well, why did you get fired from CBS? So I feel like her example really broke my heart that she was treated in such a horrible manner. And look, I agree. I know Brooke. I've talked to her on numerous occasions. We've had her on this show as well. And I know she's been trying to get a job in local news

for the last five years and has not been able to do so. And I certainly hope that CBS makes amends with her because what she has had to endure over the last five years across the country. My phone has been blowing up. I've been getting emails and tweets from people since our NABJ statement. Have you been getting emails and phone calls from CBS employees all across the country since your story got published at 5 a.m. yesterday? Yes, sir, I have. I've gotten quite a few new CBS sources,

a lot of people who want to tell me about their treatment in stations, you know, including Los Angeles and New York and elsewhere. This reporting followed up a story that I did almost, I guess, a year, a little bit more than a year ago, just talking about the CBS station culture. And I think that one of the things that I hope comes out of this is that CBS recognize how important the stations are to the company. It's their face in the community, and that they need to treat people with respect. It is certainly going to matter what happens next. Again, we made it clear

that we want to see an external investigation take place, very similar to the civil rights audits that were done at Facebook and Uber. We want that external investigation to be completely private because, as we explained, people are fearful of individuals responding, retaliating. That was one of the things that we also made clear. And so we're going to be working with officials with CBS to craft what that looks like. But we certainly want it to be something such as this

and not just CBS-owned and operated stations. We're talking about the entire network. We're talking CBS-owned and operated. We're talking CBS NewsPath. We're talking about CBS Syndicated Arm. We're talking about CBS News as well because when you have these sort of problems, it's not sort of confined and contained to one area. We want to ensure that

it is completely eradicated across all levels of CBS. And I am very hopeful that George Cheek, who is now running them, will do this. And here's the deal. There's never been in the history of television an African-American with the position of George Cheeks. This is the photo that you guys ran there in the Los Angeles Times. And I think, and again, based upon the people who I've talked to, he has been extremely receptive

to making changes. I'm certainly hoping that we're gonna see some significant changes made at CBS. Thank you, Roland, for your work on this. And I would assume that you have some additional stories that are gonna be coming up. So we'll be looking forward to those stories. And as I said, I'm sure with your phone phone blowing up, you're sort of plotting a whole list of other stories.

Because, again, this this story does not end just with this. There's a lot more out there and it'd be great to see it. And it would be great to see these media reporters and these media sites pick up on this because I'll say this here, Meg. I think one of the other this is my last point here. One of the other fundamental problems with this is that there is complicity. There's complicity among a lot of media writers who cover the media industry because they don't want to delve into this stuff. They'll deal with some other stuff, but they don't want to really delve into this stuff. And so your story was important because it is rare to see this amount of time and energy put into it unless somebody made some comment on the air or something along those lines,

because a lot of them are unwilling to touch issues of race. And I know some media folk have been upset with me today. I tweeted out to Brian Stetler at CNN, Alex Weprin at the Hollywood Reporter, others. I'm like, when are y'all going to at least retweet Meg's story? When are y'all going to at least retweet the NABJ statement? Well, I appreciate that. And I also appreciate my editors at the LA Times who gave me about three months to pull together reporting that I had been doing. And so I feel very grateful that they recognize

the importance of this very important topic. So for everybody who's watching, this is, I see people, Meg, a lot of people, they tell me, man, why are you asking people to join your fan club, subscribe to your show? Y'all, this is why local journalism matters. This is why, because if Meg did not have three months to do this story, you would not see this comprehensive story.

That's why it matters. And so if you're in Los Angeles, you can subscribe anywhere around the country of the world to the LA Times, but this is why it matters for us to subscribe because that allows reporters to be able to do these things. And so, Meg, great job. We look forward to more work. Thank you, Roland, and thank you for having me.

All right. Thank you very much. Let me go back to Mustafa and Kelly. Mustafa, I want to get your thoughts on this. You heard what Meg had to say. And this is the kind of stuff that we talk about all the time that white journalists don't want to go. And I keep saying, yo, y'all love talking about, you know, race with the Republican party or something with something with a corporation. This happens in media. I said, and media is the last bastion because it is media

that shines a light on this stuff. And then if folks are unwilling to deal with race in media, you can't deal with race in corporate America or race in politics or race in education or anything else. You know, you know, it's extremely difficult for folks to put the mirror up to themselves or to their organizations because often they're not going to like what they see. And often many of the stories or narratives that they're highlighting, as you said, with others are playing out in their own respective organizations. You know, these hostile work environments are tied, you know, to the sexism and racism that has deep, deep roots in the media. And the media is one of our most

powerful things that happen inside of our lives, whether it's on radio or television or now digital, it frames the conversation. It talks about where we are or where we're not. And, you know, this is just critical because when I was thinking about the sister who for five years now hasn't been able to get another job. You know, this stuff plays out both mentally and physically on individuals, and it also sends messages to folks. So I'm glad that they're going to do the, you know, this investigation. I hope that they follow the recommendations that you all put forward for them to get serious about the investigation. And I'll just leave it with this. You know, if you, once again, if you want to have a 21st century organization,

you've got to have executives who are willing to go there. And if they won't go there, they've got to go. Julianne Malveaux, I'll go to you. I've been a, actually, before I go to you, Julianne, let's go to Capitol Hill. Breaking news. This is live video of the Democrats walking across the U.S. Capitol to deliver the impeachment documents to the United States Senate. 1 tbs of butter 1 tbs of flour Fungus I'm going to show you the inside of the building. The building is a little bit small. It's a little bit small, but it's a nice place to live. The building is a little bit small, but it's a nice place to live. The building is a Femalemannsdorf Nettokan I'm going to make a 1 tsk vanilleekarbon请ありがとうございました響鐘 Thank you. Takk for ating med. The conduct of the trial exhibit the article of impeachment to the Senate and take all

other actions necessary, which may include the following, employing legal, clerical, and other necessary assistance, and incurring such other expenses as may be necessary to be paid from amounts available to the Committee on the Judiciary under applicable expense resolutions or from the applicable accounts of the House of Representatives, to sending for persons and papers and filing with the Secretary of the Senate on the part of the House of Representatives, to sending for persons and papers and filing with the Secretary of the Senate on the part of the House of Representatives any pleadings in conjunction with or subsequent to the exhibition of the articles of impeachment that the managers consider necessary. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives. With the permission of

the Senate, I will now read the article of impeachment. House Resolution 24 in the House of Representatives, United States, January 13th, 2021, resolved that Donald John Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that the following article of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate. Article of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States Senate. Article of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America against Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors. Article 1, incitement of insurrection.

The Constitution provides that the House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment and the president shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Further, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits any person who has, quote, engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States from holding any office under the United States, and to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, Donald John Trump engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors by inciting violence against the government of the United States. In that, on January 6, 2021, pursuant to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In that, on January 6, 2021, pursuant to the 12th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the House of Representatives, and the Senate met at the United States Capitol for a joint session of Congress to count the

votes of the Electoral College. In the months preceding the joint session, President Trump repeatedly issued false... So again folks, what's happening is the U.S. House, they are reading the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump right now on the U.S. Senate floor. This will then kick off the trial of Donald Trump, which will begin on February 8th. Let's go back to the U.S. Senate. Shortly before the joint session commenced, President Trump addressed a crowd at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. There, he reiterated false claims that we won this election, and we won it by a landslide. He also willfully made statements that in context encouraged and foreseeably resulted in lawless action at the Capitol, such as, if you don't fight like hell, you're not going

to have a country anymore. Thus incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed in an attempt to, among other objectives, interfere with the joint session's solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced members of Congress, the vice president and congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive and seditious acts. President Trump's conduct on January 6th, 2021, followed his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Those prior efforts included a phone call on January 2nd, 2021, during which President Trump urged the Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, to, quote, find enough votes to overturn the Georgia presidential election results and threatened Secretary Raffensperger if he failed to do so. In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power and imperiled a co-equal branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as president to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, Donald John Trump by such conduct has demonstrated that he will

remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. Donald John Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr. President, that completes the exhibition of the article of impeachment against Donald John Trump, President of the United States.

The managers request that the Senate take order for the trial. The managers now request leave to withdraw. Thank you, Mr. Raskin. And the Senate will duly notify the House of Representatives when it is ready to proceed with the trial. Thank you. So with that, so what happens, folks, is the House members, once they have done this here, they then are escorted out of the Senate chamber. And that's what is going on right now.

They will return back to the House chamber. They have to get permission to come onto the floor of the United States Senate to address the Senate. One of the reasons why you also see the camera switching is there is because the camera that is in the U.S. House, that's also in the area there, the hallways of the Capitol, is different from the camera that's in the U.S. House, that's also in the area there, the hallways of the Capitol. It's different from the camera that's in the U.S. Senate. And so they really are operated as their own institutions. Let's go to our panelists. We can keep that feed going.

Let's bring in Mustafa first. Mustafa, first time in history you're likely going to have. First of all, history has been made. Never before in history has a president been impeached. The Senate trial is all about whether he gets convicted or acquitted. The question is, are you going to have 17 Republicans with the guts to stand up and convict Donald Trump? Well, you know, that is the question to be answered. You know, it is a historical moment, but it is a historical moment that we should not be in. And we should not be in it because folks had the opportunity, what, just two years ago, almost less than two years ago,

to actually convict Donald Trump when he was impeached the first time. And there was a lot of complicit actions by folks who are in the Senate and not moving forward with that. So in my estimation, they have some responsibility. Of course, we know there are some senators who, you know, it's being said may have played a role in the breaching of the Capitol. But even going before that, they had the opportunity to stop him,

to not go along with all the foolishness that he was doing. And he has been attacking democracy almost from the first moment that he came down and, you know, when he became the president. So they have some responsibility. The question is, have they evolved enough over the last couple of years to actually stand up and do the right thing? Julianne. Mustafa, it's not the last couple of years. I mean, they've had a couple of weeks, really. All these people had to stand under their desks. They saw what happened. And for them to not convict this man suggests that they think that that's okay. Yes, there was a previous impeachment from the House that the Senate did not uphold.

But this right now, if they can say this is okay, what they're saying is that they are prepared to live in terror because what happened on January 6th was terrorism. There's no way around it. I am pleased, and Jamie Raskin gets my high props and my sympathy, in the middle of his own personal tragedy with his son's death, he has maintained absolute integrity, absolute focus, absolute professionalism. But at the same time, what have these other folks done? Marco Rubio goes on television and says he doesn't think this makes any sense. No, Marco, you don't make any sense. Others, Ted Cruz, they don't want to manage this, but they've got to manage this. And that's where we are right now. We have someone who has spit on the Constitution.

And, you know, the few Republicans who stepped up like Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, they've said this is unacceptable. Why is it unacceptable for all of them? Kelly, again, we are seeing these we're seeing the House members walk back to the U.S. House. If we can, let's switch to that shot as well. They have delivered the articles of impeachment to the United States Senate. This trial is going to commence on February 8th to give Donald Trump time to hire his own defense team. I mean, I don't even know what their defense would be at this point, but I do applaud the House for delivering these articles because it's necessary.

I know a lot of the critique on the other side, the Republican side, regarding this matter is that we need to unify the country. Trump's no longer president, et cetera, et cetera. But if we really want to unite the country, we need to unite on this matter, in the matter of him actually not doing his job, literally not doing his job, and inciting terrorism. He incited domestic terrorism. And he incited it against his own vice president. So let's not forget, he told these people to march up to the Capitol. And because Pence wasn't with cheating at that very moment, Donald Trump said forget him too. And these people followed. We cannot have a president who is in the highest office of the land inciting terrorism.

And that's exactly what he did. There is precedent for the Senate to continue in this matter, even though he's no longer in office. So the argument that he's not even in office anymore, does it matter? No, it does matter, especially since he only had one term, which means that he, unless they don't convict, he has the opportunity to run again. If we don't do anything about this now. Well, actually, even if he is convicted, they still have to have a separate vote to bar him from running for office. And so even if he's

convicted, that doesn't guarantee that he cannot run again. A lot of people have been saying that that's not the case. Mustafa, this is very simple here. The question is Republicans have to decide which side are y'all on. Are y'all on the side of insurrectionists or y'all on the side of democracy? It's that simple. If they want to fully break the back of democracy,

then don't do the right thing. You know, don't convict him. But if you truly believe in the oath that you took, if you truly believe in democracy, something you run around the country saying that you care about and that others are not, you know, are not patriots and all this other kind of stuff, your true colors are going to be shown. We're going to know if you're serious about our democracy or if you're not. All right, folks, can I go to a break? We come back. A black ad agency helps a white ad agency lock a fort, lock down a $4 billion contract with the U S army. And that white ad agency

freezes this black agency out of participating and reaping the financial rewards. We'll talk with the owner of that black ad agency next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. What still impacts and what creates change is when we mobilize. When we say we're not powerless, and if I get with you and you and you, and all of a sudden it's 10, then 20, then 100, then 500 I get with you and you and you, and all of a sudden it's 10, then 20, then 100, then 500, then 2,000, then 5,000, all of a sudden you have mobilized people, that creates that voting power. And then when you throw somebody out, it catches their attention real quick.

But not only just that, they have to know what it is that they're standing for. Because if you have friends that talks politics, then of course we're having a decent conversation and I'm being educated at the same time. But if my group of people are not talking about that, then I still don't know. So I can unite with you and then I'm making sure that you have the voice, but what if you don't have the courage to speak? So you're still getting a group of people together that don't know how to do nothing. The sun rose over the White House three and a half years ago.

A tweet storm from Donald Trump overturned United States military policy by banning transgender Americans from serving in the armed forces, cutting distinguished careers short and weakening our readiness. I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear. The discrimination ends today. President Joe Biden is restoring the right to serve for all Americans, regardless of gender identity. He's restoring the Pentagon's policy that it's in America's best interest to recruit and retain the best troops in our

defense. Once again, Americans who put on the uniform can serve without fear of discrimination or dismissal just because of who they are. And America will continue to have the strongest and finest fighting force on the planet based on each service member's capability, period. Respect for service to country, something this president knows in his heart. Folks, the Hero Group, a black-owned creative and digital innovation studio, has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit in Illinois' Northern District Court against marketing company DDB, alleging DDB exploited Hero to win a 10-year, $4 billion U.S. Army contract. The breach of contract lawsuit states that DDB,

which is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies, apparently did not compensate Hero Group for two years' worth of work, nor allowing them to participate in reaping the rewards of the contract. The company's CEO, Joe Anthony, wants larger ad agencies like DDB to stop swindling smaller minority companies out of millions of dollars. Joe Anthony joins us right now on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Joe, glad to have you here.

Thank you for having me, Roland. It's a pleasure to be here. Let's set this up before we get into the details of the lawsuit and all those different things. Let's set up for the people watching and listening so they understand what we're dealing with. The media industry, the advertising industry, $150 billion annual industry. We're talking about this is how television networks, cable networks, magazines, websites, podcasts, you name it, or run. All of these companies out here, they utilize these ad agencies. So whether you're a Coca-Cola, whether you're a McDonald's, Procter and Gamble, whether you're a Nike, they use these agencies to handle and determine how their media dollars should be dispersed. So what we're talking about here are black people who are consumers of these companies not reaping the benefits of the very media ad dollars being spent by these companies?

You nailed it. You know, and I'm going to I'm going to simplify it even more that black and minority owned marketing and media agencies in the United States are facing an extinction level event, right? There is a systematic effort that is being put in place by these big agencies to diminish us, to utilize our ideas, our access, our culture, the color of our skin, to satisfy specific quotas in which they're mandated to win these contracts, just to then circumvent those criteria and discard us like trash. And we are then left with the decision to engage in a very expensive legal battle under the potential fear of being ostracized and blacklisted by an industry that is not even entertaining us anymore,

or to just sit back and take it and hope that at some point they're going to throw us some crumbs off the table, right? And this is resulting in a significant loss of revenue to Black-owned publishers, radio stations, digital media companies, to ad agencies like mine, who literally actually can add value to these campaigns in a way that can optimize, you know, the marketing and recruiting strategies that institutions like the U.S. Army, you know, so desperately need when it comes to trying to recruit, you know, men and women of color, right, who over index in recruitment. But unfortunately, we under index in the amount of investment that's being made through these agencies who are bestowed with too much power to appropriate

the funds to small businesses in a way that allows us to make a meaningful impact on the business and then be able to employ people of color and then reinvest in our communities in a way that creates jobs and builds wealth for these economic, you know, and filling that economic inequality gap that we so need and everybody keeps talking about in Washington. But there's still a lot of these improprieties that are happening at the federal and at the prime contractor level with these big agencies that unfortunately are resulting in the money not trickling down to where it's supposed to be. So let me help the folks who are watching.

This is what I have been telling y'all for the longest. I have been saying for more than a decade, I fear the extinction of black media. Why did I say that? Because if we're being frozen out of the advertising dollars, there is no business. What I said to people is that it's the game. Joe, perfect example.

When we went after last year, Young and Rubicam, Young and Rubicam control the media dollars for the U.S. census. They had a process. We filled in the process, filled it, went to their portal, filled it out in April. Never heard from them. We get down to last month, month and a half. I'm like, what the hell? I start putting ass on blast. They then called the black ad agency, Carol H. Williams, saying, oh, my God, what's going on? And she says, y'all never responded to him. Now, Carol H. Williams, they know who I am.

It helps that my wife's aunt is Carol H. Williams. But they knew me without that being the relationship. And so, Carol H. Williams would have ensured that Roland Martin Unfiltered received advertising dollars for the census. Young and Rubicam, we don't know who the hell Roland Martin is. They didn't care. Congressman Stephen Horsford told me on this show that Wiener told him, we are not going to spend any money with any newspaper with a circulation circulation 50,000 or less. Right there, you have eliminated 99 percent of all black newspapers in America.

So for the people at home, they have to understand you're spending your dollars as a consumer. The media dollars are not coming back to media companies. And so then people, Joe, ask, well, Roland, why can't you have reporters going here? Why can't you afford this? Why can't you afford to be able to send folks on Air Force One with the president? Easy, because if we do not have the media advertising dollars, we cannot build capacity. Capacity means staff. Capacity means bigger studios. Capacity means a larger company and employing more people.

The writing's on the wall. you know, and see our media platforms that we've patronized and have been part of our lives for generations continue to go out of business and deteriorate. Right now, there's probably a handful of black owned media publications that are still in business, struggling to stay alive. These big media buying agencies, they don't understand what local and community journalism means. It's too much of a headache for them to engage each individual publisher and execute a insertion order versus just pressing one button with a national newspaper and being able to so-called get the same reach. But what they're not getting is that community impact, the penetration, the authenticity, the trust that comes from local media. In exchange, they don't want to do the work. And then they're not even bestowing companies like Carol H. Williams with the ability to subsidize their

apathy or their desire not to do the work, right? So how do you want it? Okay, you want to reach this community. You don't want to spend money with the media partners that actually have the equity and the access. And then you don't want to empower agencies that will do the heavy lifting for you if you don't want to do the work. And so, you know, I'm amiss by this where it's like, what do you want us to do? How can we then, to your point, reinvest in our business to get the scale that then qualifies at the level where it warrants your attention. And so let's talk about what happened with you. You spent two years working with DDB to land this Army contract. These agencies love these big contracts.

A 10-year, $4 billion contract, that's $400 million a year. That's business locked up. And one of the things that people don't realize, Joe, is that, and I knew this before, but I really learned it with the Y&R. Y&R is up here. They then give the contract, they basically take their money off the top and then give it to the company down here that they also own the company. He, I think was weight maker. The company here then gives the digital piece to a company they own. They give the broadcast piece to a company they own and they give the print piece to a company they own. So hell, they getting three bites at the same apple. So walk people through what y'all did with DDB

to help them get this contract, what you poured in for two years, because you're thinking, man, if we're able to get a piece of this, that means I've locked up business for my company for the next decade. So I can build other things around that because I've got a base of significant dollars coming in from just this one contract. Well, I'll take you back a little further because it's important to give context that I actually in 2002 was awarded a piece of the U.S. Army contract through the agency that had it at the time, which was Leo Burnett, right?

And Leo Burnett was actually a company that valued their diverse supplier partners and gave them a seat at the table, I was one of the only small business partners to move over to McCann Erickson, and I worked with them on the business for a few years before they found a way to get rid of me because of the same reasons you articulated, their desire to really kind of find ways to keep the money in-house. But when I knew that the contract was coming up for review again, and given my experience, I knew that I would probably coming up for review again, and given my experience, I knew that I would probably be a hot commodity to specific big agencies that were looking to tap into prior experienced partners. So I reached out to DDB because I found out that they were actually going to bid for the contract, and I offered my services. In January of 2017, I was invited to Chicago and asked to, essentially, asked to participate

and team with them on the pursuit of this contract, which resulted in me executing a, what they call a teaming agreement with DDB, which explicitly outlined specific expectations that each one of us would receive should we win the business based upon our relative investments. So I participated in a series of ideation sessions, strategic sessions. I brought to bear my full experience, my background, my understanding of obviously the target segments that they wanted to make sure my expertise, that they were able to tap into my expertise for. And parts of my contribution were utilized in their pitch materials when they actually presented live to the U.S. Army. Now, because this was such a highly

contested account, it took almost two years for the business to be awarded. So throughout that time, I continued to provide counsel and insight and my overarching expertise and understanding of the army culture and some of the political aspects that govern these contracts to to to make them feel or educate them more on the process. Right. So basically, you are a secret weapon, but not secret. But you are a secret weapon for DDB. You're the guy with so much insight. They're sitting here like, man, like they're tapping into your deep knowledge on this contract and how to land it. And so that's like, if you're a prosecutor,

you get a star witness. You're like, yo, case closed. Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. I mean, that's why we've gone ahead and filed the suit, because we feel that very confident that any judge that looks at this is going to realize it's the typical bait and switch, right? Let's bring in the small guy.

Let's milk him for his insights. Let's promise him the world. And then once we get it, let's pull the rug out from underneath them and find a way to get him out the door. So you have emails, text messages, correspondence. This is two years.

You've got a body of evidence showing the work that Hero did to land the contract. Well, look, I mean, obviously, Roland, I am currently in a, you know, a litigation. But what I say is I feel very confident with what with the evidence and the communication trail that I've amassed. Right. That's what I mean. Exactly. I feel very confident without having to go into detail. Right, right, right. Yes, I feel very

confident that we have the evidence to make a very strong case that supports our position. So they land the contract. What then happens? Do they say who are you? I ain't never heard of you.

Well, you know, it was, it seemed as if initially they were going through some onboarding issues and were trying to ask me to be patient as they were trying to sort everything out. And that the Army had decided to move to Chicago. And with that move, they were understaffed. And as a result, things were slowing down, right? So they asked me to be patient. But given that whole time, they were still hiring hundreds of people, right?

So they were hiring... And again, I want you to hold that right there. For the people who are watching and listening, I need y'all to understand. I need y'all to understand what Joe just said. He said they were hiring hundreds of people. What happens is, when they land major contracts like this, they got to have people service the contracts.

So they got to bring all these people in. They were doing what you were also planning to do. Hire people to service the deal. So now continue. So, so yeah, so I mean, I was then inquiring, well, look, I mean, we are obviously trying to do the same thing and staff up in order to be prepared for when these work orders come down and the services that we had agreed that I would be providing would come into play. I was asking to be onboarded.

I was asking to be orientated, to be integrated into the process. When were we going to meet as a collective group? And I just continued to, you know, just receive various stall tactics of being told to just be patient and wait. And then I asked for my contract because we were supposed to get a subcontract agreement. And by the time I finally got that subcontract agreement, which was about, you know, seven months,

six, seven months after the business was awarded, after, you know, significant inquiries on my behalf to try and get that, it was stripped of any specificity that we had agreed upon and that was contained in our original agreement that more clearly defined the roles that we would play and what I was working for. Because think about it, Roland, if you're going to go into a situation and agree to partner with somebody, right, at your own potential peril and risk, making your own investments, I'm flying out to Chicago on my own. I'm investing my own time and materials into the intellectual property that ultimately gets presented to the Army.

Then I want to do so knowing what my piece of the pie will be should we win. Right. And so I'm not going to go into there without and make all those investments without some kind of understanding as to what I'm going to get out the deal should we be victorious. Now, what they tried to do is present me now with a contract that stripped away all of that detail and essentially said, guess what? You know, we don't know yet what we're going to be doing. But when we do know, we'll give, essentially, we'll let you know if we need you. Right. And it literally regulated me to an at-will contractor that they can get rid of at any

given time without any recourse. And it just started to, you know, really make me suspicious. And when I questioned it, that's when I started to get blacklisted or the communication started to slow down and the temperament started to change and people's, you know,

attitude towards me started to change. And, you know, and what I've noticed is if you stand up for yourself, right, it's almost a death sentence because you're then seen as a potential troublemaker. Now, I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth,

but I'm just saying your action speaks volumes. Oh, Joe, let's be real clear and say again, I wish these people, people always run their mouths, don't understand that. Look, I've been in media since I was 14 years old. So all the stuff you're talking about, I've literally been experiencing at every black newspaper, magazine, website, network, radio, you name it. This is not anything that's new, but what you're doing is exposing it and laying it out. What people have to understand, for instance, when we went public, when I blasted YNR over the

census, when I was demanding fair share from the Biden campaign, Ossoff, sticking people up. Oh, Roland's being loud. Well, if you're not doing this thing the right way, if you're not honoring my metrics, which don't lie, and you're giving me short shrift, you leave me no option but to light your ass up. And so the reality is we've never gotten anything the right way. Frederick Douglass said, agitate, agitate, agitate. I keep saying, show me where we have not had to fight for something.

We've always had to fight for something. And what you are detailing, what you're laying out is that you busted your butt to help them lay in the contract, provide an insight and knowledge. And then they decided to ghost you. They decided to sit here and act like you don't even exist. And so what people have to understand, we're talking about millions and millions and millions of dollars. So if Joe wants to employ a hundred black people in advertising, I need everybody who's listening to me. Let me put it in perspective. I have more black people who work on my show and I'll put it up against any

show on any cable network. I bet you I got more black people working on my show than any single show at CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. That's what happens when we have the ability to compete for dollars. can provide opportunities for folks who would be disenfranchised and bring them into the pipeline, which allows for them to be able to go flourish and go elsewhere. But if you freeze us out of the money, we can't hire nobody. And then we can't reinvest in our communities. And then we have to hear the narrative that we ain't doing for ourselves. Well, how can we do for ourselves if you ain't doing the right thing and providing the resources that we ain't doing for ourselves. Well, how can we do for ourselves

if you ain't doing the right thing and providing the resources that we're entitled to that allow us to then make those investments in the human capital and then build offices and places to work within our urban communities and our urban centers and where we're from. So we don't feel as if we need to jettison from those places the first chance we get. Lives are at stake here, Roland. And we just went through a pandemic where we're seeing people

on food lines and we're seeing people bearing the brunt of COVID-19 and economic downturn and us over indexing in joblessness and unemployment. These are the lifelines that we depend upon, you know, to ensure that we're getting our bite of the apple, our piece of the pie that can allow us to relatively make the investments in our community to help mitigate those those circumstances. When especially when moments like this happen. And see, for the folk who are stuck on stupid, who love to run their mouths, who don't understand

who don't understand the triangle, who don't understand you have a top and then, of course, you have at the bottom here. Folks, what I need y'all to understand which is why I'm spending this amount of time with Joe on the show which is why Dwight McKissick Reverend Dwight McKissick we're going to have him on the show tomorrow because I don't want to cut

them short I need y'all to understand how all of this is linked again if Burrell is being fed you know world is being fed liquid soul is being fed hero is being fed Carol H Williams is being fed if my frat brothers are a modern a Sherman are being fed. If Fuse is being fed, what then happens is they are feeding these black media outlets who they already know exist because they also know their audience. I need some of y'all who are watching and listening to listen to what I just said. Okay, listen again. What white ad agencies say is, oh, we don't need to give Roland no money. We can reach the black people in general market.

We can run ads. I need y'all listening. We can run ads during the NBA game to get black men. We can run ads during Queen Sugar to get black women. What Joe says and Carol H. Williams and Liquid Soul. No, you can do that. But that black consumer who is watching black media, they are listening. And that's a different black consumer as a different relationship. The white folks go, they black. They don't matter who they are. But then guess what happens? The NBA money is going to TNT. It's going to ESPN. It's going to ESPN.

It's going to those entities. And who's getting frozen out? The black media outlet. And then what happens? You, the black consumer, you don't know about voter suppression. You don't know about the CB. You don't know about these other stories because guess what? Black media can't afford to hire staff to cover those issues.

And so what you're describing right now, Joe, builds the black advertising ecosystem, which then builds the black media ecosystem, which then feeds our people and everybody is nurtured and seated and able to eat and learn and grow. What they say is, no, if we cut Joe off, we cut all of that off. That's why this is big. That's exactly right. And part of it is a preservation tactic on their side. They're seeing the browning of America happen right before their eyes. Right. So you could argue, right, that who is the best suited minds and agencies to actually develop general market campaigns? Is it the big monolithic agencies that are out of touch with culture? Or is it the minority-owned agencies that actually live in our own culture and general market culture

at the same time and have a greater purview on what's happening, given the fact that we're seeing a lot of these big agencies steal and borrow our culture anyway to create commercials that have Snoop Dogg or DJ Khaled in it or whatever kind of piece of our culture they could jack in order to seem as if they are culturally relevant, right? So if that's happening on that level, why can't we be seen as an agency that could actually develop more balanced communications that work for everyone, that not only are rooted in insights, because we know we're the trend makers. All the trends come from us, right? And that's what they're tapping into.

But if we actually have the ability to develop those same ad concepts, we can actually do the work that results in a more balanced, allocated investment that includes black media and does the mainstream media and tell our stories in a way that are more profound and credible than they're doing right now. Perfect example. They see us as a threat, and that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to diminish us because they see us as a threat.

So, Joe, you familiar with R.J. Dale? Mm-hmm. Okay. For everybody watching and listening, I'm about to give y'all an example of what Joe is a little different than what Joe is dealing with, but to understand what happens.

R.J. Dale, and matter of fact, matter of fact, Ashley, make a note so we can have R.J. Dale on the show later this week to further amplify this. R.J. Dale was in Chicago. R.J. Dale had R.J. Dale advertising. R.J. Dale lands the Illinois lottery contract. Not the black part. He lands the Illinois lottery contract.

He lands the prime contract. Okay. That's the equivalent of Joe's firm getting the $4 billion prime army contract. The white ad, y'all, now y'all, I was in Chicago at the time. I know RJ Dale personally.

The white ad agency were pissed. Now, y'all, I was in Chicago at the time. I know RJ Dale personally. The white agency were pissed. How in the hell did he do that? They then kept putting pressure on lawmakers and the agency ordered him, ordered him. They were angry, Joe. They basically and I don't use this word. I do not use this word. They essentially were saying, how did this nigga get that contract? How did he beat us out for the contract? You talked about creativity. RJ Dale recruited Bernie Mac to do the commercials for the Illinois lottery.

Sales go through the roof. They hounded Dale. They hounded Dale. They pounded on him and they pounded and pounded until he lost the contract because they said, how dare this nigga get this main contract? And folks need to understand what we're dealing with. They do not want us getting the prime contract. They don't want us getting the subcontract. They want us begging and scrapping and fighting other black agencies

and Latino agencies for the four or five crumbs. That is what you are having to deal with, Joe. A hundred percent. And, you know, that was one story that I think. If you are a black agency owner or you have aspirations of getting in this industry and you see and you hear stories like RJ's, they give you hope and pause at the same time. They validate what our potential is. But at the same at same time, at what cost, right? And so as a result, a lot of people are staying quiet or shying away from taking on greater opportunities or opportunities that have bigger upside that actually could be disruptive and paradigm shifts

in this actual industry that has been so segmented, where if you come into this industry, you're told specifically, this is what you are supposed to do. You cannot operate in this capacity, right? You are here to work in this little lane that's becoming decreasingly smaller and smaller and smaller over time. And despite the fact that you're seeing them start to tell our stories and it brings upon our culture in a way to seem cool, relevant, and on trend, we still have to contend with just focusing on creating campaigns during Black History Month or activating during Essence. And the reality is there's only so many brands that are spending the type of money to be able

to really develop more holistic campaigns, right? Because their general market agencies are telling them, we got that. You don't even have to spend that money with the black agency to reach this market to your earlier point because we can get them through ESPN and Instagram.

So for the people who are watching who don't quite understand, they're like, what's this lot of contract? This is a story from a Chicago reader. It was a $100 million advertising contract. I need all y'all watching. Listen to understand when y'all are watching television and you see a commercial, an agency produced that commercial. That means directors, writers, creatives, lighting people were hired to produce the commercial. That means somebody was hired to place that commercial. All that's paid. When you see a newspaper ad, a magazine ad, when you see a banner ad on a website, when you see a pop-up ad coming, there's a company that got paid to place those ads in those media platforms. And in this story right here, in this story right here,

R.J. Dale says that he didn't feel lucky getting this contract. There were low commission rates, sky-high legal fees from state audits. Quote, quite honestly, it damn near put us out of business. But go back to the iPad. During its five year contract term, revenue from the lottery increased by 490 million. Folks, this, when we talk about systemic racism and we talk about how the pressure is brought to bear against black entrepreneurs who to keep them broke, to keep them begging, that's what we're talking about with RJ Dale. And that's what we're talking about with R.J. Dale, and that's what we're talking about right here. Joe, they don't want you to be a $500 million agency.

They don't want you to be a billion-dollar agency because they know, black folks, we had to do stuff with no money. So a whole bunch of black directors didn't want to do Selma. I can't do that for 25 million. Ava DuVernay said, hell, I can. Look how Ava took making Selma and what she's parlayed it into.

That's what we're talking about here. They don't want to see Hero become as big as DDB or Young and Rubicam because they know if we can keep controlling the dollars, then we control the whole media landscape. And that's why we need legislative change at the federal level, right? Because what's happening right now, especially with government contracts, look, we need a reckoning to happen within this industry overall, and we need brands to take greater stock of themselves and their supplier and procurement

practices. They cannot just say when they have a review, let's just invite white big agencies. They have to open it up, right? And we have to hold them accountable as well. So hold on open it up, right? And we have to hold them accountable as well. So hold on, hold on, hold on, right there, right there. You and I know what review means. For people who don't know, explain to them when a company says we're putting our business up for

review. This is a very important point, right? So every so often a brand, whether it be a McDonald's or a Procter and Gamble or a Mercedes Benz, they have advertising service contracts that they actually put up for bid so that companies like mine and Carol H. bigger agencies can go out there and compete for, right? And every year there's series of contracts that are up for bid or up for review that we can actually try and get them to invite us to actually participate in so that we have a chance of winning it. So when the Army went up for review, that's when DVB and myself got involved in trying to pursue the contract because they were actually putting it up for bid. And so we've got a couple of minutes left. For everybody to understand, this is not going to be a one and done. This is an issue that before Joe even filed a lawsuit, I've been committed to. Y'all have been hearing me talk about this. Y'all have been hearing me lay the groundwork for this.

You heard me also say I put this on Instagram in 2021. We ain't sitting here looking for crumbs. What did my man Leslie? What did Leslie man Leslie say playing Sam Cooke? He said, damn the pie, I want the recipe. What we're dealing with here is this here. If we don't fight this fight right now,

you're not going to have black-owned media. You're not going to have black-owned ad agencies, which means black people, listen to me clearly, and there are white people. I got a letter from a guy, 70-year-old gay guy, who sent me a contribution.

There are white people who watch my show. I have white staffers. Let's be real clear. If this continues, there will be no Roland Martin unfiltered in the future. There will be no Essence. There will be no Revive Ebony. There will be no Blavity.

There will be no Griot. You cannot survive in media without advertising dollars. All y'all people on YouTube and Facebook saying we can go create this here. I told y'all when Congresswoman Val Demings was on here when we were discussing her media ownership resolution. It means nothing to own something if you can't eat. And advertising dollars is the backbone of the media industry. Joe,

what has been the response that you have gotten from other black agencies or black people in the industry or even black people who work at these brands who work with these agencies? It's been a humbling experience. You know when you make a decision like I did, historically, you know, the support has been incredible. We have been getting calls and emails of support from, you know, people within the industry, you know, commending us for our courage and are willing to speak up on an issue that has been endemic, that has been long overdue to be brought up. And so we are extremely excited by the outcry of support that we're getting. We even have people from Omnicom who have reached out

or have engaged in our content and our media announcements, you know, in support. People who have emailed me directly from Omnicom saying that they can't believe that this has happened, that it's appalling, right? So, you know, people are more, I think, compelled now, especially in the wake of George Floyd, to be more outspoken. And it's something that obviously has been humbling and something that we obviously are going to continue to encourage because the more that we can collectively unify our voice to let this industry know, to let the federal government know that, you know, it's over.

You know, the time of us being marginalized is done, right? And we got to demand change, and that means we have to organize, and we have to give people clear instruction as to what they can do and the role they can play to help drive the change that we need. The thing that you talked about what people don't get is you knew, you knew the moment you filed this lawsuit that you potentially were pulling a Colin Kaepernick move. That we know how this game works. Well, they say we might blackball you forever. This is one of the reasons why black people and others in media, Latinos, women,

don't file lawsuits against media companies because media protects media. This is this. This was this was a bold stance. And the moment I saw the lawsuit, everybody out there, everybody who's watching, I need y'all to understand why you have to support black media and why black media has to fight for the Joe Anthony's of the world in order for us to survive. Because the moment I saw this story on the lawsuit. I had never met Joe. And if we did meet, I can't remember when we met. I went to LinkedIn, sent him an email. Yo, hit me up. That was Friday. I said, Joe, I'm putting you on a show on Monday. And we're going to spend the time to walk through this

to educate our audience because part of this, Joe, you talk about the legislation. Part of this, and I've experienced this as well, is that our black legislatures don't know. They don't know the game. They don't understand the nuances because they, I mean, and I get it. And so we have to, and I have talked to the Congressional Black Caucus.

I did this with the Illinois Black Caucus. I did this when I was in Texas, the Texas Black Caucus. Every place where I lived and worked to say, y'all, the reason y'all don't see black press outside of the House and the Senate chambers or the legislature because we can't afford to send

a staffer because we're not getting advertising dollars. And here's the thing, Joe, you're talking about a government contract. This isn't a private business or a publicly traded company. This is, listen to me, everybody watching, listening. We're discussing $4 billion of taxpayer money. And I go back to the General Accounting Office review that Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton had done in 2018 on the behest of NNPA. In 2018, the federal government spent $5 billion over five years and only $51 million went to black media. So everybody listening, when DDB cuts out Joe Anthony and Hero, $400 million a year for them,

$4 billion over 10 years. Then they cut out Joe. Joe's firm doesn't grow. He can't drop money to black media. That's your money. This is tax payer money that black people are not benefiting from. Joe, final comment. And I can't. Yeah, I can't hire your daughters. I can't hire your sons. I can't create career trajectories to develop the next Roland Martins or the next Joe Anthony's or the next leader in the in the black communications and marketing industry. So this is not just about right now. It's about our future. Right. And this issue is not just unique to the advertising and media industry. It's pervasive in every segment of spending that the government outputs.

The trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that's about to be passed, we need our piece of that. You know, the $500 billion that is given to Boeing to build jets, we need our piece of that. The $5 billion that was paid to Pfizer and Moderna to buy vaccines directly for them, we need our piece of that. So essentially what's happening right now is because these that ultimately create jobs, wealth, and can be redistributed to other businesses. Specifically, in this case, black media. All of that stuff is going by the wayside. What does that mean? We still got to continue to struggle to find our place, despite the fact we continue to see these individuals exploit our culture, leverage our ideas,

our creativity to go and win awards and make billions of dollars. It has to stop and everyone has to stand up and play their part. Folks, this is why this show matters. Black-owned media matters. Black-owned ad agencies matter. This is why when I asked y'all to support

this show, a lot of y'all watch us on YouTube and Facebook for free. But understand, when I ask you for 50 bucks over the course of a year, $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day, it is because what you're doing is you're actually funding this. Some of y'all have been commenting, well, why wasn't they get paid? Y'all need to understand, when you're going after a contract, they don't pay you when you're going after a contract, you get paid when you land the contract. It's called making an investment. Same thing. When I'm going after an advertising

client, nobody's paying me to travel somewhere to pitch, paying me to put the materials together. My investment is in trying to land that contract. And so that's what Joe's company was doing. That's what we do as well. And so when I'm asking folks to join our Bring the Funk fan club, it is to provide us with the capital for us to go out here and wage

war and fight for folks like Joe. Because we're going to take this segment and we're going to push this thing out of all social media platforms to inform our people. Let me be real clear and there's no disrespect to anybody black at the other networks. Don Lemon not going to talk to Joe for 45 minutes. Joanne Reed not going to have Joe on for 45 minutes. Lawrence O'Donnell not going to do it. Harris Faulkner and Fox not going to do it. Charles Payne and Fox Business not going to do it. Harris, Faulkner, and Fox, not going to do it. Charles Payne and Fox Business not going to do it. We have

got to have our own platforms where, like the first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, said on March 16th, 1827, we wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. Joe, we appreciate it. Keep us abreast

of what's going on. We're going to keep pushing this thing. And let us know what you want our audience to do. What, from a public pressure standpoint, do we need to be tagging DDB on Twitter and tagging DDB on Instagram and Facebook? If so, we game. Absolutely. I mean, everyone's got to play their part right now, like you said. And DDB, the U.S. Army, all of them should be

hashtagged and tagged on a respective post that really communicates your sentiment and how you feel about the matter. Again, this is your money, y'all. You know, it's not just money that's coming to me. It's money that comes to me and then gets reinvested in the community.

So we need to take a community stance and utilize our voices and our platforms. So, um, you know, please use your Twitter, contact your local congressman, let the, uh, prize them of the situation, how you feel. Speak to your local recruiters, you know, and everyone else in your community, you know, that is connected to this and let them know how you feel. So absolutely wrong. All right, Joe.

Joe Anthony, I appreciate it, brother. We're definitely going to have you back. We'll stay on top of this story. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We're definitely going to have you back. We'll stay on top of this story. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. I need folks to understand something right now.

And this is the final comment that I'm making on this show. And I just want you all to understand what I'm laying out. It's real simple. Right now, you have nearly 7,000 people who are watching us right now, you have nearly 7,000 people who are watching us right now. If those 7,000 people chose to become members of our Bring the Funk fan club, if those 7,000 say, here's 50 bucks, and I want y'all to give it directly to us,

then that's $350,000. That's a third of where we are for the entire year. Mustafa, we have to apply pressure, black public pressure, in order to let DDB and the Army know that we see what y'all are doing to Joe Anthony and Hero, and we are not going to stand for it. If Black Twitter, if a million two people can watch a versus battle between Keisha Cole and Ashanti, imagine what can happen if we mobilize those forces to let DDB know, the Army know, we are not going to stand for this. I agree. It's the way that we actually can make systemic change happen, structural change happen.

So we have to put the pressure on the corporate side, but we also have to put, as you said, pressure on the Army, but we also got to put pressure on our new administration to make sure that folks at the FCC and folks at DOJ and others are paying attention to these issues, and that they're also paying attention to the fact, as you raised on the media side, that when it comes to black and brown businesses, that the amount of federal contract dollars that they get is a very, very small amount. And I'll just leave the last part

that everybody who's watching this show should also go and take a look at Title VI of the civil rights law, which says that federal dollars cannot be utilized to discriminate. And since those federal dollars came from the army over to DBB, and then our brother was frozen out, there may be some ramifications also through Title VI of

the Civil Rights Act or others to be able to address this. So that power, you know, has to be focused on these individuals who, when they see these dollars, these contracts being taken away, that they know they can no longer play this game. The thing that people don't understand, Julian, and I was trying to lay the groundwork, all of these things are linked. They're all linked. And that's what they do. If they know they can cut off that dollar at the top, everything below dries up. Roland, that was an excellent segment. It was really important to lift that up contracting, the economic impact of that is to put us at the periphery.

So somebody got a $4 billion contract. Brother man, they probably used him when they pitched. We equal employment opportunity. They did. They did. We're partying with a black person. And then as soon as they got the money, they up out of there. Now, they probably put a couple of little black people inside their their their hornet's nest.

But this is a way, as the brother said, black owned businesses are more likely to hire other black people. Black owned businesses are more likely to hire other Black people. Black-owned businesses are more likely to empower other Black people. And so to freeze him out is basically to freeze us all out. I applaud the segment, Roland. I really do. I was riveted because this happens all too often, and we really don't talk about it. As you say, people don't think about the ways that we get exploited with our own tax dollars. These are tax dollars. Why does the Department of Defense

need to advertise anyway? Well, whatever. But if they do, they need to use us just like they use everybody else. So, Kelly, to that particular point, again, when you have the data, the GAO study was done in 2018 at the behest of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. See, I remind you, that study only dealt with how much black and minority

media outlets were getting. It didn't deal with the agency part. Right. So, when Senator Chuck Schumer was on here, I brought that 5 billion up. I said on this show, I'm expecting president Biden and vice president Harris to deal with that. I've been talking to the CBC.

I have been saying, see, here's the whole deal. That's taxpayer money. When I said to Congressman Stephen Horsford and Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, y'all should demand an audit of Young and Rubicam. So, you know, it was like three hundred and fifty million dollars allocated to media for the census. Y'all need to allocate. Y'all know where all 350 go.

Meaning what was what were all those individual agency cuts? And then, who were the individual entities that received media money? And then, who was black owned and black targeted? Let me say again, black owned, black targeted. Because see, then,

now all of a sudden, if I got that audit, and I'm able to go 350 million. Why is it that of the 350 million black media only got five? fought for additional $70 million to be added to the budget for the purpose of ensuring that black people would be informed of accounting. See, and that's just census. We ain't talking about

Health and Human Services, Commerce, Interior, HUD, I can go on and on. These white agencies have all of those contracts on lock, and they're locking us out. But I'm letting y'all know I'm exposing all y'all asses. I'm exposing all y'all asses.

Because see, this is also why you got to have a daily show. Kelly, this is why you got to have black media. Stop spending all day damn time on bullshit, entertainment and gossip? Because while you're spending your time on entertainment and gossip, black folks are being frozen out of billions of dollars. Kelly, go ahead. No, you said a lot there and I agree with every bit of it.

I actually had the report of Eleanor Holmes Norton's report pulled up, but more importantly, the Biden-Harris administration has already committed to ensuring government spending is actually going towards

Black-owned media companies, so that has been part of their Go Back Better plan. Hold on, where? I'm sorry, hold on. What is that? I'm sorry, what is what? What you just said. You said they've already committed.

What's going to go to black media? Government spending with black and minority-owned media businesses. They have made a commitment to ensuring that that goes to black and minority-owned media businesses. Where is that? I'm sorry. Where is that? Where is what? What you just said.

I'm reading it off of MilwaukeeToriaOnline.com. It came from December 5th of last year, coming from NMPA Newswire Senior National... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That was like a speech. I'm looking for the actual commitment. I ain't looking for words. I'm looking. I understand what you're saying. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm saying Kelly is all I'm saying.

The reason I was asking what that was, what you're describing. Yeah, I read that. I'm talking about, for instance, right now, they are about to spend millions of dollars educating Americans on COVID vaccine. I need to see the plan. What is black media getting? We've been inquiring. Ain't seen it. I'm reaching out to members of the COVID task, the Biden COVID task force. Ain't seen it. So that's all I'm saying. I was just looking for the actual specifics. So I hear what you're saying. I need to see the actual, I need to see the meat, the gristle. I understand what you're saying. And I agree with you. We do need to see the meat. We do need to see particulars, but it does, it is a step in the right direction that this, this rhetoric is out

there because now they have to be held accountable to it. But also, I also want to point out that when they hold people accountable, I want them to take into consideration just what that looks like. So when I see a hiring process in any regard, I think more individually because I'm not in the contract bidding space. But when you're trying to hire a black person, you don't tack a white person on there to try and bring the black person on onto the team. If you're trying to have diversity, you don't pack a white person onto a black person in order to increase diversity in your business or in your contract. I don't see why that principle is applied when it comes to ad agencies bidding on these contracts. If you want a Black agency, you need to go to that Black agency. You cannot depend on white agencies to get the Black agency for you in order to fulfill a quota. That's not fair. That's not right. And that should be a slew

of violations included in that. So in that space, in the contract bidding space, I was, you know, I understand what you were talking about, Roland, and needing to see the meat. What I'm saying is what I'm talking about right now in terms of revamping what contract bidding looked like from here on out, especially when it comes to hiring Black agencies in this space, we need to have that included in the meat, so to speak. Bottom line is this here. I need to see the results of rhetoric. And what I'm saying right now,

the most important piece right now is the COVID vaccine money. That's what I want to see. So we'll see what happens there. Kelly, Mustafa, Julian, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, if y'all want to support what we do, I told y'all your dollars are important. You can give to us directly. If you give to us on YouTube, that's great. I appreciate that. But we got to share that money with YouTube. So I ask y'all give the money to us directly.

That way we get all 100% and not 55% that we get on YouTube or Facebook. I'm just saying when you give on YouTube, we're getting 55% of your money. You give it directly to us, we're getting 100. Okay? Cash app with dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com is forward

slash rmunfiltered. Zelle is at rolandsmartin.com. Money orders. New Vision Media. NU Vision Media Inc. 1625 K Street Zell is Roland at Roland S. Martin dot com. Money orders. Six. Sixteen. New Vision Media. N.U. Vision Media Inc.

Sixteen. Twenty five. K Street Northwest. Sweet 400. Washington, D.C. Two thousand and six. Folks, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for all of y'all who have joined us.

Great conversation. Great stories. But this is why black media matters. You're not going to get this. And y'all know, I appreciate entertainment. I appreciate celebrities and all of that. We do a little bit of that. But I am not about to sit here and use this platform to spend my time talking about some bullshit with the Real Housewives or talking about love and hip hop, talking about some gossip.

We have got to be armed with information. Information is power. But good information, quality information, substantive information, life-affirming, life-changing information is powerful. And to all y'all ad agencies out there, we're going to hit y'all every single day. Kenan, go ahead and get the graphic ready.

Every single day, we're going to put the graphic up with DDB's address and all their social media handles. We're going to hit them every single day. In fact, I might turn it into a commercial. We're going to include the U.S. Army on that as well. Every single day. And this is just the start. I'm in conversations right now to hire a reporter

to solely focus on writing stories and coming on the air about what these ad agencies are doing. And listen to me clearly. All of you brands who have your money with DDB, we're also going to tell folks who you are. Y'all, this is about

black media survival. And we ain't playing. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Holla! I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a two of the War on Drugs podcast. Sure. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend.

At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.