The Top Stories of 2024 w/ Dr. Paul Levinson

view are welcome. We're going live to tape on the twenty seventh of December, So I want to wish everybody at Merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a happy Kwanza, whatever holiday you choose to celebrate, have a great one. You know, the passage of some birthdays is more significant than others, like reaching those involving certain significant milestones, such as the

age of consent or getting the right to vote. Others take on a personal sentimental importance simply because of the significance of the number, like turning thirty, fifty or seventy, or perhaps there was a significant event in your life that made the year particularly important and memorable. Well, I feel the same way about the passage of calendar years too. The events that occurred in any given year often defined

the significance of that time itself. Certainly, every calendar year provides changes that affect our daily lives, both in the present and future. But to what extent well, With the end of twenty twenty four rapidly approaching, it's that time again to feature the top stories for the year and the impact they may or may not have had on

our lives. And who better to provide the expert analysis than Fordham University Professor of Mass Media Studies, frequent contributor Being Frank, and a man I'm proud to call colleague and friend, doctor Paul Levinson. Paul, thank you for once again joining us here on Being Frank. You're always welcome, as you well know.

You gave me a list of eight. I'm going to add three more at the end, and we'll go in reverse order from relative importance. But they were all important in one way or another. So let's dissect the list. And I said, we'll start with number eight. And I find it very interesting that you chose a movie as a significant event in twenty twenty four, the just released I believe it was released on Christmas Day, the Bob Dylan bio pick a Complete Unknown, and you call it

the best biopic ever made. Talk a little bit about why you feel that way and why it has significance beyond the fact of just a movie.

not completely accurate, and I have news for everyone. Not only are biopics never completely accurate, even flat out documentaries aren't completely accurate because obviously the filmmaker, the television producer, the director makes it acision to leave certain things out because you can't cover everything, even a straight up in

a straight up documentary. So granted that a complete unknown has a fair number of scenes in which words weren't actually said in real life, or the scenes themselves didn't happen, But here is what is good, better than good about the movie and really ranked true with me. First of all, there were two performances Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and Timothy Challamet as Bob Dylan, that were really at the top of just about any performance I've ever seen in

any biopic. And obviously that's a situation which biopicks are vulnerable, because if you have an actor who doesn't have the right tone in a voice, who doesn't have the right gestures, obviously they're not going to have exactly the same face but that does take away from the biopic. And both of those gentlemen, Challa met Norton not only talk the part,

but they also sang the parts. There was a lot of vocal performances in the movie, and I would say, you know, Norton, maybe he wasn't quite as good as Pete Seeger, but he was pretty close to Pete Seeger, and he had every gesture that Pete had. Yes. And you know, our kids went to the Fieldston School in the Bronx, and Pete Seeger was often a guest at that school. So I got to see Pete Seeger in person. And if you see the movie, and then you want to know what the real peat Seeger was like. There

were dozens of videos of him. Just check those out. And you know, Elemet was a pretty good Dylan. Look, it's a hard part to do. Dylan was a real character. I didn't know. I don't know Dylan in person, but I was convinced by Chalamet's performance and the Joan Baez part, which was also a central part of the movie. Joan Biez has I think a matchless voice. You know, no one that I know has the depth that Mollifluous quality

that Joan Biez have. And she has a great range too, hitting really high notes and low notes everything in between. And the actress Barbara was really outstanding in the singing. She wasn't quite hitting the notes of the way Joan Baez did, but she was pretty good and pretty close. So all in all, I thought that was a great movie, and it is frankly the best bio pick I've seen because it hit so many true notes.

But she's been a guest on the show as she wrote a great book Mike Greenwich Village, Dave Bobb and Me about her marriage to Dave Van Ronk and the fact that Dylan, who couchsurfed, And that's also from what I understand, a little bit missing in the biopic that you know, he relied on the kindness of strangers, if you will, and that include CouchSurfing, and he often did on Terry Thal's and Dave Van Ronk's couch, So it would be interesting to bring her back on after hopefully

she sees the movie as well, to get her impression, to see how accurate everything was too, because she was literally.

I recommend that to everyone. Last name is Brown, ends with an E. David is his first name.

one or two terms when he dropped out. I was really disappointed when Caroline Kennedy at one point she was thinking of running here in New York State and Kristin Jillibrand beat her out of the I guess in the primary. And I've definitely voted for Caroline Kennedy. So look, I'm someone who never got over the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and I think that family has a very special place in American history. It is unfortunate, though, that the return to power, and this is why I put it in there.

As you know, in that top list is somebody who is as off the track about so many things as Robert F. Kennedy Junior. Health is and increasingly it's always important, but ever since COVID it's been much more understandably on people's minds. You know, you reach something every day that's frightening. The bird flu seems to be taking week in the South, I mean, so, you know, we have a lot of

very serious life and death health problems. By the way, I'll mentioned that this year a lot of people from science fiction, George of Browsekeep, Barry Maulsburg, a guy by the name of t Tom Jackson. They all Tom Jackson King. I left off his last name. So you know, I am extremely concerned and actually not at all happy that this Kennedy has returned to power. And we're going to talk more about this in this hour because this is just one of many of frankly insane appointments that Trump

is making. And you know, I saw a tweet the other that really captured it, saying something to the effect of, I know this is old hat, but I have to tell you Trump is out of his mind. And unfortunately, the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Junior to the most powerful position in the cabinet that is responsible for the health of Americans appointing someone like Robert F. Kennedy Junior. I think it's crazy.

that's why it goes under UFOs. But this is potentially a big thing because it could be so many things. So why is this such a big story in your mind? Book?

originated off this planet. And look it probably isn't. And just the fact that it's not identified is a combination of maybe there are military secrets involved, maybe some other country figured out a way of disguising its identity as the country that sent those UFOs, those drones over the northeast here. But it is a very exciting thing to think about it. And you know, again, as you know, I'm a science fiction writer. Well, I'm a sucker for these things.

heard of that. This is Enrico Fermi. He tried to answer the question of if there are intelligent civilizations off this planet and other solar systems and other galaxies, surely some of them would be older than the human species, that is around, longer than we have been, and therefore they should be more advanced than us, and therefore they should have interstellar travel, and therefore why they're not here And FORMI put out a whole bunch of reasons to

explain why this is the case, and people have had a field day with us. You know, the aliens are so smart. They don't want to disturb our civilization. They don't want to cause a trauma. But many people know I think I'm pretty close to it, are close to now thinking that, you know what, we need help from somewhere, the way this world is going, and this country in particular. So you know, I'm leaving the door open.

and somewhat related also AI artificial intelligence. We've discussed it, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and you have this as one of the top stories, particularly as many people are afraid of A and I. And I know you are cautious, but fear is a word that you wouldn't use to describe your thoughts towards A and I. Well, why is this such a big story in your mind?

you know, when it's stuck on one time. And I read somewhere that Jeff Bezos said something which I think is a savvy appraisal of AI. He said, It's going to become like electricity. It doesn't matter whether we like it or not. It's going to be in everything pretty much that we do. And you know, there were people back in Edison's day, Thomas Edison's day, you know, in

the eighteen eighties, eighteen nineties, who concerned about electricity. They were afraid people were going to get electrocuted, you know, there were concerns about that. In every generation, anytime i'm anything new is introduced. So people are using gas lamps, electricity is introduced, which is actually far more safer than gas lamps because you can easily have a fire with, you know, with something that's burning, whether it's on gas

or anything else. And electricity pretty much got beyond that, and I think that that is what AI is, and I am not surprised, but I'm not happy to see the number of people, especially in our academic world, who have piled on over and over again this past year and again. As you and I discussed on a previous show, you would think they were talking about the terminator. You know that this AI is going to come and kill us,

It is going to take over the world. You know, a group of AI scientists, as you know, sign something saying they were so concerned about this anyway, So I think that we need to wake up. And I'm not saying we should blindly accept everything that is AI, but take it easy. By and large, it saves people's lives even now. Yes, it does create problems, you know, if you have someone plagarizing somebody else who are creating a

fake video that looks and sounds like the person. But I think that those problems, when you weigh them against the benefits of AI, pretty much fall by the wayside.

been turned over to AI. There was something in the Los Angeles Times, I believe you mentioned that, but also recently where they're relying more and more on artificial intelligence to pick stories, to edit stories, to check for accuracy, and there have been mistakes made because it lacks the human element that is so important in journalism, which is to determine beyond the surface what's right and what's not.

So you know your feelings on that, and that's kind of the downside, And I didn't want to play over that too much because specially as you and I media people and journalists, there is a concern there.

It's one of the best Outlander seasons. And I'm writing a review and I want to know the name of an actress what I used to have. It's not the end of the world, but I have to go on to IMDb do a search, you know, and sometimes it can you know, the actress's name might not be in the top names that are there, so that I have to go to the full cast page. Again, not the

end of the world. Now, with AI as a reviewer, I just say, who's the name of the actress who played such and such a part in Outlander episode seven point one two, and boom, it gives me the answer, and so far it hasn't been wrong. So look, I'm an author. I don't want AI taking away my profession, either as a scholarly writer or a science fiction writer.

So I'm not unsympathetic to those concerns. But I am also aware of how valuable my time is, and AI has saved me an enormous amount of time already.

All right, let's move down. Well, let's move up to the top four, and it will relatively relate it because they're political, okay, And when we talk politics, we have to talk Biden, we have to talk Trump, obviously, the huge contest in twenty twenty four. Okay, so number four in terms of your importance here Trump almost assassinated. And then you qualify it with the question or was he explained?

et cetera, et cetera. And one of the things that we've all come to know when these tragedies happen is almost immediately there are medical people who are being interviewed by the media and they explain, as best as they know it what happened. Sometimes they don't do a very good job of it. That's why, to this very day there are still questions about who killed JFK. But there was extensive coverage of the assassination of JFK. And there

is almost always extensive coverage of attempted assassinations. So the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan got an enormous amount of coverage. You see him being willed into the hospital, you know, interview with doctors. Well, we can't tell you everything, but he's doing okay. It's a little more serious than it seems, et cetera, et cetera. So i'd be interested. Can anyone tell me? Maybe I missed it? Where was that coverage in the aftermath of the assassination attempt? And I put

a question mark after that because of this. Where is the media coverage of the aftermath of that? Where are the doctors telling us exactly what happened, how serious it was? In fact? Where are the FBI people commenting? Anytime FBI people were into They don't know anything. They're not working on this case. The Secret Service had nothing to say, they were working on the case. All we know is what was like a week or two later, Trump appears at the convention. I don't know even his ear. It

was like a little bandaged up. It didn't look like a bullet had ripped off a part of his ear. But what do I know. I'm not a doctor, so I don't know. That's what I'm saying. There's something strange there, and if I were an investigative reporter, I would investigate that.

But let's talk about the debate and how important was and how that really changed the conversation within around the presidential debate.

wasn't an indication of some kind of permanent impairment. Republicans had been saying ever since Biden got in office that basically he wasn't all there mentally, which I always thought was nonsense. But I also began thinking, and I know

you and I have talked about this as well. And let me just preface this by saying, as a media theorist, as someone who has studied Marshall McLuhan, who has written books on McLuhan, who teaches Marshall McLuhan, one of the things that really impressed me with Marshall McLuhan was how in nineteen sixty four and understanding media, he talked about that debate between Kennedy and and you know mclwin's parlance, Kennedy won because he was much more cool, which was

a more appropriate approach than Nixon, who was hot. But if you don't want that mcluhness distinction, clearly Kennedy was calm, relaxed, at ease with himself, that is cool, whereas Nixon was sweaty, overbearing a that's right. And so Kennedy just looked a lot better. And it was a very close election, and Kennedy did as well as he did, no doubt because of that debate. And up until the debate with Biden,

I was also something of a student of debates. You're remembering various full pause and debates, remembering various successful thrusts. So getting back to Reagan again, when he says to Walter mondel, I'm not gonna you know, hold you, you know, responsible, or criticize you because you're not fit in age to be president because you're so much younger than me, or something like that. That's a paraphase, but it was very effective. It got a lot of laughs. And Reagan was an

excellent communicator. So there are many moments in debates. But I began thinking, you know what, after all said and done, maybe the debate is not so important, because what do I want from a president? I want, ultimately, somebody from a who is president who gets a call in the middle of the night and Russia has not only invaded Ukraine but now gone into Poland a NATO ally, what are we going to do about this? I mean, this is what the president's job is. This is the president's role.

This is where the president's performance matters. It's a life and death decision. You know, think about John F. Kennedy in retrospect, who cares how he did in the debate. What saved our lives back then was how Kennedy responded in a savvy way to the Cuban missile crisis and where he and Bobby Kennedy is usually given the credit for coming up with the idea. John F. Kennedy presents to Christ Jeff, how about we make this deal rather than going further and further into blowing ourselves to death,

And that saved our lives. I mean New York City would have been radioactive ashes if that had gone much worse. And so that has nothing to do with the debate. And so I was thinking that everyone, you know, George Clooney, you know, take it easy. You know, I know you're uncomfortable with how he did in the debate. I also believe you know, he was at some kind of event, George Clooney, he was not that comfortable with the way Biden was. Then you know what, that doesn't matter either.

All that matters is how he performed office. And I think Biden has done an excellent job as president.

particular night. So from from a media strictly media point of view, I don't think it can be over emphasized how poorly he did, and I in my opinion, how it started to swing the momentum in the election more and more towards Trump.

the waist down. Fortunately for him, there was no television in the nineteen thirties, and also fortunately for him, he had a great speaking voice, so you know, when his voice came over radio, the cutting edge medium of the time, Americans really identified with him. But if there had been television in those days, I mean, look people in wheelchairs. The governor of Texas seems to have no problem getting

re elected and he's in a wheelchair. And you know, I think in that sense, Americans have grown up in effect. But I do think, and to some extent, the media is at fault for this because the can't bring themselves to say this event that we cover and we talk about all the time. You know what, maybe it's not that important. I would have liked to have seen Rachel

Maddow say that, and she didn't. To his credit. Lawrence O'Donnell pretty much said that, and in my opinion, that is the correct way of understanding this.

whole show out of just this decision. But quickly, why is this so important?

than Kamala Harris. And I can just hear the hells of outrage coming from progressive people who are listening to this, but they should just consider this fact. Donald Trump, the same lunatic, the same person who, as you and I have discussed, is on the road to fascism, not as close as Putin is, and certainly not up where Hitler was,

but nonetheless on that road. The person who is now saying, and has been saying crazy things like this, that he wants to buy Greenland, even though Denmark has told him a dozen times no. He wants to take over the Panama Canal. And I think he wants not maybe a next Canada, but somehow Canada is going to become another state. And I know some Canadians they would sooner cut off their right arm do anything like that. So this gentleman ran for president three times, He won twice, he lost once.

Who was the candidate that beat Trump? It was a candidate Joe Biden, who in many ways was not as well known and powerful, even though he been vice president Hillary Clinton, a very famous first Lady Hillary Clinton, a Secretary of State, and arguably he was in a better position in many ways than Kamala Harris because he was currently president and could claim credit for doing all the things that he had done, rather than you have to ask comments, well, did you agree with what Biden did?

I mean, what is she going to say that question, except that Joe Biden should answer. So I think we'll never know. As you know, I love writing and reading and talking about alternate history. So this goes into alternate history. But I think that if Joe Biden hadn't withdrawn, the results of the election might have been different.

wartime president. But by and large, you know, it's always, you know, the men who are making wars, and you know women are left to you know, absorb the consequences of those wars. But here in the United States, you know, you know, to some extent, we here on the East Coast tend to think understandably like that everyone is sort of like us. But in most of America that's not

the case. And I think there is a lot of sentiment that in the United States, and I hate to put it this way, but they would sooner vote for a lunatic than vote for a woman.

so many of us yet we were wrong. And why how.

do this. So credit to Reagan for overcoming the hostility. But that hostility never went away. And there are many people in America, and I'm not saying, you know that they're ipso facto racist. You know, Obama, who obviously is at least partially African American in heritage, he won twice, and you know, so some of the people maybe who voted against Hillary and who voted against Kamala stayed home

and that's why Obama, you know, did so well. And they weren't that thrilled with either McCain or Mitt Romney, who were Obama's two candidates. But I think that there is a lot of deep resentment here in the United States to what unfortuantly many people wrongly think is what they are entitled to. And they're walking around with a bushel full of grievance, says on all kinds of things, and that's where Trump finds his deepest support.

a huge story. But why is you know, climate change and environmental issues again always seem to be so hard to well, they seem to be so much further down the list until they happen in your community.

is doing. So I think that, to some extent one of the reasons why not as much has been done about climate change as should be done. If I were president, which i'll never be, I would embrace Elon Musk and bring him, maybe offer him to become Secretary of the Interior or something where what he's done with Tesla, and for that matter, even SpaceX, you know, his space program could be very very helpful in terms of tamping down further the use of fossil fuel, which unfortunately is still

you know, happening. Cars are still pumping out, you know, carbon monoxide, et cetera, et cetera. And so my recommendation, my advice would be to progress is try to find sources other than those you've already accepted, who could be allies in this desperate need. We have to get on top of the climate change problem. And Elon Musk would be a classic example.

The conviction of the Michigan Killers' parents. If you remember, Jennifer and James Crumley, whose son committed a mass shooting at a school in Michigan, were convicted. So that was one step. But yet just recently there was another school shooting, and again every year we seem to set a record. Why aren't things being done about that? Why isn't that the number one story in this country?

I don't understand how any grandparent, how any brother or sister, which so I basically covered everyone, right, you know, how any mother and father could continue to tolerate this insane situation where you know, yeah, there are some minor controls

you know, on you know, the possession of guns. But and I think actually Biden is responsible for one last summer or maybe two summers ago, they finally the Congress finally did pass some kind of like, you know, the red Flag law, that you could deny someone the right to purchase a gun if there was a red flag on that person's name because they had done something which might lead you to believe they could use the gun for violence. And it's one of the great great tragedies

of the United States. And you know, I have friends who live overseas. If there's any one thing that they used to think that they wouldn't want to live in the United States of America and that we here are all out of our minds. It's the prevalence of guns in this country.

of the violence because the healthcare industry has its own issues. Again, probably a conversation we could do a full show around, but in the limited time we have your comments on that as a big story and all the facets it has.

shooting somebody is certainly not the answer. Uh. That insurance in general has for a very long time been taking advantage, you know, of the American people in all kinds of ways. They're they're great at doing two things. They're great at taking in premiums, that is, payments for the insurance. And they're great at spending millions and millions of dollars on stupid moronic commercials like that jerk and what is it the AIMU or something progress? Who they are?

maybe the second or third time. I'm driving out on Root for New Jersey, and the car dives, so, you know, I get towed away. You know, I take a cab. I teach my classes. I get back, and the first thing I do when I get home is I call up the insurance company. And I'm speaking to some guy who has the nerve to say, all right, so tell me, miss Levinson, you're the kind of guy who likes to have a couple of drinks at lunch. I said, First of all, it's not going to be a goddamn business.

Second of all, it's not miss the elevenson you know you can see. And third, well, what the hell does that have to do? The car you know died because you sold me a piece of garbage car. So I tell you what I'm gonna give you, like a minute or two to get your superior online and then I'll see you in court. You know, my father was a lawyer, so I sort of learned to do that when I when I when people and don't be upset. I'll get my superior online and the guy comes out and apologizes

for the guy. But that is an indication of what insurance companies do all the time, that they're trained to say no to things and hope that people will go away so they can save money.

of twenty twenty four. Doctor Levinson had a big year himself, and we're going to talk about his biggest stories for twenty twenty four when we come back from these brief commercial messages. This is Being Frank. We're the only way to be is Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebaro. Will be right back with more right after these brief commercial messages. Don't go anywhere yet.

and historic Stony Point, New York. But you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts, and since it's archives, you can listen to any program anytime you like. You can find the link to Being Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at our website Hudsonriverradio dot com. Just click and you're there. Of course, you can always leave us at comment. Our conversation today has been the stop Stories of twenty twenty four with Professor

Paul Levinson, my colleague at Fordham University. Paul, you also had a big year in twenty twenty four. Tell us a little about the doctor Paul Levinson highlights for the soon to be past year.

promoting all year long. It's real life and alternate history of the Beatles, talking about how I wrote it, why I wrote it, etc. Etc. But what really makes this show unique is for the first time, I and Howard Margolan, who is the DJ on the show, are going to read a scene from the second chapter of that novel. Now, as of now, we're doing this this afternoon, the only parts of the novel that have been publicly broadcast and have been publicly read or there was a radio play

made of the first chapter. And by the way, you can hear that radio show on a place called Killer Watt Radio not spelled with an old killer k I L L E R Watt dot com radio. So there is actually a radio play of the first chapter. And I've also read the first chapter at the launch party in the Players Club in Manhattan, but nobody other than my poor wife has heard me say anything publicly talk about the second chapter, and it is a great chapter, and Howard and I are going to read a scene

from that tonight. So I'm really excited about that, and it's for me. It's a great way to cap off the year, because, as I was saying, I've done a lot of things this year. The one of the highlights was what I just mentioned at the Players Club, which is a really wild thing. The actual name of the place is the Players. People call it the Players Club, but I mean I was accompanied by a death mask of John Keats, who was right there hanging outside the room. So I don't know if that was some kind of

threat or whatever. It was all those ill wided up like John Keats. So so I'm really looking forward to that. And as far as what I've been doing, you know, a year, other than trying to offer my two cents on all the political things that we just talked about in the earlier part of this episode, just about everything I've been doing has been working on its real life and alternate history of the Beatles, not writing it, but

getting it out there to the public. There are some exciting things now in motion for twenty twenty five, but I'm not going to say to them until they definitely happen. But I expect twenty twenty five to be even more of a year where this novel that I wrote gets out to the world.

address our audience a little bit before that. It is song Summer Highland Falls Billy Joel sings and they say that these are not the best of times, but they're the only times I've ever known. Well, folks, that rings true for all of us. So make twenty twenty five the best time you'll ever know until the next year

comes around again. I want to thank Brian Horowitz, the owner of Hudson River Radio, and of course Neil Richter for putting up with me for the year, and of course to all of our loyal listeners who take the time to support us. If you keep listening, I can promise you more intelligent conversation in the future. And I wish all of you peace, light and love. Okay, Paul, take us out. What are we going to hear?

this is one that I'm most proud of. I think Ed did a perfect job on the music, and I'm very happy with the way the lyrics worked out as well.