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listen to any Being Frank virtually anytime that you want. It's the intelligent thing
to do. And we're going, as we say in the industry, live
to tape here on the twenty fourth of August. Let me double check,
yes, I've got to date right. That's a good start, at least
it is for me, as ply discussed on this podcast. I consider the
First Amendment sacred and in my mind, the foundation for and thereby the most
important of all our constitutional amendments. For without our ability to freely speak our
minds, the very concept of liberty collapses. But there are those who seek
to pervert this cherished tenant. They would use it as a shield for their
lies and deceit, peeling away all the layers. This is the heart of
the case against former President Donald J. Trump. Mister Trump and his lawyers
claim that he has a right to his opinion that the twenty twenty election was
stolen from him, and despite the amount of evidence disproving those claims, as
protected free speech, he cannot be prevented from believing what he believes thereby expressing
it. Is this a valid defense. It will be one of our intelligent
conversations tonight. We'll also discuss the recent GOP debate, the candidates, the
winners and the losers, and the role the media plays with it all,
and to do so as a frequent contributor, my colleague at Fordham and an
expert media and the First Amendment, doctor Paul Levinson. Paul, thank you
once again for joining us here and we can always count on you well.
I'm always delighted to talk to your Frank again. We appreciated, Paul.
Your opinion counts and I think we need to hear I think we need to
hear it tonight. First, and this is not the first time we've discussed
the First Amendment, lots of ones there, but it is that important and
it keeps coming up in various ways, but I think people, once again,
I don't know if they totally grasp the concept. And one of the
things that's frequently used is to simplify what the First Amendment comes down to is
that you can't yell fire in a crowded theater if there's no fire. But
that's a fairly broad statement. Can you can you boil it down even further
what exactly does that mean in practical terms? And then again as that applies
to our general conversation of free speech, the use of it by former President
Trump and his lawyers to say, look, well, we have a right
to our opinion, etc. But put it all together against starting with you
can't yell fire in a crowded theater if there's no fire, break that down
a little further for us. Well, the reason why that was stated by
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior, way way back over a hundred years ago,
and the Shank versus the United States case was if you shout fire and there
is no fire in a crowded theater and then people run out of the theater,
they could wind up hurting themselves or at the very least they would be
deprived of the movie that they had paid money to see, so they would
be robbed of their experience by that false statement. Now I never thought,
as you know, that that was the best example anyway of what the First
Amendment does not protect, because as far as people stampeding and trampling themselves,
I think it would be a much better idea than worrying about whether the First
Amendment applies or not to just build theaters that have exits that people can run
out of in a safe way. If God forbid there is a fire,
and that you know, then I think you don't even have to talk about
if you have some malicious person saying there's a fire there when it isn't.
But there have been from the very beginning many things that the First Amendment does
not protect. The most common is protection if you say or write something that
defames someone else, and if you know what you're saying or writing is false,
and you know it's going to do them damage, and you publish it
or speak it or disseminated anyway, then you could be hauled into a civil
court. You're not going to wind up in jail, but you could be
fined millions of dollars, which is what happens when you are found guilty in
a civil suit. That was always the case. I'm totally in favor that
I think people should be punished if they lie in public with the intent of
defaming someone, hurting their career, damaging their reputation. But there's also far
more serious thing that you can't do even though there is a First Amendment,
and that's communication that is intended to lead to commission of a crime. Now
you can make a general statement saying, you know what, I think banks
are very detrimental to our society, and uh, you know, I would
be happy if everyone just ran into a bank and you know, demanded to
get back all their money and even stole the money if necessary. Someone could
make, you know, as insane as that statement is, that's the person's
opinion that is protected under the First Amendment. But if someone was either writing
or talking about a plan to go into a specific bank, and here's how
you're going to do it, and you should show up at you know,
nine am, you know, two weeks from now on a Thursday Friday morning,
and what I'm going to do is distribute to you plans so you can
see what the bank looks like on the inside where the vaults are, and
before we go there, we'll get the weapons, which we'll use if anybody
gets in our way, et cetera, et cetera. And obviously we've all
seen this in many many movies and television shows. Hopefully no one listening to
this has actually been planning something like that, because if they were, that
would be a crime. That communication would not be protected by the First Amendment,
because it's communication that's intended to commit a crime robbing a bank. How
does this relate to Trump, Well, as we've been talking about since that
dark day, you know, back in January twenty one, Trump not only
lied, and there's a lot of evidence that he knew that he lost.
So he not only lied and continues to lie about the results of the twenty
twenty election, but he actually worked to get the results of that election disgarded
so that he Donald Trump, who did not win the election, would be
recognized as the winner of an election. That's a crime. He was trying
to subvert the election laws in our country, and that's a crime even without
the insurrection at the Capitol on January six, twenty twenty one, So that
sadly for our democracy, is a stark example of what the First Amendment does
not protect. And I'll just conclude this by saying I often have said in
the past, you know casually that I'm pretty much an absolutist when it comes
to the First Amendment, by which I mean to say people should be entitled
to say the most hateful things they want. But ever since Trump, I've
stopped saying I'm an absolutist because he has violated the First Amendment in so many
different ways, in ways that you know the First Amendment does not protect,
and he's made a mockery of the First Amendment that now I would never say
I'm an absolutist regarding the First Amendment. I'm a very strong, like you,
fervent believer and supporter in the First Amendment. But I'm equally strong about
wanting to bring people who use the First Amendment as a cover to commit criminal
activities and use the First Amendment as a cover to subvert our democracy. I'm
a very strong believer also in those people being brought to justice. Well,
let me play the devil's advocate because I like to. It's part of what
intelligent conversation is about what he's certainly in his lawyers and supporters believe at least
as a gray area. Okay, And you hear it, and I think
we've discussed it before, and you hear it in many of the interviews with
people, particularly the people who support former President Trump. Well, in my
opinion, okay, I feel I thought, and we know, the burden
of proof in a particular case like this is with the state and with the
government. They have to prove that there was intent, and Trump continually goes
back. And this is also when I want your opinion on political speech,
especially during political times. It's almost as if they're given a free license to
lie, certainly at least to exaggerate. That's part of the political jargon whatever.
And it's up to us to wade through and say who's lying who's not,
because let's face it, it seems at some point most politicians certainly at
least exaggerate their accomplishments, and most people would say, well, they should.
That's the idea of politics, that's the idea of campaigning. So here,
now again you have the gray area where Trump is saying, you don't
understand I believe that I was given evidence by others to make me believe that,
and how can you tell me to believe what I can believe and what
I can't believe? Those are your facts, they're not necessarily my facts.
So here they set up this gray area of him saying, well, his
intent was he felt he was doing the right thing, that he was robbed
from the election, and he quote unquote legitimately believes that. We may think
otherwise, but again, within the burden of proof, can we prove that
he was intentionally misleading and therefore of violating the First Amendment? What do you
think of that gray area, Paul, I don't really think it's that great.
I still think this is a black and white situation, because, first
of all, it doesn't matter what Trump believed or didn't believe. He's entitled
to believe that the Earth is flat. He's entitled to believe that he won
the election. That's not why he's currently in Atlanta and he's going to go
in and be arraigned, and he's already been indicted. Of all the cases
against Trump, this is the most clear cut case. He's not being indicted
because he believed that he won the election. He's being indicted and being arraigned
and arrested, and he'll be brought to trial for the grave offense in which,
fortunately we have a tape recording of the telephone kind of station in which
Trump is telling the people in Georgia who are responsible for tallying and certifying the
votes in an election that look, you know, you got to find me
x number of votes because that's what I need to win the election. And
it doesn't matter that he was entitled to believe that he won the election.
What matters is he is pressuring a state official to commit a crime digging up
votes, printing up votes. I don't know how he expected them to find
the votes, but however it was, it doesn't matter. That's where the
criminal activity happened. And that's why that case is even more clear cut than
the federal case against Trump for inciting the right because in the capital and the
attack on the Capitol, I think Trump is guilty of that too, but
I think that it's a little harder to prove, because you know, he
could there maybe he was just giving his opinion, you know, wouldn't it
be nice, But here in trying to fix the election, and the worst
possible meaning of the word fix, not fix something that's broken, but fix
something I do something in an illegal way, and we have him on tape
urging that that I think is a clear cut, not gray area which Trump
clearly broke the law. He deserves to be indicted. He deserves to be
brought up on trial. He deserves to be found guilty and spend some time
in prison. Well, it's a little bit about fraud, fraud in the
media, and what comes to mind, because I think it's it's all kind
of related, and they're all seemed to be, at least in my mind.
Snake oil salesman, if you will, in flashing around his one on
on Sunday mornings, or any number of evangelical creatures of any assorted faith,
et cetera, selling things, and one of them sells holy water that for
fifty dollars they'll get special water that they can either drink or sprinkle or whatever,
and it'll bring them great wealth. And you could see it every week.
For most rational people. You raise an eyebrow at least and say,
you're not serious, are you? Yet? He's made millions millions by people
who will buy that product. To me, seems to be obviously false advertising.
Ie fraud. Where where does that land within free speech? Defrauding the
public? Is there something that could be done about that? In other words,
it seems like again within the realm of free speech and belief. Well,
he believes that that it can and he convinced there's others to believe that
it can work. So can it be stopped? Should it be stopped?
Well, I'm gladu raised that point because that is another area in which the
First Amendment does not permit an organization from, say, selling a product and
falsely claiming that the product does such and such when it doesn't. So if,
for example, somebody is out shopping for a new car and they're told
that this new Chevy you know, can go it has like you know,
it's a gasoline car. You know, it's not a hybrid or electric vehicle,
and uh, you know, it can go x number of miles on
a gallon. And it turns out that the number of miles is maybe half
that amount. The f he see, the Federal Trade Commission would crack down
on that automobile company or it might be a dealership or whatever and say no,
you're not allowed to do this. We're going to find you. You
can't falsely advertise something that's going to defraud the public. So that's a very
clear cut example. The problem though, in applying that to politics is yeah,
it's not as clear as well. The most you're going to get out
of a car, you know, is maybe thirty or thirty five miles per
gallon. And if you're advertising that this, you know, all gas engine
is going to give you seventy miles per gallon. That's just a clear,
mathematical lie. The problem is we don't have such clear cut boundaries and politics,
and so I think the First Amendment, I mean, ethnically, it's
always wrong to lie and exaggerate, but I think we have to accept the
fact that I know we're going to be talking about this, you know,
in a few minutes last night's debate. Uh, it's it's it's okay for
this vivid character to every word out of his mouth was a lie. But
that's and we will indeed, and and and it's funny because I saw the
new ads are out and Biden has his and how he's improved the country,
and of course Trump now has come out with his first I actually saw it
today or yesterday A couple of times and within it again raising an eyebrow.
Border security. Yes, I built the wall well like thirty two miles of
it, so it's not entirely falls but it's certainly an exaggeration. And from
again, you are a much more the expert than I am. But it
seems like political speech, especially at this time here is is even more so
protected by the First Amendment. They were allowed to certainly at least exaggerate,
if not completely lie. And they all do, as I said, in
fairness to a degree. But obviously why we're here with former President Trump is
because he does it to the nth degree. He seems to be the best
at it. And again the latest commercial that was just one example, and
he put out some other things that were, you know, just blatantly false,
but it doesn't seem to be able to be stopped. Yeah, but
I do think we have to be careful in politics. And I'll give you
an example. I guess it was in the two thousand and twelve election when
Romney had not yet gotten the GOP nomination, but he was beginning to campaign
for the GOP nomination, and he was asked a question about the citizens United
Supreme Court decision. Would said that the government cannot prohibit cooperations from donating money
to campaigns, and Romney was asked what he thought about that, and Romney
sort of left and said, well, what do you mean? Corporations are
people, you know, so if people can you know, give money,
why I can't corporations? And you know, all all of my progressive friends
went crazy. What a stupid thing to do is to say he shouldn't be
allowed to say that. But actually I think he was making a good point.
I mean, the First Amendment does forbid the government from interfering with any
kind of lawful communication, and it doesn't say that you have to be just
an individual person to contribute to a campaign. So why shouldn't a corporation,
which after all, is made up of people, why shouldn't they be able
to contribute. Now a lot of people I know disagree with me. They
think that I'm some kind of horrible conservative to say that, But I still
wouldn't ever say that. I'm glad. But the point is that example is
why I think we have to be very careful about about saying a politician can't
lie or even exaggerate, because often politicians are trying to make points and often
unfortunately, what we think is a lie, it turns out not to be
a lie, just a different interpretation. Now, now let me say,
look, our history, our political American history is filled with lives. One
of the thing that one of the things that Daniel Ellsberg, who who sadly
passed away but at a ripe old age, you know, just recently a
couple of months ago, pointed out, you know, back in the Pentagon
papers, is that Lyndon Johnson lie right to the American people and said,
the North Vietnamese attacked our you know, destroyers ship. It became the Gulf
of Punkin resolutions that's really triggered the Vietnam warwere and tens of thousands of Americans
and hundreds of thousand, millions of Vietnamese were killed. That's fine, that's
right. So you know that's an ipso facto'll lie lying about a fact,
and you know there are exceptions to everything, and that would be something that
for a government to lie like that, And and I think that that's why
Elsberg wanted to get the Pentagon papers out there. Lyndon Johnson passed away pretty
much at the same time, so as the Pentagon Papers came out, so
there was no way he could be brought to justice. But but you know,
the politics, unfortunately, is always close to lying and exaggerating, because
politicians are not interested in telling the truth as clearly as possible. They're interested
in convincing people that they're doing the good and right thing. And therefore politics
is a haven for propaganda, which means it's rife with distortion and exaggeration.
Perfectly, and we'll take a break pull, but it's a perfect lead into
our next part of our discussion, which is the role the media plays in
it in all of this, and how these political candidates use the media.
Quite frankly, we can talk a little bit about the debate, the winners,
the losers, the making of the president if we remember that very seminal
book about image and how important literally the physical image of the president was and
how modern candidates have taken that and they use the media and shape their own
image within it. I think is an important and a good discussion to have
when but we'll take a break first and we'll be right back. I'm your
host, Frank lebov Le Bono'd be great if I could say my own name
properly. Will go from there, you're watching Being Frank. We're the Only
way to be Is Frank. My guest tonight is Fordham University Professor expert in
media matters. In the First Amendment, Doctor Paul Levinson moved back with so
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Radio dot com. We're back with Being Frank. We're the Only way to
be is Frank. We're having another intelligent conversation, of course, with my
guest, my colleague at Fordham University and expert in media in the First Amendment,
doctor Paul Levinson. We'll continue our discussion about the First Amendment, politics,
the debates and everything. Remember Neil Richter as our engineer, and he
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be back and saddle again. As they say, it'll take me probably this
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every week. It's streams on all major podcasting platforms. It's archives, so
there's no excuse to not check out. Being Frank. Okay, I want
to talk a little bit about image in the media and how important it has
become. That really became crystallized in the early days of television with the Kennedy
Nixon debates, and I think we've discussed it in the past where it's very
interesting. The radio audience, people who could not see the debate actually Nixon
as the winner, but those who watched the first debates on television clearly went
for Kennedy because he looked better. Nixon looked sinister, and again we discussed
it hadn't shaved, he was dark, and his appearance became, as I
said, more sinister, and he lost votes that way. So obviously it
became, especially with a visual medium like television, that it's important to not
only sound good, but to look good and have an important presentation. And
now with the multiple platforms that we have, everybody used to have to go
through broadcast television. Now you have your own you can do your own TikTok
videos, you could do YouTube videos, you can have your own channel,
you can become an influencer, et cetera. So the idea of image has
become even more important. Paul, is that a good thing or is that
a bad thing? Well, it remains to be seen. It's certainly a
different thing, as you're saying, and at this point, it certainly is
something that looks like it's not particularly good for democ set and you know,
to go back in history, democracy in the United States begins in a world,
in a society when the only medium is print newspapers and books. And
by the time we get to the nineteen thirties, we have this brand new,
incredible, magical medium radio And one of the reasons why FDR was elected
president four times as he was a master of radio. And as you said,
the television makes its entrance and the Kennedy Nixon debates in nineteen sixty.
But I have to say, looking at that debate last night, and you
know, watching Fox, which pains me in any case anytime, but the
that debate last night was a said, said, example of how far the
television debate has fallen since the Kennedy Nixon debates, since even the you know,
the the Reagan Mondale debates, even as I mentioned a little earlier,
the two thousand and twelve election, Romney versus Obama. And by the way,
in that debate, Obama actually didn't even do that well in the first
presidential debate. Now, of course, the debate last night was not a
Republican versus Democrat. It was an all Republican debate. But I think it
was a sad spectacle. And I just want to mention here I read shortly
before we saw this podcast a very good article by the name of someone I
haven't read his work before, John Asconis ask O n a s John J.
O n in Compact, which is an online magazine. And the gist
of the article is that if you think about the fact that, at least
according to Twitter or x that is Elon Musk's system, the the Tucker Carlson
interview with Trump got many, many more viewers than we're watching the debate on
Fox, that that last night's debate was just, you know, a pathetic
example of the decline of the debate and as a format that's helpful to democracy.
Now, this didn't begin. This decline didn't begin last night. It
began in the two thousand and sixteen election in the Republican debates then. But
who can forget the debates, you know, and both the actual debate that
the Trump and Hillary Clinton had and before that the Republican primary debates in which
you know, Megan Kelly basically puts the truth to Trump. You know,
you say that women are pigs, you say this and that, and Trump
interrupts and says, no, you know, I only I'm not even going
to mention a name because I don't want to insult her. He insults a
woman and and and gets away with that. And one would have thought that
anyone who had answered a question like that would have dropped precipitously in the polls.
But in twenty sixteen we got the first taste of somebody who in a
debate lies, says outrageous things, insults people, and what happens he moves
up in terms of voters who are supporting him, and he eventually gets the
nomination, and he eventually he did lose the popular vote, but eventually won
enough electoral votes, you know, twenty elections. So I think that last
night's the debate is just a further example of the deterioration of the television debate
as a worthwhile vehicle for our democracy. Well you had mentioned and by most
accounts of pundits and polls afterwards, Vivic Ramaswami, the thirty six year old
to a billionaire businessman, won the debate by basically uttering, I wouldn't even
call them falsehood's lie after lie denying, climate denying, showing real naivete when
it came to international affairs, obviously had some missenogenistic tendency, etc. And
yet by presentation it seemed like it's just throwing raw meat to the base.
Wound up once again with if you will style over substance, although the substance
he was throwing was obviously believed by many. So once again we have this
situation where the person talking the loudest, talking over everyone, really kind of
won the debate and again being allowed and not really being challenged. He was
by some of the other candidates, but certainly not the viewers seemed to really
accept what he had to say just as he said it. Yet most people
of any kind of education or knowledge know it not to be true, but
it didn't seem to matter. How did we get there because unfortunately, one
of the impacts, one of the babyful results of social media, has been
the displacement of truth as the goal of communication. And we've talked about this
before as well. The most important thing in social media is no longer is
the communication true? What it's been now for years, not for four years,
even longer than that, is is it shared, reposted, liked,
And that's what people in social media strive for and it doesn't matter if what
they're saying is true or not. And this again is a very sharp departure
from broadcast media, from cable media, and from print media, where truth
was the goal. They didn't always get it right. I mean, you
know, Fox from the outset, you know, basically had information that were
just lies and not true, but they had some truth mixed into it.
Social media and I am totally in favor of social media existing. I'm not
for a moment you and I use it, and also that's right, that's
right. So yes, and I think it is a tool to be used.
But I think I'm glad to say I know it's true for you,
and I hope people would say the same thing about me. We use it
with integrity. I mean, you know what I said from the beginning,
Well, people have approached me and they said, you know, we really
like your show. It's good information and it's good exchange. But you could
probably get more listeners if you're a little bit more controversial controversial, And I
said, I don't do controversy just for the sake of controversy, and just
for the sake of ratings. That's not that important to me, truth is
more important open conversation. Even if people tend to not to agree with me,
that's okay certainly if they could present their case with logic and respect.
But you know, that seems to be the minority. And we've mentioned before
we came on a vivec. It seems to be like Ann Coulter and and
Tucker Carlson who basically say anything to make them famous, and therefore like even
the Kardashians famous simply for being famous. Uh you know, and I don't
know we have how we combat that. Uh you know, it's interesting,
and I could wind all I want about it and say, well, you
know, forty I get forty listeners. I'd like to get four hundred thousand,
and you see the people that get the four hundred thousand. But yet
I just my my integrity, my conscience won't just won't let me go there,
Paul. But for others that's that's the way of as you mentioned,
it's it's getting likes clicks, and that's more important, and how you get
them, uh seem to be the most important thing is maybe the least important
thing. I should say, I should rephrase it's it's not important to them
how they get them, as long as they get them. Your thoughts,
well, I know less, I'll say, and you. I hate to
do this every time this is brought up, but this is not the first
time in history that lies and dangerous lies have played a major role in politics.
And the arch example of that is what happened in Germany in the Weimar
Republic in the nineteen thirties and Hitler and Joseph Garbbels, who had a PhD
in communication from the University of Heidelberg. He earned it nineteen twenty two.
He was no dummy, and he was advising Hitler. And one of the
things he said to Hitler, if you're gonna lie, make the lie as
big and outrageous as possible, because what that will do is just to track
more people. It's more exciting. Don't waste your time with slight wise and
that's indeed what Hitler did with tragic tragic consequences. Now, I'm not saying
that that Vivic Ramswami is Hitlarian, but I am saying that the reason why
he was so effective last night is he just went for broke. He lied
about everything. You know, he lied about the climate crisis. I mean,
we could just make a list. I don't think anything that he said
was truth. And you know this is in contrast to you know, someone
like Nicky Haley, who I don't agree with her on many things at all,
but just use one example, and I know you feel strongly as I
do about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and unlike Vivic Ramswami, who you
know thinks no, we shouldn't give them any money and we shouldn't support them.
I thought it was great when Nikki Haley took him to task and said,
look, you know, the Ukraine's at democracy. You know, Putin
is a Nazi, and we need as the world's strongest democracy, the United
States to continue supporting Ukraine. So we did have some people saying that.
Unfortunately, though Nikki Hailey's position, although you and I agree with it,
is not the red meat that thank goodness, it's not a majority of the
population. But let's say thirty thirty five percent, thirty eight percent the Magar
Republicans, that's what they believe, and they applaud and say he had won
the audience. It's obvious for those that were their live virtually hanging on every
word and applauding things that many of them and literally thankfully most Americans still would
find important. Yet there was a significant amount of people you could you could
you could feel it in the room, and he used it to gain more
strength, and he had certainly what we might call media savvy. He used
his moment and he captured his moment and that and that's obviously important even if
I think, and Paul get your final thoughts on that, even if he
doesn't win the nomination, and it's unlikely at this point, but we also
said that at Trump with Trump many years ago, it's unlikely. But even
if he doesn't, he's already elevated his public profile already so that he can
put himself in a position again famous for being famous, And I think I
believe that's one of his motivations. You know, he doesn't really necessarily want
the office. He'll take the power that goes with it, but I don't
think he wants the responsibility again, just my opinion. Yet he's and I
think many of them do it with the idea that well, look, I'm
not going to win this, but it's certainly I've created a public profile that
I can use down the road. So in a sense, and I guess
it's a smart thing. They use the medium the media for what it was
designed to use to get their message out, to get themselves out. Your
thoughts, Well, I think that's completely right. I don't know what he
wants. Maybe he's hoping Trump will choose him to be his vice presidential running
mate. Maybe he's hoping that, you know, as Lauren's Tribe and Judge
Ludick have argued that whether Trump is convicted or not, the fourteenth Amendment should
prevent him from running for president, and so somehow they will go and they
made Republicans will choose this person who's had no experience whatsoever in politics. But
then again, neither did Trump. You know, I think we're in a
very dangerous situation in our democracy. And you know, I was thinking that,
you know, our country survived by and law, I mean means of
people died around the world, and over million people in the United States died
of COVID, but by and large or our society did survive COVID. I
think our democracy is under a deadly socially pathogenic attack right now. And you
know, I'm an optimist. I think that there's still a majority of people
who do value truth and prought of what needs to be done is getting everyone
over eighteen out there and voting. And but I am not going to be
comfortable about where the future of our country is going until this next election takes
place. You know. Well, in one last thought, I and we
discussed before we came or do our taping. I saw an interview with some
MAGA supporters and they yes, would you continue to support and vote for President
and Trump if he's convicted in a jail? Said? We said absolutely,
even if he's in a jails. Paul, for the life of me,
I can't understand the logic of that, and how how do we we counter
because it's not just one or two people, it's millions of people. Harol
Fhitler was in prison in the late nineteen twenties and he used that as one
of the main things when he was running for election after that to basically strengthen
his support. Wow, Paul, well we're at it. We're at it
again. We just hopefully we just saved we just saved American democracy. Yet
he goes not stupid to think that we actually could. But somebody's got into
it. Paul, Right, Hey, maybe you and I should run for
office. You and I both will be ticket. I'll tell you that would
be some ticket. Paul. Of course, thank you for being Frank with
your intelligent conversation. Always. You know, you're always You're always welcome here.
Pleasure is always Frank, appreciate it. Of course, we offer special
thanks to our listeners. We take a little time to give us a voice
in their lives. And remember we offer a fresh topic every week and you
can catch us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
iHeart Radio, Speaker and more. You can also check us out on
the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. Leave us a comment. We also ask
you to consider sharing being Frank with others. Believe the two last little nuggets.
First, of course my quote and of course I went to the man
hunter S. Thompson, and I think we'll all appreciate this considering our discussion
tonight. In a closed society where everybody is guilty, the only crime is
getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
Paul. Again, another reason I like to have you on the shows.
You make my life easy in so many ways. You're a musician as
well. I always call you the renaissance man. I was going to say,
you know, take in mind, taking into consideration, keep in mind
that neither of us are lawyers. But I don't know, Paul, you
might you might be you two so much, but but I certainly love your
music. Tell us what are we going to hear tonight? You picked out
a tune for us. Well, you know, if you think about our
discussion, it almost seems like we're living in an alternate reality, something that's
not quiet democracy. As a science fiction writer, as you also know because
we've done a show on it, thank you, I have an alternate reality
story. It's real life. What would the world be like had John,
had Lena not been assassinated and the Beatles survived, but as a group of
four. But I also wrote a song about love across alternate realities, And
of course you know it's science fiction, but still a love song. And
the name of the song is some mathon all right, we need that tonight
for our engineer, Neil Richter. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. We
hope to have you join us for the next being. Frank, We're the
only way to be is Frank, have some more intelligent conversation. Please join
us again. We'll see you next time. Some matha. Can't you see
there's no way to love work for you? Yeah, it's true. Some
Mantha facts so sweets past not but we can do. You come from that
hold and die that shot. That's what makes you so of healing, but
that's what puts being all to see you come from. But it ain't stop.
Check they'll put you by that and in time I'll put you by that
on that die. Some mad das with me. But I don't think that
would be on the phone next year because you won't be in it. Some
man I changes. We couldn't trip way art see, it won't be live
and you really, your love just wants to live and story Shore does and
now with feeling all that, now news is worth to your love. Just
as I stood up to Shore, I I can't do the time and you
get to love crying. I trust three hour to some man tregious see weconcide.
We can't twist and shoe what Hudson River Radio dot com