Still Hanging On

In the early 1920s, when radio was new, a local bandleader named Jimmy Gallagher gained a large following. At the end of each radio show, after he and his orchestra had performed, he would invite everyone to listen in next time, and then, close with "This is Jimmy Gallagher, still hanging on." His closing became sort of a catch-phrase in Boston, and even decades after he had retired, people still remembered him-- and repeated it whenever his name came up in conversation.

As we come to the end of 2024, I feel a little bit like that. In fact, I think a lot of us do. For many people I know, it was a year of highs and lows, with the lows outnumbering the highs. For example, in my case, 2024 was the year I officially became unemployed. After fifteen years as a professor of media studies at Lesley University, I was unceremoniously fired, along with 25 of my colleagues. Most of us were award-winners, widely published, and popular with students, but none of that seemed to matter. Suddenly, our presence was no longer needed. And at year's end, many of us still have not found another job. 

In 2024, we lost some important people from radio, TV, and the music business. But I was especially saddened earlier today, when I found out that former CNN news anchor Aaron Brown had passed, at age 76. Aaron was one of the most thorough and objective journalists I knew, and his anchoring and reporting during 9/11/2001 was a master-class in keeping the nation informed during a crisis. Aaron was a role model for many young journalists (when I taught journalism courses at Emerson College in Boston, I often had my students watch him. I've met many celebrities over the years, thanks to my radio career, but when Aaron came to Emerson as a guest speaker, I felt privileged to meet him, and I told him so). I was furious with CNN when, several years later, they forced him out; but like me, he reinvented himself as a professor, and he became a mentor to numerous young students, some of whom are on TV even now.

Having blogged previously about the recent presidential election, I won't belabor the point, but suffice it to say I was in the half of the country that was very disappointed with the results. I was also disappointed that in Afghanistan, the Taliban continued to take away more and more rights from women, to the point now where they not only cannot be educated past grade 6 but they are not even allowed to speak in public-- and yet, world-wide, relatively few people seemed concerned about the situation; it didn't inspire protests or demonstrations from human rights activists, nor much of anything beyond a few posts on social media.

But amid the disappointments and frustrations that 2024 brought, there were also some good moments. I saw people putting aside political differences to help their neighbors after fires or floods or hurricanes. In fact, I saw people reaching out to help someone in need on numerous occasions. Maybe it didn't make the news, and yet, it happened. I'm glad it still does. On a personal note, in mid-December, I reached an important milestone: 10 years cancer-free. Thanks in part to my friend Bob Cesca, who has me on his podcast every few months, I was invited to be a guest on the Stephanie Miller Show-- I've been a fan of her radio program since it debuted nationally in 2004, and I had always wanted to be on her show. Locally, I was also a guest on the Morgan White Jr. radio show on WBZ several times; as someone who still loves radio, I always welcome an opportunity to be on the air.   

I don't tend to make New Year's Resolutions. I just try my best to be an ethical and compassionate person, a day at a time. Sometimes, I succeed, and sometimes I fall short; but I keep trying to do better. In the New Year, my wish for you is good health-- without it, nothing else matters. And even though our current political environment is contentious, I wish that in the new year, we will all learn to see each other as friends, even when we disagree. Overall, I won't be sorry to see 2024 go, and I hope 2025 will be an improvement. A lot of things look uncertain as I write this. But all I can do is follow the example of the late, great Jimmy Gallagher, as I sign off from my last blog post of 2024. So... I wish you only good things in the new year. This is Donna Halper, still hanging on.      

Strange Days Indeed

In many ways, this past week has been gratifying. I was a guest on my friend Bob Cesca's podcast, and we had a good time talking politics (among other things). And then, to my great delight, that led to my being a guest on Stephanie Miller's radio show-- I've been a fan of hers since her show debuted in 2004, but I'd never been asked to be a guest. It was very cool to talk current events with her, and I hope I sounded reasonably knowledgeable. I heard from some of her listeners, and they were very complimentary. I appreciated that a lot! And then, there was the other good news: I am now 10 years cancer free. And a lot of folks on social media (more than 2,000 at last count) reached out to send congratulations, which definitely put a smile on my face.

But on the other hand, I'm still out of work, as are many of the colleagues who got laid off at the same time I did. I've been working since I was in high school, and I'm really not accustomed to being unemployed. Okay fine, I'm keeping busy with volunteering, I'm giving some historical talks at libraries, and I'm writing some free-lance articles-- but it's not the same as having a full-time job. (Plus, we had really good health insurance, but that's a story for another day.) Anyway, I hope I'll find something in the new year. As I've said many times, I can't imagine retiring. There are too many things I still want to accomplish, and I hope I'll get the chance.  

Meanwhile, the Trump administration hasn't officially begun yet, but already there's chaos. For those who were expecting a reality TV show, they haven't been disappointed. I'm still trying to figure out how Elon Musk, who is supposedly in an advisory capacity and was never elected to anything, is already so influential that he can kill a bipartisan budget bill. In fact, it's surreal to go over to Twitter/X and read some of Elon's endless series of tweets, as he berates members of congress and cheers for a government shutdown. I'm seeing lots of "likes" from Elon's followers, but I wonder if they've thought it through. Many of them rely on government services, and if suddenly those services were unavailable for a month (as Elon suggested), I doubt that any of them would be pleased. And by the way, my sister works for the government. She is one of many hardworking and honorable government employees, and it irritates me to hear folks insult what these civil servants do. 

I understand that "the government" and "the media" are frequently used as enemies by Donald Trump and other conservative politicians. But I spent 40 years in "the media," and I can tell you from experience that a strong media helps to keep a democracy alive. Whenever I hear politicians complaining about the media, I know for a fact that if they suddenly received no coverage at all, they'd be furious. And whenever I hear Mr Trump threatening to punish or sue reporters he dislikes (or go after their company's license), it makes me nervous, since that's how an autocrat talks, and I hope we're not sliding into autocracy.

As I told Bob Cesca, I've been making a list of all the moguls and major corporate executives who have made the pilgrimage to see Mr Trump and bend the knee. He hasn't even taken office yet, and he hasn't officially made any demands on them, but they all want to make sure they are on his good side, just in case. I find all of this obeying in advance very puzzling, and yet nearly every day, someone else I wouldn't have expected makes the trip and speaks glowingly of him. The things we do for tax breaks, I suppose...

This year is one of those rare times when Christmas and Hanukkah come at the same time. The Christmas decorations are pretty, yet I see few stores with Hanukkah decorations. Several days ago, I asked the manager in one of the stores why they didn't have any Hanukkah decorations; he got upset with me. Interestingly, that's a common reaction, and not just this year. I've never understood it. I mean, I'm not trying to take anything away from anyone, and I do recognize that Christmas is a much bigger holiday than Hanukkah. I'm just saying that here's an opportunity to include your Jewish customers and make them feel welcome. But evidently, it's too much bother or too controversial or something. 

So, yes, it has been an interesting week, filled with highs and lows, with things that made perfect sense and things that did not. The next time I write, it will almost be 2025. My only resolution is to try not to feel discouraged by some of what I'm seeing in the political realm, and to focus on what matters most: my health, and the people I care about. It still amazes me that so many folks wanted to congratulate me on being cancer-free. Even when times are difficult, it's good to know that kindness and compassion still exist, and the trolls on social media don't represent the vast majority of the folks out there. So, whatever you celebrate, and however you celebrate it, have a wonderful holiday; may you be surrounded by people who love you and wish you well.      

       

What Joe Biden Couldn't Do...and Why It Mattered

I was in my car yesterday, and I turned on the news. President Biden was giving a speech about Syria, and I paused to listen to a little of it. It was a perfectly normal speech, the kind one would expect from a president with many years of foreign policy experience. When it was over, I went back to listening to music and I didn't think much about the speech. But when I got home, I turned on my TV and watched an excerpt of it. And I had an entirely different impression. No, there was nothing wrong with the speech; as I said, it was the kind that presidents often give after some big event in the world has taken place. But my attention was no longer focused on listening to the speech: it was focused on how the speaker looked. And the speech that sounded fine on radio seemed a bit more halting when I saw it on TV. I know President Biden has a stutter and I know how hard he works to pronounce words that are difficult. As I watched him, it seemed to me that he was putting a lot of effort into speaking understandably. And whether I was supposed to or not, I felt bad for him.  

It reminded me of what the famous communication theorist Marshall McLuhan had said about "the medium is the message." In other words, each mass medium impacts, or even alters, the way we receive the message. Consider the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960. John F. Kennedy was youthful, conversational, and confident on TV; his opponent, Richard Nixon, looked ill-at-ease, sweaty, and very very uncomfortable. All of us who saw the debate were convinced Kennedy had won easily. But people who listened to the debate on radio, or read the transcript in their favorite newspaper, came away with an entirely different impression-- they believed Nixon sounded more in command on the facts and they believed he surely was the winner. It was perhaps the first tangible example of how the medium of television created an entirely different perception of the candidates from how they were perceived through radio or print.

Joe Biden is not a television president. He has always been an awkward speaker, prone to gaffes, with a tendency to say the wrong thing even when he knows the topic and knows what he is trying to say. He has a very friendly smile, and can be really personable, but he does not seem like he enjoys being on camera as much as he enjoys one-on-one communication with voters or speaking in a place where he knows everyone. Unlike Donald Trump, who has a background in the entertainment industry and a larger-than-life persona that he has utilized for years, Mr. Biden is neither an entertainer nor a performer. He's an old-school politician trying to fit into an era where policy positions don't seem to matter, and constructing an exciting image is everything. It's a world where many people get their information from online sources (which are often partisan and seldom fact-checked), and where our politics often resembles professional wrestling.

That's why I was one of many folks who believed Mr. Biden should never have run for re-election. I know he had some very important accomplishments, and I know he wanted to run on them, but his opponent was a master of our media environment. Donald Trump knew how to capture the news cycle, dominate the conversation, outrage his detractors and inspire his supporters. Joe Biden, nice guy though he was, didn't seem able to do any of those things. Plus, fairly or not, in a visual media universe, he just... looked... old. It wasn't about his chronological age-- I know many people in their early 80s, including some in congress, who are vibrant and articulate. Often, Mr. Biden seemed neither. And since perception is reality, what people perceived was that he wasn't up to the task. 

I wish I had a time machine, that could transport Joe Biden back to the 1970s or 1980s, before people's attention spans got even shorter, before expectations were changed by the internet and social media, back when policies and accomplishments were what voters cared about, and a candidate who cursed or made vulgar remarks at a rally would never have been allowed to continue in politics, let alone get elected president. But while I sincerely believe Joe Biden got a lot done and deserves our thanks, what we needed him to do was something that wasn't within his skill-set. His advisors should have told him the truth. (Or maybe they did, but he refused to believe it.) I can't put all the blame on Mr. Biden, nor on Kamala Harris-- after all, it was the voters who chose Donald Trump, the guy who was more exciting and more outrageous, whether he was qualified for the job or not. So, here we are, awaiting the next episode of the Trump Show, not knowing what might come next. But his supporters aren't worried: they're sure that whatever happens, it's guaranteed to be entertaining.