Art Levine asked a lot of questions. He hosted a half-hour cable show, “Straight Talk with Art Levine,” that ran for 26 years in 70 Southern California cities.
Dozens of politicians and city leaders gathered at the Pyramid Thursday to honor Levine, who died in September at 85 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. He was a man who had an impact on Long Beach; he believed in people and in civic institutions, and he believed deeply in giving everyone a nonpartisan, equal chance to be heard.
I didn’t know him well; I sat beside him once, over a decade ago, as a co-host of an election debate when I was the editor of the Press-Telegram and still getting to know the city.
I came into journalism in the mid-1990s, at the end of the Murrow and Cronkite era that shaped Levine, when newsmen (and it was mostly men) were respected as fair and impartial mediators of the discord that has always been part of American politics.
The ceremony included remarks from both Don Knabe, a retired Republican county Supervisor, and Alan Lowenthal, a liberal Democrat who represented Long Beach in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., among others.
Listening to their stories about Levine struck me as both timely and urgent.
He was fair. He did not trick his guests or ask curveball questions. His show was cordial, if boring at times; his aim was always to understand, and that is sometimes a tedious journey.
He was a young lawyer, and later a law professor at CSULB, during the Vietnam era, the Watergate scandal, the Civil Rights movement, assassinations, protests and more; it was chaotic and at times corrupt.
But it was also a time when people paid attention. They read newspapers, listened to talk radio, and sat through 30 minutes of back-and-forth on shows like “Straight Talk with Art Levine.”
We’ve lost the ability to do that: To listen, ask questions, learn, process and make decisions based on facts.
A big reason is that our journalism institutions are fractured. The historic outlets that provided this news — the Press-Telegram and the Grunion Gazette — have been decimated by cuts. Digital outlets like the Post have the same challenge, which is finding support from a distracted populace that is losing its patience and trust and in our work.
We can’t go back to Levine’s era, and I’m grateful for that in many ways; women like me can now be the CEO of a news outfit.
But there are aspects of Levine’s legacy that must endure, and I will honor him by doing my part as a nonpartisan mediator and catalyst for objective, healthy debate.
We also need you. We need your attention and your financial support. If you prefer print, subscribe to the Press-Telegram or the Long Beach Business Journal; if you prefer a nonprofit digital outlet, donate to the Post.
Levine knew that democracy won’t survive without facts, without talking to each other, and without the courage to look at the truth.
Let’s honor that legacy.