TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz: Political Cheap Shots Damage Beloved Network
by Leo GrinLate last spring, through the auspices of a mutual friend, I spent an afternoon visiting with eighty-nine-year-old author Ray Bradbury. Walking upstairs to his den, I found the genial (and, for the record, fairly conservative) writer dressed in a rumpled shirt and boxer shorts, surrounded by a sea of awards and papers and memorabilia of every description, and happily watching Turner Classic Movies on a big-screen TV. “Isn’t this channel great?” he enthused, telling me how excited he had been to guest host there a year earlier. We spent the next hour talking about films — his early days as a local boy visiting the studios on roller skates and asking stars for autographs, his long friendship with special effects maven Ray Harryhausen, his experience writing the screenplay to Moby Dick (1956) for director John Huston.
And all the while TCM played in the background, like an old friend.
I’ve since reflected on how Turner Classic Movies has grown over the years into one of the most universally admired cultural forums in America. It’s a familiar presence in households of all political persuasions. If you like old movies, you like TCM, period.
That’s why the mini-uproar here at Big Hollywood last week was so disheartening. For those of you who missed it: during an on-air introduction to the 1957 movie A Face in the Crowd, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz gave legions of conservative viewers a collective poke in the eye, by way of a not-so-veiled sneer at talk-show host Glenn Beck. You can see the sad spectacle for yourself by clicking over to the TCM website, but here are the money quotes:
My top pick this January, A Face in the Crowd, is admittedly a little cheap. . . But, in an era where the political commentators who shout the loudest — or (dramatic pause and sly smile) cry the most — generate the biggest ratings, the prophetic nature of this 1957 classic enhances its remarkable timeliness today. . . Fifty years later, there’s a new generation of men armed with the phony authenticity of Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes.
Beck, of course, has long been mocked on liberal websites for shedding tears in the midst of emotional monologues. And comparing him to Crowd character “Lonesome” Rhodes is a favorite gag of MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann.
This is hardly the first time that Mankiewicz has overstepped the bounds of good taste to take a swipe at conservatives. Big Hollywood readers have called him onto the carpet before for inserting needless political commentary into his TCM introductions for films like The Fighting Seabees (1944) and Capricorn One (1977).
As a former co-host of the liberal radio talk show The Young Turks, he frequently unloaded on ideological enemies with stunning vitriol. In one episode, he scoffed at a video of conservative journalist Michelle Malkin pointing out that most terrorists are “young Muslim males” with a rejoinder about “dumb Asian bitches.” (his radio partner, Cenk Uygur, promptly dipped even further into rank misogyny, dismissing Malkin as a “racist whore.”) In another public appearance, the same duo graced their audience with the following banter:
Cenk Uygur: “This is non-partisan, so when I say that Republicans suck c***, I just mean that literally.”
Ben Mankiewicz (laughing): “Name a Republican who’s not gay. Can that be done?”
All of this is par for the course among Lexus liberals, who ever luxuriate in their reputation for tolerance in between rants filled with the worst sorts of racism, sexism, and class warfare. I still remember laughing out loud earlier this year when, in a Los Angeles Times article bemoaning the hardships of well-heeled, fashion-conscious women, Mankiewicz’s wife spoke of feeling
guilty about flashing her finds in front of the housekeeper who cleans the Westside town house she shares with her husband. “I have racks for shoes and boxes. I will turn around the boxes that are particularly expensive when she comes,” she said, explaining that she turns the side marked with the price toward the wall of the closet so it doesn’t show. “I know she’s having a tough time — she told me. You can’t have an $800 box of shoes showing.”
That is what passes for good manners, charitable action, and noble sacrifice in today’s Hollywood.
Mankiewicz was recently fired from a disastrous year-long stint co-helming the former Siskel & Ebert show At the Movies, and has since taken up blogging at The Huffington Post in addition to his TCM duties. “Growing up in Washington, D.C.,” he says, “politics and sports were always a lot more important than movies. They still are, for that matter.” When pressed to name a film that has changed his life, he answers, “Hey, I love movies, but let’s not get carried away! I don’t think one has changed my life.” These comments alone should have disqualified him from ever being hired as a featured host at TCM.
With every snide put-down and sneaky swipe against movie-loving conservatives, a universally admired television treasure becomes a little less so. Ben Mankiewicz seems destined to continue to alienate a full half of the channel’s audience, one needless insult at a time, until they quit the whole business in disgust and retreat to their Netflix queues. The TCM brass, presumably a bit more concerned with gauche ratings than the hired help, would be wise to heed the warning of the literary critic Francis Jeffrey, who wrote almost two centuries ago that, “Goodwill, like a good name, is got by many actions, and lost by one.”
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113 Comments
“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”
~ Saul Alinsky (1909-1972), in Rules For Radicals (1971), p. 128 (Rule #5)
"Ben Mankiewicz (laughing): 'Name a Republican who’s not gay. Can that be done?'”
Love how libs show their true attitudes about homosexuality when it comes time to hurl an insult.
Ironic statement there Fonz. Considering the actor who played him, Henry Winlker, is in fact Jewish. Good job there buddy.
If no one screams to TCM about it, then he will keep doing it until the powers-that-be wonder what happened to their audience. At that point, they'll wonder about the quality of the movies they present, instead of looking at the quality of their hosts.
Yes, a certain group controls our media, left wing loons.
.Robert Osborne, the host of TCM, is part of the reason I watch TCM.
Without him I hate to contemplate. If he showed a political bias toward or against
anything it went over my head and I failed notice. I suppose you can't take
Turner out of TCM and when Robert decides to retire, heaven forbid
anytime soon, the natural thing to do is replace him with a someone known
to management which also means, Hollywood being what it is, probably a lefty of some sort.
Most lefties can't control their thoughts and the need to make everyone aware
of their political feelings will be readily apparent. Hello Mankiewicz
Contact email at TMC?
"With every snide put-down and sneaky swipe against movie-loving conservatives, a universally admired television treasure becomes a little less so."
Personally, I get the impression that folks like him are offended by the idea that conservatives love movies, because it means studios have to make movies that "pander" to their values, instead of a steady stream of propaganda. (Of course, this doesn't gel at all with reality, but since when do progressives care about that?)
Liberals only care about minorities when they need them as a mascot for a liberal cause.
Instead of the young turks, it should aptly be called the young jerks! And its so nice to see that Mrs. M has a sensitive shoe side. Does anyone else find these two clowns simpatico with the current genius that is DC?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Classic…..
I aim to please! *Takes a Bow*
Typical liberal doucherocket, they see a nice clean, warm, inviting home and walk in with dog crap on their shoes to stink up the joint.
Well when someone sets themselves up like that it's impossible to not to hit it out of the park….
Next time he'll change his moniker to Bowser from Sha-Na-Na…..
It is interesting that the ring wing screamers see them selves in Mr. Mankiewicz's statement.
Spot on, Mr. Grin. As a long-time TCM viewer, I am disgusted by Mankiewicz's puerile humor and sophomoric political bleats. He comes from a talented family but that talent certainly skipped over him. And what a face, up close! Che brut'! His wife sounds like a spoiled, self-indulgent fool. Why doesn't she give her housekeeper a bonus, instead of buying herself another pair of $800 shoes? There's a soft-hearted liberal for you.
Robert Osborne is a class act. Manky should bow to his betters and learn something.
By the way, Mike the Right, what's a ring wing screamer? Anything like a ding dong leftie?
It is interesting that the left-wing, methane sniffers can only come up with the equivalent of the schoolyard retort of "I know you are but what am I?" Bravo, well done little Mike. Now here's a cookie and on to the short bus you go.
It's interesting that you find that interesting. "Mike the Right". Funny.
If Mankiewicz takes another personal ideological shot, it's time for everyone to go to the TCM message board and slam him for it. If he's going to use TCM as his own personal political platform, then it's fair to use TCM to respond.
Watched this movie, I enjoyed it, if given the choice of watching an "old" movie or a "new" one – I'll pick the old one. Mr. Mankewicz is not portraying this picture honestly. It is a story of a man with no soul and how that hollowness is exploited by those around him. Mankewicz turns this around to prove a lie; that Glenn Beck is analogous to the main character. Glenn Beck is as real as the chair I'm sitting on to right this post; he shoots at the same place I shoot and he shoots straight. Nice try Mr. Mankewicz, if you want to spend your days misrepresenting the truth that is your choice, I will commit myself to doing the opposite.
TMC went down the drain when the neck tie stopped being part of the uniform.
Ridicule IS ALL THEY HAVE.
Not intellect.
Not truth.
Not honor.
Not righteousness.
Not courage.
Not love.
Nothing but cheap ridicule.
Thanks for revealing more about Ben M. I thought he had real stinker potential, thanks for confirming it.. Let's prepare to call him out on the TCM message boards, without hysteria, whenever his dopey remarks warrant it.
I posted on this but it is under review – if anyone in the ether wants to read my thoughts please reply to this comment and maybe the administrator will listen.
Gotta love the limosine libs! Turning the shoebox around so the price of the expensive shoes won't make the housekeeper feel poor! HA! That ranks right up there with Michelle Obama complaining about how Bush's $600 tax rebate was "not even enough to buy a pair of earrings", right before her hubby did away with the rebates altogether.
Why wait for "next time"? I'll head over to TCM today and let them know how irritating and juvenile I find Mankiewicz. He's ruining that channel and my movie-watching experiences.
"The TCM brass … would be wise to heed the warning of the literary critic Francis Jeffrey, who wrote almost two centuries ago that, 'Goodwill, like a good name, is got by many actions, and lost by one.'"
Or, as we used to say back in the service (USAF), "One 'Oh, s**t' wipes out a whole lot of 'Attaboy's."
You can write them here: http://www.tcm.com/support/
My gosh, the picture of this guy makes you want to hurl a cowpie in his face.
Isn't this the way of American. TCM has a great host – well versed in movies, you can tell he loves them in just the way he talks about them and insert leftist idiot who really doesn't care that much about film and then TCM lets him insult part of their audience.
Why hasn't this guy been shown the exit?
Politics aside, I just plain don't like his commentary on TCM and wish that they'd get somebody more Osbourne-like to fill in on the weekends. My problem with him is that he just doesn't come across as knowledgeable. I will admit that I like the segments that he and another fellow did on TCM – one in a Hollywood cemetery and the other in one of the last restaurants left from old Hollywood (can't remember the name).
But speaking as an avid TCM fan, TCM is supposed to be the one place I can go to escape politics. I love that Alec Baldwin has left politics out of his co-hosting the Essentials and that Dennis Miller did the same thing during his guest programming night. I'm just there for the movies – please keep it that way!
Hank,
No-one is forced to open the front door….
I hadn't heard about the Michelle Obama remark. I guess she and her ilk believe that if they let us serfs hold on to the money that we earn, we are going to just blow it on stupid crap. I guess it's better to just let the government have it and buy votes with it instead.
Kinda the way I feel about how the current attire in the Oval Office no longer requiring a coat and tie…
Mankiewicz isn't particularly bright…in light of 2009 cable ratings, perhaps he should re-evaluate whether he really wants to be Olbermann's doppelgänger.
For the win!
For the win, ej!
True but they should be forced to wipe their feet before entering.
Amen Brother!
"A new generation of men armed with the phoney authenticity of Larry Lonesome Rhodes"! Just watched the video and have figured out he is talking about Hollywood "stars" who think they can expound on any and all subjects with fake authority to convince the masses that they are superior thinkers. Listen closely to these enlightened people and they will always destroy their arguments with their own logic. Gotta love it.
That story about Mankiewicz's wife is hilarious. Instead of giving the housekeeper a raise, it's better to turn the shoebox around? Wow, give Mrs. M a medal.
That's right—if Alec Baldwin of all people can leave his politics out of movie appreciation, then there's no reason this little nobody shouldn't be able to do it.
You don't have to "see yourself" when that is what someone specifically calls you.
Was that your best?
Rusty, thanks for the reminder…I'd forgotten that one.
They would be called democrats
Liberals, so great. Make a snide unjust and personnal attack….
I guess it's easier than being capable of making a coherent statement
I agree with you. I watch TCM every morning before heading to work, and I consider it a politics-free zone. Robert Osborne has certainly set the example for how informative commentary can be delivered, and Mankiewicz simply cannot fill his shoes ($800 or otherwise).
Yes, he wore a coat and tie when he signed off on Oliver North's treasonous mission to sell missiles to Iran. He wore a coat when he okiayed death squads to murder peasants in Central America. He wore a coat and tie when he resolutely ignored the ravages of AIDS.
That's conservative vaules in a nutshell.
TCM is still my favorite channel after watching my other favorite channels kill themselves creatively with reality shows.
Mankiewicz isn't a bad guy. How web sites and thin-skinned types pile on a guy and try to make him the antichrist is boring. Stop looking for stuff that isn't there because you are so desperate for an argument.
You're dead on; they won't look at Mankiewicz. They never blame themselves or the general trend of their decisions. It's always the "fickle" unwashed masses' fault. So, they'll fire the programming chief so that somebody's head rolls, as a perfunctory measure. Then, when that makes no difference in ratings, they'll blame iPods or Xbox or whatever excuse that's prevailing to explain the general drop in TV viewership, never associating content with our tuning out. Then they'll start playing more hard R films during the day and during prime-time, and send even more of us overboard. It's what they always do.
Ain't Hollywood nepotism grand? Apparently this clown has been dining out – and getting jobs – off his family name for a long time. There was some serious, Oscar-winning talent in his family but that was a couple of generations ago. This idiot clearly doesn't have the talent, intellect, insight or wit to get by on his own steam. And he's certainly got a face made for radio! If you look at his CV he's able to get jobs (that nepotism thingy) but he can't seem to hold them or make a success of them.
And that article featuring his wife's shoe habit was one of the funniest things I've read in a very long time. But I think it actually unintentionally gives a real insight into what makes limousine leftys tick. Their lives are so shallow, so ridiculous, so out of sync with normal, mainstream life that if they have the self-awareness of a flea they probably on some level feel tremendous guilt and shame. Hence their knee-jerk, reflexive liberalism. It would be rather sad if they didn't present such a danger to the rest of us.
And do check out the wife's silly little blog. She did a handful of posts last year, all about fashion. Nothing original or interesting to say but she did find a way to slip in a rant about how evil diamonds are. Of course, she acknowledged that she got a diamond engagement ring but after that she's said no to more diamonds. Brave stand, sweetheart. You've got your big rock, now blast everyone else for wanting one. Ridiculous morons.
OJ Simpson's a safe choice, though.
I find this entire episode ironic. This is one of my favorite movies, but I always considered it a shot at the MSM, willing to dupe audiences for their own gain.
It reminds me of the sordid state of affairs at CBS, NBC, ABC and the NY Times more than anyone of FOX. They are the ones who decide what is news and what isn't. FOX just picks up what they ignore. Patricia Neal reminds me more of Beck than Griffith.
Though it is off point to share with us how superficial Mankiewicz' wife is, it is a perfect example of liberal "compassion." "Oh, poor dear, you're starving? Here, let me turn my back so you don't have to see me eat."
Obama didn't give anything more than 1% of his income to charity until he became a millionaire, and then it was a mere 3%. Whereas curmudgeonly, hate-monger, racist Dick Chaney gave 75% of his income to charity. No wonder why liberals like Mankiewicz and Obama are for the State providing what was formerly considered nobless oblige… You have to force liberals to be charitable by deducting it from their paychecks.
Ok, now settle down and go back to your Mom's basement, clean up the urine before she gets home and be sure to hide the dope. You know how mad she gets when your on the computer and all phuked up on glue. Now like a good regressive, put your head back up your arse where it belongs and let the adults play here.
Absolutely, and that's exactly why you have to be smart enough to sense when its happening, and dodge it.
If you are going to debate a modern liberal, this is the most commonly used method they use to avoid a logical debate, which they know they can't win. They might only realize this subconsciously, but its still a trick they use.
Do not let them frame the premise of the debate and do not let them change the subject. Keep them within the confines of the debate premise, and you've got 95% of them beat right then and there.
you can also try "lack_of_intelligence@bill.com"
Ow, soda in the sinuses hurts. Good one Hank.
It never fails. Never. They do it every time.
Off Thread ~~~ Mark Steyn is reporting on Rush Limbaugh that Michael Yon has been arrested and handcuffed at the Seattle airport for failing to tell a security guard how much money he, Yon, earned. What is going on with this IncompetanoKeystone Kops Homeland Security joke???????
Liberals have a twisted view of fairness. Redistribution of wealth (taking what belongs to one person to give it do another) is considered fair.
Easily_Offended@TMC..com – works too!
Is it just me or does Mankiewicz's face even scream dope?
A guy who thinks movies aren't particularly important, can't name one that affected his life, and that politics and sports are more important; who the hell at TCM gave this man a job?
That is patently FALSE! The surgeon General Koop did more to shed light on that disease more than any other SG since. and he was a QUAKER for heaven's sake!
I find Dr. Pepper to be the most painful, while 7up provides a nice effervescent jolt….
All Turner networks are now dead to me.
I own a DVD player.
I don't need them.
Makes you wonder why they are out walking in dog crap in the first place. Must be a fetish with the left.
Funny you should mention it, I was drinking Diet Dr.Pepper. Scary…
hmmm how bout young turds?
that figures, especially since the price of a pair of her earrings can feed everyone in my home for 6 months.
""One 'Oh, s**t' wipes out a whole lot of 'Attaboy's." "
ah the memories!
yes yes! Write another post focusing on this!
it's already there, spread out to form that wimpy little excuse for a goatee
How come they never just come right out and pick "Hitler" or "Ahmadinejad" as screen names?
When they walk in dog crap, it's so much easier to convince themselves that it's the crap that is causing the smell.
Oh, like you give a darn about Iran or "peasants" or anything. You can't find Iran on a map, your marijuana is funding death squads in Mexico, and your clothes are made in a country that routinely kills its citizenry for stepping out of line. So shove it.
Go google "Michelle Obama", "earrings" and "campaign". She totally made like Barack was going to do better for middle-class Americans. And enough idiots believed what the MSM told them instead of actually looking at the man's record.
The movie has it in for anyone who gets too big for themselves, mocks the "little folks" and thinks they can move and shake the world at their whim. And every last one of those people think it's about everyone else but them.
Maybe they had to hire the handicapped for some Affirmative Action quota?
And that sounds like a perfect description of ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NY Times and the rest.
They love irony, I guess–whether intentional or not. My favorite so far is the one who commented reverently on the purity of Michael Jackson's character. His sn was "Dorian Gray."
For a guy who's supposed to know movies, he's really not that smart. I watched the 1953 "War of the Worlds" on TCM some time back and Mankiewicz supplied the intro. He breathlessly stated to those dozen or so souls who never was it , "This isn't Steven Speilberg's 'War of the Worlds', this the classic 1950's Black and White version." Black and White?!?! It's in Technicolor for crying out loud! You'd think these "hosts" would at least do a little background work before taping. What a maroon!
For the record, TCM is my favorite channel.
Please tell me what we can do. What is the address we can write to?
That guy looks like he knows how to cook up a bowl of herion…just sayin'.
Do you think he and Cenk made mad, passionate love after their appearance, or at least shared a hooker? Just wonderin'.
To heck with Mankiewicz. I want to hear more about your meeting with Ray Bradbury, one of my favorite authors.
Brilliant!
(snort!)
You really can't make this stuff up.
And now that NY has published a "how-to" guide for junkies, it's even easier not to overdose.
Sure. It's Nancy Pelosi. Barney Frank. Obama. Anyone who feels entitled, elevated and treats the people around them with contempt. Climategate is a fine example, there's also Health Care "reform", the "stimulus"; it goes on and on.
He could at least pretend to be fair and bring up Pelosi's hystrionics. "Swastikas and symbols like that", or her mentions of violence in Berkeley, attemptinng to compare Leftist violent protests with the Tea Party protests (all non-violent, hardly any police presence needed). Or maybe Schumer's choke-up at the Sotomajor confirmation?
Nobody is saying anything except that he should hold off the political commentary on a network that is about showing classic movies. Period.
Oh and that he looks like a stoner.
The liberal inconsistency is that in Liberal-land, FEELINGS are superior to RATIONALITY. They don't ask "what do you think about that?", but "How does that make you feel?" Everything revolves around emotion. Intellect is not encouraged.
But Mankiewicz wants to try and ridicule Beck for feelings. Honest and passionate feelings about his family, his country. Why doesn't he ridicule Schumer, who cried over a "wise" Latina who was nominated for SCOTUS by virtue of her Latin heritage? Why no ridicule for Nancy Pelosi's fake tears?
Why? Because Mankiewicz is an ideologue, AND he's a very unprofessional choice for host of this channel.
Ronald Reagan said he never entered the Oval Office without a jacket and tie–he felt that it would be a sign of disrespect. And he was right! He treated his presence there as the privilege it is. Casual attire surely represents a certain decline in a civilization. It's a crying shame.
The part that confuses me is how he manages to trade on the name Mankiewicz which you would have to stop 100 people in the street to get one single 'positive' name recognition attached to Herman Mankiewicz or Joseph Mankiewicz. Such an empty claim to fame by a relative….a what ? grandson? The guy is nobody. Nick Clooney's son would bring in more viewers.
Yeah… that and facts!!
I'm thinking they feel they can walk "on" it, not in it. You know, "mine doesn't stink" and all that.
“I have racks for shoes and boxes. I will turn around the boxes that are particularly expensive when she comes,” she said, explaining that she turns the side marked with the price toward the wall of the closet so it doesn’t show.
Reason #865 not to be liberal: you don't have to hide your shoeboxes from the help.
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