Ben Mankiewicz admits he tears up e🦋very time he watches “All the President’s Men,’’ which he will be introducing as the opening-night film Thursday at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, Calif., for the film’s 40th anniversary.
“It moves me and I cry during 🍸at least a couple of scenes,’’ says Mankiewicz, who will be filling in for TCM’s Robert Osborne as the main host for the festival for a second year in a row due to Osborne’s medical issues. “I’m thrilled to be doing it on opening night.’’
The 1976 classic abou⛎t how Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s reporting on the Watergate break-in — and it💮s subsequent coverup — led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon strikes deeply personal chords for TCM host Mankiewicz.
His father, Frank, who di💧ed in 2014, was press secretary to Robert Kennedy and campaign manager for another presidential candidate, George McGovern. The elder Mankiewicz secured a place on Nixon’s notorious “enemies list’’ and wrote two books about the disgraced president: “Perfectly Clear: Nixon From Whit𓂃tier to Watergate’’ (1973) and “US v. Richard M. Nixon: The Final Crisis’’ (1975).
“Being on the enemies𝔉 list was an incredible badge of honor to him,’’♓ says Mankiewicz of his father. “I was only 9 when ‘All the President’s Men’ came out, but I knew it was a big deal because it was celebrated in our household, because it was so related to my father.’’
The movie is also dear to Mankiewicz’s heart because he worked for eight years as a television reporterꦅ and anchor right after graduating from Columbia University’s journalism school.
“Journalism movies as good as ‘All the President’s Men’ are rare,’’ he says. “They don’t usually get it right. ‘Spotlꦺight’ also gets it right.’’
At WCSC-TV in Charleston, SC, Mankiewicz recalls, “It was a great news town, covering things like a real affable racist who was proposing White History Month. I broke the story that [military academy] the Citadel was forcing out their first female cadet, Shannon Faulkner. The p.r. 🃏guy at the Citadel was screaming at me and said, ‘Put your boss on the phone, I’m going to get you fired.’ Of course, I knew that would only endear me to my boss.”
In 1998, he became an anchor a♕t WAMI in Miami, “where the owner, Barry Diller, wanted to reinvent local TV news with no fires, no murders, no car chases. We won a lot of awards, but nobody watched. It was great for me, because everything had to have a point of view, and I was reporting on great꧒ stories like the 2000 election and the Elián González custody battle.”
“I left the news busi✅ness because I was underpaid [and] got totally discouraged,’’ Mankiewicz admits. “While I am pretty critical of the world of journalism overall now, I am still grateful for every piece of information I get.’’
At Thursday night’s screening, Mankiewicz will conduct a conversation with Bernstein, who is played in the film by Dustin Hoffman (Robert Redford plays Woodward). The TCM host knows Bernstein through his brother, Josh Mankiewicz, ꩲwho’s a correspondent for NBC’s “Dateline’’ who used to work with Bernstein at ABC.
In addition to his duties at the festival, Mankiewicz’s on-air presence at TCM has expanded in recent years as the workload of the 83-year-old Osborne — the network’s mainౠ host since its launch in 1994 — has been cut backꩵ.
“It’s an exciting challenge,’’ Mankiewicz says of fronting this year’s festival again. “I’m looking forward to seein𝔍g Robert on the TCM cruise this fall, if not sooner.’’
At the festival, which runs through Sunday, “I’m always amazed at the level of passion of people I meet,’’ Mankiewicz says. “They’re 𓆏thrilled to be in room after room with people that share that passion. It’s intense energy for four days, and you’re grateful because you feel like you’ve completed a homework assignment when it end🐬s Sunday night. And on Monday morning, you want to do it again.’’
Can Mꦕankiewicz, who ಌis 49, imagine doing this for another 20 years?
“Iꦯ can’t imagine what it would take to stop doing this,’’ he says. “This is a job on television that really means something to people, and it’s a nice place to be where plenty of jobs are vapid. I know how fortunate I am.’’
“No network mea🌄ns as much to peoꦆple as TCM,’’ he adds. “It connects them to their parents, their grandparents and their kids. They’re so grateful, and I wouldn’t have a job without it.’’