Remembering Mike Wallace, and "The Homosexuals"

Matt Welch | 4.9.2012 12:19 PM

60 Minutes warhorse Mike Wallace died Saturday at the ripe old age of 93. Via the Twitter feed of Justin Elliott comes this fascinating Wallace highlight from 1967 that reminds us how far societal tolerance has evolved since the Summer of Love:

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

NEXT: 4 Loko Tacos & Other Illicit Foods - Kennedy w/ Keep Food Legal's Baylen Linnekin

Hide Comments (119)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

Episiarch 13 years ago

Someone please, oh please, describe this to me as I cannot watch at work. I imagine it is probably on a level with this (sorry, youtube does not seem to have the whole thing unfortunately).
1. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  From the battlefield of Antietam, a middle-aged Mike Wallace describes how the healthful vapors of tobacco can deter homosexual predilections brought on by malarial influences in low-lying malarial settings.
  1. Episiarch 13 years ago
    
    But that's all true!
    1. Abdul 13 years ago
      
      But if a 19th Century surgeon amputates both your arms, how do you smoke cigars to ward off the "soldier's cigar?"
      
      Mike Wallace knows, but he won't say.
      1. anon 13 years ago
        
        Is this new meaning to the term "Smoking fags?"
        
        Enough About Palin 13 years ago
        
        No, a faggot is just a bundle of sticks. Usage: Throw another faggot on the fire.
  2. tarran 13 years ago
    
    That seems more appropriate to the battle-lines between Pillowstown and Blanketsburg.
    1. Episiarch 13 years ago
      
      "I just heard from the Guiness rep. He's not coming. He's been fired in what he described as the world's biggest mistake."
      1. tarran 13 years ago
        
        Winger said at the time, "It's a slanderous betrayal akin to 9/11", which he would later admit was "essentially accurate"
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        The war won't stop with First Blood Part II. It will escalate to Rambo III. Which should really be Rambo II: First Blood Part III, but the Rambo titles never made sense. And neither does war.
        
        ? Abed Nadir, Facebook Status Update
        
        ? Leonard likes this post!
        
        AuH2O 13 years ago
        
        -Leonard "Bleeding Guts" Guiterez
        Veteran, Korean War (North Korean Army)
2. anon 13 years ago
  
  "Homosexuality, in fact, is an illness."
  
  I think that sums it up.
  1. Episiarch 13 years ago
    
    Why the fuck was this made?!? By CBS, no less?
    1. anon 13 years ago
      
      I imagine it was a response to some completely fabricated homo-hysteria. I really can't say though; maybe it was simply a reaction to too much LSD.
      1. Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Homo-hysteria reminds me of libertarian-hysteria and atheist-hysteria: oh noes, this incredibly small, powerless minority is coming to get you! AIIIGGHHEEEEE
        
        anon 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, I think that's why I confuse such hysteria with LSD. Because none of it makes a single bit of sense to me.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        LSD makes perfect sense. When you're on it.
        
        anon 13 years ago
        
        OT: Absolute worst fucking hangover in my life came from trying LSD.
        
        My fucking god did I think my head was going to explode.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Then your LSD was cut with something shitty. Probably speed. Bad, bad combo.
        
        Joe M 13 years ago
        
        How can a tiny piece of blotter paper be cut with a significant amount of anything?
        
        Sharon Stone 13 years ago
        
        How can a tiny piece of blotter paper be cut with a significant amount of anything?
        
        Took the words right out of my mouth Joe. The drug dealers I know usually purchase it in liquid form and put it in food items for buyers. 1 frosted mini wheat = 1 hit of LSD.
        
        @anon how did you take it? I've heard in recent years that many psychedelics are being cut with bathsalts, especially MDMA. I would definitely discourage usage unless you know for certain the drug's source.
        
        Zeb 13 years ago
        
        The whole "bathsalts" thing was just a way to get around restrictions on selling unapproved drugs. Simlar to the fake pot sold as "incense, not for human consumption". No one was taking actual bath salts to get high (or using them to cut other drugs to any significant degree).
        
        Sharon Stone 13 years ago
        
        Are you being sarcastic?
        
        There are many instances just in Ohio of actual wide scale "bathsalt" usage. I am sure it is worse else where in the U.S.
        
        "fake pot" is definitely not actual marijuana. It is just a shitty grade of non-toxic incense loaded with cannabinoids to get you high.
        
        SIV 13 years ago
        
        It's not cut, just poorly refined. If it's near pure you'll know it.
        
        Sharon Stone 13 years ago
        
        Possibly elsewhere in the U.S, but not in my area.
        
        Zeb 13 years ago
        
        Tip: drinking 30 beers while coming down might seem like a good idea at the time, but it isn't.
        
        SIV 13 years ago
        
        Oh yes it is! Alcohol immunity is a feature.
        
        protefeed 13 years ago
        
        OT: Absolute worst fucking hangover in my life came from trying LSD.
        
        Never tried LSD, but tried E recently, and felt like crap the entire next day, got nothing done.
        
        It was fn good during the peak, tho. Dunno if I'd do it again.
        
        Ted S. 13 years ago
        
        Never tried LSD, but tried E recently,
        
        Why would you want to try E! -- isn't it all Kardashian all the time?
        
        Raymond Luxury Yach-t 13 years ago
        
        The Soup
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Yes, the cardinal rule of E is to take the next day off. Don't try to go to work at 8am and then get tortured with a 4 hour Barenaked Ladies bootleg like I did.
        
        nipplemancer 13 years ago
        
        Yes, the cardinal rule of E is to take the next day off. Don't try to go to work at 8am and then get tortured with a 4 hour Barenaked Ladies bootleg like I did.
        
        The first time I did MDMA I had work the next morning at 7 am. I ingested the pill at around 1am. I'm amazed I didn't get fired when I showed up for work sweaty, pupils like dinner plates, and an undying need to touch everything. I guess I would have if I didn't leave the glowsticks in my car.
        I tested the waters again the next week when I came to work still tripping balls from the night before. I completely forgot about a meeting with my fellow managers that morning. Being locked in a tiny office with fluorescent lighting and 5 or 6 of my coworkers and my GM was a tiny slice of hell. It took an amazing amount of willpower to not run out of there screaming.
        
        AlmightyJB 13 years ago
        
        It's funny because it's true:) I remember having revolations of absolute truth, later to be dumbfounded by the ideas.
        
        MP 13 years ago
        
        When the gays when, the human race dies. Supporting gays = extinction event.
        
        Or something like that.
        
        fresno dan 13 years ago
        
        Homosexual sex is OK, as long as they are having sex to procreate, and nothing nasty like fun or pleasure (Santorum issue sheet).
    2. Amakudari 13 years ago
      
      That was a quote from a doctor, not Wallace.
      
      Bonus quote: "Marriage is obsolete."
      
      Oh, the failed futurism.
3. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  "People who answer opinion polls think teh gayz are worse for society than whores and aborted fetuses."
  
  Okay, I updated the language, but that's the summary of the lede.
Suki 13 years ago

Harry Morgan produced this? His finest acting work here.
fresno dan 13 years ago

What is interesting is in the first minute: less than 10% of people thought that it was a crime.

Considering that 23% of Americans support the death penalty for denigrating Elvis, Americans seemed pretty damn progressive back than...
1. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  What kind of denigration are you talking about? Saying he was derivative of Carl Perkins, or something really bad?
  1. fresno dan 13 years ago
    
    Equating Elvis sequins, which are manly and heterosexual, with Liberace sequins, which are fay and effeminate...
    1. AlmightyJB 13 years ago
      
      Well Elvis' sequins illuminated his masculenatly where Liberace's illuminated his gayness. Problem solved:)
      1. Enough About Palin 13 years ago
        
        sequins, sexual orientation's thermoses.
      2. Enough About Palin 13 years ago
        
        Sequins, sexual orientation's thermoses.
    2. fried wylie 13 years ago
      
      *shot of guy holding a sequin between each forefinger and thumb, alternatively giving each sequin very serious consideration*
  2. sticks 13 years ago
    
    Carl Perkins was better.
    1. Lucy Steigerwald 13 years ago
      
      I thought it was too much to hope that that was a link to a clip from "Mystery Train." Well done. Though points off for lack of Joe Strummer.
      1. EDG reppin' LBC 13 years ago
        
        Here is some wonderful Joe Strummer footage, Lucy. From Rude Boy.
        
        Damn, I love The Clash!
        
        Lucy Steigerwald 13 years ago
        
        Mrghhh. I don't want to get all A.M. Links, but sigh. Joe Strummer, sigh.
2. Episiarch 13 years ago
  
  How dare you insult the King! KILL HIM!
Fluffy 13 years ago

I wonder how many of the "progressives" writing panegyrics to Wallace were aware this existed.
1. fresno dan 13 years ago
  
  Same number that were aware that Bird belonged to the KKK...
  and than ignored this as well:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FIBJt-c2o0
2. anon 13 years ago
  
  "It's ok though, cause he was one of us."
  
  ^^Typical Progressive.^^
3. Marty Feldman's Eyes 13 years ago
  
  It's not Mike Wallace saying that homosexuality is bad. He's reporting on society's attitudes. Admittedly the interview time given on a pro/anti basis is pretty lopsided, but the bit about Boise's failed witch hunt gives the piece an attitude of anti-persecution.
4. John 13 years ago
  
  Bill Moyers is even more beloved by Progressives than Wallace. And Moyers spent the 1964 campaign trying to out homosexuals in the Goldwater campaign. That doesn't seem to have affected their love of Moyers. So I doubt this will affect their love of Wallace.
  
  It is always okay when one of the good guys does it.
  1. Gojira 13 years ago
    
    I think the point is that people can repent of their sins.
    
    Obviously most libs would hate such things today, but they're not willing to tar someone forever based on their views from four decades ago. Much as libertarians may embrace a standard-issue prog or conservative who "sees the light". Otherwise we're saying that only people who have held the "right" views since birth are allowed, and anyone who has ever had a "bad" opinion at any point in their lives is automatically disqualified forever.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Fair enough. But in Moyers case, he never came clean about what he did until confronted with it. Sure, he should be able to repent. But it is also fair to wonder if his repentance is sincere since he only repented after being confronted with it.
      1. Zeb 13 years ago
        
        I woudl bet that it is sincere (but I am of a forgiving nature). Attitudes about gays have changed enormously and amazingly since then.
    2. John 13 years ago
      
      And of course, if we are going to start forgiving things from 40 years ago, fine. But that would mean liberals can no longer pretend it is 1968 all over again every election year. Since they have no plans of doing that, I have no problem with despising Moyers for being Johnson's hatchet man.
      1. Gojira 13 years ago
        
        True that about liberals and their constant fear of "dog whistles" that only they seem to be able to hear regarding federalism = Jim Crow.
    3. Hugh Akston 13 years ago
      
      Which is why no one brings up the Ron Paul newsletters anymore.
      1. Mo 13 years ago
        
        RP never really repented. He tried hand waving them away and when that didn't work he said he didn't agree with them.
      2. Bernieyeball 13 years ago
        
        No one brings up the Ron Paul newsletters anymore because his campaign for the Republican nomination is a failure.
        Per the Green Papers, of the 1144 delegates needed to nominate Paul has 26 hard delegates or 2.3%. (yes Bevis, I know, he said hard) Delegates already formally pledged or bound by law and/or Party rules. http://www.thegreenpapers.com/
  2. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.
    
    I don't think you have to excuse everything a person has ever done to respect them and their ideas.
    1. 0x90 13 years ago
      
      Like I told my old man: "That's precisely why we call it a mistake -- had I known better, I wouldn't have made it!"
  3. Adamson 13 years ago
    
    Also spent the last weeks of the '64 campaign trying to hide the homosexual behaviors of Walter Jenkins as "a nervous breakdown".
5. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  Saying that homosexuality is a disease was progress (sort of). Before that it was just moral degeneracy and perversion.
  1. Colonel "Bat" Guano 13 years ago
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAK7t3Lf8s
Drake 13 years ago

The most shocking part was how bad their cameras sucked in 1967. Maybe I could see what is going on if they had hired a couple of Hollywood homos to film this thing.
1. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  It is a kinescope, which is 3 generations away from the original, further even, in some circumstances.
MOFO. 13 years ago

Lol, ill bet Matt Welch is the homosexuals.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

Jimmy: Hey, what gives?

Jimmy's Dad: You said you wanted to live in a world without homosexuality, Jimmy. Well, now your wardrobe has no fashion underwear.
1. Episiarch 13 years ago
  
  "I haven't heard a speech this eloquent since Bill Shatner told me why he couldn't pay me back."
2. Randian 13 years ago
  
  "Three simple words: I am gay."
sloopyinca 13 years ago

If any of you missed the brickbat nutpunch earlier today, don't despair.

Here's one that's only about 10X worse.

But when will dunphy come on and defend these actions?
1. John 13 years ago
  
  And he hasn't been charged. And the news networks are all Trayvon all of the time and this gets no coverage. I hate the fucking media.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    It's disgusting. And why would a police spokesperson even need to address it? The dude was off-duty. He needs to be treated like anybody else in Chicago, which would mean he should be unarmed.
    
    But the double-standard goes both ways, doesn't it?
    
    And for a double-dose of idiocy from Chicago (as contrasted with a Team Red state's handling of a person using a un to defend their property), try this on for size.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      How is Chicago anything but a banana republic at this point? Cops are allowed to shoot people with impunity on or off duty while ordinary people cannot so much as defend themselves against someone trying to kill them. It is disgusting. And worst of all, the media has decided to be the guardian of all things cop. So most people don't even know how bad things actually are.
      1. Zeb 13 years ago
        
        Has Chicago ever not been that way?
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Not since that asshole Upton Sinclair wrote his books filled with lies.
John 13 years ago

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/328259.php

It is whites only at the Obama campaign headquarters.
1. Randian 13 years ago
  
  Your link besmirched Downton Abbey.
  
  Pistols at dawn, John. Sorry, this is the only way.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    It just pointed out that only upper class white people watch it, which is true.
    1. Randian 13 years ago
      
      I have this shirt on order.
      1. Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Wait, are you saying you fucking watch that show? And like it?!?
        
        HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        It's essentially the same show as Mad Men, just in a different time period.
        
        So it's OK.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        ha ha! We have different tastes, therefore I shall mock you! Ha ha! Wheee look at meeeee...
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Anyway, yeah, what Fluffy said.
        
        Fatty Bolger 13 years ago
        
        Good show, you should try it, especially if you normally like period dramas. I'm sure some people like it for all the wrong reasons, but that's their problem.
  2. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    The redheaded maid with the scandalous typewriter is going to play Ygritte on Game of Thrones.
    1. Fatty Bolger 13 years ago
      
      That works.
  3. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    Indeed! That feeling? The ineluctable frisson one gets from knowing that everyone around you watches Downton Abbey, or maybe even appeared as an extra in a fox-hunting scene on Downton Abbey, or actually was born and raised at Downton Abbey.
    
    I feel the need to point out that the fox-hunting scene in Downton Abbey includes a filthy, swarthy Turk.
    
    That means that the fox-hunting scene is, in fact, not white enough to be the Obama campaign HQ.
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      Anal sex changed life at Downton Abbey forever.
      1. Warty 13 years ago
        
        It was a public school, then?
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Basically.
      2. Randian 13 years ago
        
        Do you think that's what happened between the Turk and Mary? I hadn't considered that.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        He specifically says that there is a way for her to remain a virgin for her future husband. I'm pretty sure her was after buttsecks and not a blowie.
        
        It might have been PIV by the time her brought her around, but at first he was after her dirty posie.
        
        KDN 13 years ago
        
        I'm pretty sure her was after buttsecks and not a blowie.
        
        I've never seen this show, but if an Ottoman Turk and a Victorian Brit can agree on anything, it's buttsecks. Sodomy is a backbone tradition of both cultures.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        I assumed it was mutual oral or something. Seeing as how she asked if "it would hurt"...
2. Ska 13 years ago
  
  What about the little Asian chick sitting in the front? I only noticed because I was trying to count the backpfeifengesicht.
EDG reppin' LBC 13 years ago

Here is this from Wallace's wikipedia entry:

He graduated from the University of Michigan four years later with a Bachelor of Arts. While a student he was a reporter for the Michigan Daily and belonged to the Alpha Gamma Chapter of Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity.

Good riddance, asshole. Fuck Michigan!
1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  How did I not catch that, dude? Fucking scUMbag. Another reason to hate that shitfacktory school from up north.
  
  Also, we got some really good wedding pix with you and your wife. Do you want me to send them?
  1. EDG reppin' LBC 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, e-mail 'em. I have a couple of photos of you guys too. I'll e-mail 'em later.
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      I'll get on it later today.
      1. Gojira 13 years ago
        
        Fags.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Says the guy who has the hots for Uma.
        
        Gojira 13 years ago
        
        Her penis is small enough it doesn't count as gay.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Zing!
0x90 13 years ago

Mike Wallace and The Homosexuals

That's going into my book of potential band names. Look for a double-billing with these guys.
Tim Cavanaugh 13 years ago

All you anti-Wallechinskians should watch the vid. Wallace isn't hating on teh gheys. He plays it down the middle like Lucky Pierre. It's a good piece, and I can't figure out why that Boise gay scare hasn't been made into a movie. Then again, I can't figure out why the Newport Navy scandal hasn't been made into a movie.
1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  You know what I can't figure out why it hasn't been made into a movie? Starship Troopers
  1. Entropy Void 13 years ago
    
    You know who made a movie about Troopers ...
  2. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    "Would you like to know more?"
  3. CuriousGeorge 13 years ago
    
    This must blow your mind then:
    
    http://ia.media-imdb.com/image.....4,317_.jpg
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      It blew my mind to the point that I can't even see it!
Abdul 13 years ago

I can't figure out why that Boise gay scare hasn't been made into a movie

Because Heath Ledger died after making Brokeback Mountain, and we will respect his memory by never making another Rocky Mountain Mountin' movie.

I can't figure out why the Newport Navy scandal hasn't been made into a movie.

Gay? Sailors? A little too on the nose, don't you think?
BoscoH 13 years ago

Christopher Hitchens was quite eloquent at the end of that piece. I just can't get over how old he already looks as a meer teenager in the late 1960s.
TiggyFooo 13 years ago

Joker seem to know what the deal is. WOw.

http://www.Anon-Tool.tk

Please log in to post comments

Remembering Mike Wallace, and "The Homosexuals"

Latest

The Rationale for Deporting Mahmoud Khalil Is Alarmingly Vague and Broad

Capping Student Loans Won't Destroy Medical Schools

Trump Administration Will Help Fund Florida's $450 Million 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Other Migrant Detention Facilities

Don't Blame 23andMe for the Federal Government's Lack of Clear Data Privacy Rules

Stealing the Farm

Recommended

Login Form