TV's greatest sleazebag.

• Author: Evans, Zenon
• Position: Briefly Noted - Evocateur - Brief article

Morton Downey Jr. is mostly forgotten. You can't blame anyone who doesn't want to preserve his sleazy memory, but Downey deserves more regard, given his influence over modern pop politics and media. Evocateur is a documentary that puts his rapid rise and fall back in the spotlight.

The film doesn't pretend Downey was revolutionary merely for being an opinionated jerk on TV, but it does demonstrate that he was one of the most effective, inflammatory entertainers out there. He was ostensibly "conservative" and presented himself as a voice for an often ugly brand of rightwing populism, but his...