Intelligent Design? Why Ben Stein Got Fired From NYT, According to Ben Stein
Last week Ben Stein was fired from his columnist spot at the New York Times because the commercial endorsements he did for FreeScore.com conflicted with Times ethical rules.
The Times is not a paper in the habit of firing its reporters and columnists for no good reason (or even good reasons for that matter!). However, Stein, who is known to the public in a number of capacities — game show host, Ferris Bueller teacher — feels there were maybe other reasons which contributed to his ouster!
Stein, who is weighing in on the events, apparently feels that he was actually fired for a) co-writing and narrating a movie that encouraged the teaching of Creationism (or Intelligent Design as it is now known in certain circles) and b) criticizing Obama.
This [FreeScore.com] commercial was red meat for the Ben Stein haters left over from the Expelled days. They bombarded the Times with letters. They confused (or some of them seemingly confused ) FreeScore with other companies that did not have FreeScore’s unblemished record with consumer protection agencies. (FreeScore has a perfect record.) They demanded of the high pooh-bahs at the Times that they fire me because of what they called a conflict of interest.
Of course, there was no conflict of interest. I had never written one word in the Times or anywhere else about getting credit scores on line. Not a word.
But somehow, these people bamboozled some of the high pooh-bahs at the Times into thinking there was a conflict of interest. In an e-mail sent to me by a person I had never met nor even heard of, I was fired. (I read the e-mail while having pizza at the Seattle airport on my way to Sandpoint.)
Stein recounts how a call to his editor revealed that it was the “appearance” of a conflict of interest that was the problem. After Stein pointed out that he’d never written about getting credit scores online anywhere at the Times he was told “You should have consulted us.” Of course maybe the problem, according to Stein, was actually his coverage of Obama.
Of course, there was not one word of complaint when I did commercials for immense public companies. By a total coincidence, I was tossed overboard immediately after my column attacking Obama. (You can attack Obama from the left at the Times but not from the right.)
To his credit, nowhere in the article does Stein use the phrase “Liberal Media Elite.” Also? Considering how many commercials Stein has done over the course of his time at the paper (six years) once imagines if the concern was so great one of the “high pooh-bahs” might have mentioned something to him. In the end, Stein seems more hurt than angry; you’ll have to read the whole post to get his thoughts on Bob Dylan, but we thought we’d leave you with this little nugget:
You will still see my little thoughts, maybe in some big places. And I can put this Times gig on my résumé when I apply for Social Security. And, I really mean this, I will pray for those who use me despitefully, even if the neo-Darwinists think that’s a waste of time. It’s not.
Also, just because we can:
