I have to say I loathe Ben Stein, so I was pleased to hear the New York Times has fired him for conflict of interest. Dispensing financial advice from the Sunday Business Section while being a spokesman for Freescore.com which offers free monthly credit reports for only $359 seems reason enough, but of course there was the financial advice itself. Ben gets his prognostications from the same source on Neptune that Jim Cramer does.
"I’m writing this on Aug. 13, 2007… the stock market is cheap on a price-earnings basis, profits are fabulous… and in the long run, both here and abroad, stocks are a lovely place to be." [emphasis mine]
That's classic Ben Stein bad advice and bad enough to suggest seppuku to a more honorable man. In fact, it closely mirrors the bad advice of his close friend Cramer and to the point where Stein was willing to tell us all that Jon Stewart had "yelled and cursed" at him when in fact, it was not true. That's classic Ben Stein projection -- or outright lie, if you prefer. I did mention that I loathe him, didn't I?
For anyone who still thinks Ben has ever had much to offer beyond the faux elitism, the wildly dishonest defense of Creationism and enduring belief that Richard Nixon was not a crook, I will refer you to the Ben Stein Watch archives; about to close it's "doors" now that the mission has been accomplished. Let's hope it really has been.
Oh, he'll be back. He's like a bad penny that way.
ReplyDeleteBen is very similar to William Buckley in thatby acting bored and knowing a few obscure words, people think they're real smart. Good con men, yes. More insightful or brilliant than the average Joe? No.
ReplyDeleteTruth, I wouldn't put this guy in the same class as WFB JR -- the latter was at least interesting. I used to enjoy his performances on Firing Line when I was a kid -- I disagree with most of his views, but he was capable of sustaining an intelligent, learned argument with others. Most of the current GOP mouthpieces utterly lack that capacity, and in fact have no intelligent case to make about anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think some of them are simply on the payroll and are yelling what they're told to yell.
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