The American Spectator

Reader Mail

EXPELLING THE LIBERAL MEDIA
Re: Ben Stein's Expelled From the New York Times:

Ben Stein's column about his "demise" at the NYT was a delight to read as it was well-crafted, thoughtful, and in his person as in I could hear him saying the words to his keyboard. Please pass along my best wishes and tell him that I will continue to read his thoughts any time and anywhere.
-- John Wilson
Chicago, Illinois

Loved your article from Ben Stein. Wrote the editor at the NY Times. They will lose some of their one hundred subscribers they have left, the thinking ones. I asked the NY Times editor how he liked running a propaganda rag.  There was once some integrity in the media, with a desire to report the news, instead of being bought and paid for hacks who sail the American people down the river.  Shame on them.

Thanks for the article from Mr. Stein.
-- Jeff Belinski

Having read Ben Stein's piece on his treatment by the minions at the New York Times, I am reminded of the old saying, "When one lays down with dogs, one should not be surprised to wake up with fleas." In this
case, nasty fleas with a taste for Shaq memorabilia on the cheap. I pray for Ben to be delivered from the itching and hurt dealt him by the fleas.
-- Reid Bogie
Waterbury, Connecticut

Fuhgeddaboudit -- it's their loss and soon no one will care what that bunch of intellectually dishonest snobs thinks anyway. The sad story is the loss of any semblance of interest in discovering truths that conflict with liberal ideology by the Times. I'm sure Mr. Stein will go on to better things.
-- Allen Churchill
Mandeville, Louisiana

I love this guy. We need more written by him, not less. Treatment by Times was going to happen eventually -- Darwinists are very vindictive. I pray for them as well.
-- Mike Abel
Auburn, Indiana

Dear Mr. Stein… As I refuse to have the NYT in my house, I was unaware of this contretemps. Congratulations on your emancipation.
-- H. Jensen

You have always been in my opinion a very honest, intelligent person with great insights and perspectives; the New York Times is becoming the opposite in some of their departments.

I would say this will change when they have to get new balanced management to financially save the paper.
-- John Lee

I have enjoyed your work; all of it: writing; TV; Academy Award acting, etc. I am surprised that you would be upset in getting fired by the NYT. That you were there is unusual. You don't need certification from the NYT for me to follow your writings and other work.

Wit and balloon puncturing are not products that the obsolete NYT publishes, especially if you are outside the NYT Canon. You have a brand that out-ranks the NYT certification. Keep selling and producing the Ben Stein brand.

I get the following papers delivered in the morning: NYT, WSJ, FT and of course my favorite, the New York Post. I spend the least time with the NYT. Not just because it slants the news and pushes an agenda, (we are all subject to that) but, also because it does not include news that does not fit the NYT story line. Editing important news out is fatal to a news organization. It is the Internet that I rely on for information. How you can find a way to profit from the wide audience of Internet readers is your challenge. The NYT is of no help there. How about a humorous movie?
Good luck
-- Jim Needham

I have had the good fortune to meet you. We chatted at a dinner in Philadelphia hosted by a Morgan Stanley private equity conference three or four years ago. Because there was an attractive 30-something sitting between us, you may not remember this unattractive 50-something. We mostly discussed your Nixon days (big history fan, here) and you told me you were at the White House when he made his good-bye speech to the staff. What a historical moment.

Anyhoo, I just read your article which got my blood pressure to spike like it always does when the mainstream media reveal themselves. Ditto the posted comments. Good luck in your next adventure.
-- Kent

Please lose no sleep over the Times; I will read you wherever I can find your essays. I just subscribed to TAS for your weekly columns. You so mind-melded into my consciousness with your piece on Get a Dog; Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of my favorites; I am not embarrassed to say that I am a 56-y/o male physician. Thanks for your work and presence.
-- John VanderWoude, MD, FACS

Ben Stein is simply right and thank you for giving him a forum. I have read nothing of the NY Times in years with the exception of him and so now, I need not even open one for that. And the Times wonders why it is hemorrhaging readership? Maybe it's because they do nothing and provide nothing whatsoever of value to the nation anymore. The day they file Chapter 11 will be a great day for the free media. I truly hope for all its pathetic liberal editors that day comes soon! Then, maybe they'll see what government care is really all about, unemployment lines, welfare lines, foreclosure lines.... Yes, a good dose of reality for the Times and its publisher is coming. Meanwhile, those of us that admire and respect Ben Stein will still be watching for him in other places!
-- Louis Deaux

Too bad the NYT is so biased and extremest. They just got rid of a truly entertaining and independent thinker.    Just one more reason to no longer read their paper. Mr. Stein will continue on and thrive and I will enjoy his writings and musings in other venues.  As for the NYT continuing......who knows!!!
-- Michaeleen Toler

Welcome to the ever-expanding list of those who dare publicly oppose the anointed one. The control freak in charge of this country will do anything to quell dissent, including his snitch website. Do you think the union representing the Times, along with the ownership of the Times didn't have anything to do with your release? Please, neither of us is so naïve as to believe that. Political dissent is a right afforded only to the left. We are seeing an interesting reawakening across America as an informed public is starting to wake up to the stench of Cap and Trade and Obamacare. It really is about control after all. "Community organizers" are actively suppressing open debate, town hall meetings are organized to exclude opposition points of view, and American citizens who dare exercise their First Amendment rights are labeled "traitors" by the Speaker. Be happy you just lost a small gig, I expect in the future it will be far more egregious than this. Welcome back to the fold, Ben, we missed you.
-- Greg Mercurio
Vacaville, California

I love Ben Stein and so do my friends. I will read anything he writes anywhere, anytime, anyhow. I'm glad I can read him on your website. Thanks.

Gosh, I wish a rich conservative would just buy the NYT and end all the misery.
-- Nancy Cohen

You know from previous letters I love you and your sometimes somewhat overly sensitive nature. I tend to identify with you in so many ways although I am not Jewish and decidedly not an intellectual or genius as you definitely are. But Ben, have you forgotten the old saying when you lie down with pigs you are going to get mud all over you. Your exit from the fabled but alas now decadent NYT was predestined as soon as you joined it. Your kind cannot long be countenanced at the "Old Grey Lady"as William Kristol found out more quickly than you did. Years ago when I worked for the old GM (the good GM) we were provided with the NYT and the WSJ daily with the rationale that one could not be informed or educated if one did not read these publications. Still true for the WSJ despite the inevitable changes, but the NYT is now nothing more than a propaganda sheet for all liberal causes no matter how questionable -- and worse -- it is usually dishonest.
-- Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak, Michigan

I've always enjoyed reading Ben Stein and have had much admiration for his principled stand on many topics. But he seems to have lost track of his principles when he let the Times kill his article critical of Obama. He should have left then and there. He obviously didn't stay for economic reasons. Apparently the adulation of the Times was too intoxicating to leave. Not firing the Times when it dictated what he could write was Mr. Stein's real conflict of interest, and he only has himself to blame for this debacle. The other "Steyn" (Mark Steyn) dropped the Times like a bad habit when that paper altered one of his articles. I still enjoy Mr. Stein immensely. But let's hope that now that he has left the dark side he's got his senses back.
-- Robert G. Dailey

I have enjoyed and respected Ben Stein's endeavors from Ferris Bueller to Win Ben Stein's Money to his columns.

And I believe his account of his shabby treatment at the hands of the NYT after having the chutzpah to write critical words about Obama from a mildly right of center perspective (what a shocker that Pinch's minions would have reacted to him like that--who'd a thunk it, huh?).

BUT... if one wants to be taken seriously as a columnist, then one shouldn't do commercials for cheesy "free" credit report outfits, sorry "free credit score" outfits. It certainly is Ben Stein's right to make money legally however he wishes. But this isn't the same as doing silly commercials that leverage the Ferris Bueller persona: it was a mistake. Not a legal or ethical mistake, but a mistake in judgment nonetheless. I hope Mr. Stein does some introspection on this so he can return to the land of columnists who deserve to be taken seriously since he long ago earned that right.
-- Anthony C. Deutsch

I always thought the main problem with Intelligent Design was the notion of an Intelligent Designer.

As for the New York Times…I can't remember if I said it here before, but I know I said it somewhere: If they go out of business tomorrow, I'll just do somebody else's crossword puzzle.
-- Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida

Please tell Ben Stein that he is fantastic and we love him!!

He is a great American!
-- Greg Allison
Jackson, Tennessee