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By Bill Berkowitz
Ben Stein has been a columnist and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal and has written for many other publications. He's an actor who has played teachers in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and on the television show The Wonder Years. He's been in commercials and is the author of more than a dozen books. Currently, he hosts the Comedy Central game show, Win Ben Stein's Money On Friday, January 11, Stein made television history. He flipped Arianna Huffington the bird -- live on CNN's TalkBack Live: America Speaks Out. In a moment destined for television's Hall of Infamy, Stein gave her the digital salute -- half the peace sign -- the middle finger. The audience gasped; somebody exclaimed "Oh my goodness. Did you see that?" I nearly fell off my exercise bike! I probably shouldn't be giddy about Stein's finger-popping exercise, but I can't help it -- other than televised sporting events, I've never seen the bird flipped on live network television before. Friday is potpourri day at Talk-Back Live. Instead of one or two issues, the conversation ranges all over the map. That Friday, in addition to Stein, the three other guests were columnist and author Huffington, political comedian Kate Clinton (no relation to the former president), and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and Queen of Weight Watchers. >From the beginning of the program, Stein was a bit edgy, appearing miffed the other guests would have the audacity to mildly, and I stress the word mildly, criticize U.S. government policy. The first few topics were related to the war on terrorism. The discussion ranged from how the Al Qaeda/Taliban prisoners transported to the U.S. Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba should be treated to how much access the media should have to the prisoners and to information regarding the overall state of the war. The group also discussed the recent suicide of the deeply troubled 15-year-old Tampa boy who crashed a small airplane into a high-rise office building.
While no one on the panel disagreed that the prisoners had done despicable things, they expressed the hope that they would be treated humanely -- if only to show the world the U.S. is concerned about the human rights of all people. As the discussion proceeded, Clinton raised a question about press access to the prisoners. "The problem for me," she said, "is that we have not allowed the press to come in, the press has been told to leave. They can't tape. They can't actually watch what is going on, which raises a lot of suspicions." Stein huffily responded: "I don't understand why we have any concern about these people at all. I mean, these people are major league scumbag killers. The problem in the world history in the last 40 years has hardly been U.S. mistreatment of prisoners. It's been mistreatment of U.S. prisoners by people with whom the U.S. was engaged in conflict. And we have no doubt that if these people captured our men, they would torture them and kill them." A short time later, Huffington picked-up on the press access question. She was concerned that although the press briefings of Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld were entertaining, they were often devoid of solid information. (Even the President recently joked the afternoon briefings have turned Rumsfeld into a matinee idol.) Huffington: "I think this problem, not just in terms of the detainees in Cuba but generally, the restriction of the amount of information given to the press is very troubling. That is what happened in Vietnam. And a lot went on behind the scenes that the American public did not know." The conversation included comments about the Tampa teen, and Huffington pointed out that all societies have people who do evil things, and it is simplistic to divide the world into the evil-doers of Afghanistan and the Middle East and the good guys of America. This set Stein off: "I think what we should care about is comments like the ones I have been hearing in the last few minutes which are endlessly blaming America and trying to shift the focus away from the fact that we had a massive, historically unique act of terrorism directed against America by foreign people, and somehow making it change to say, well is America treating these people right now after it captures them? That's one thing. I'm really sick of blaming the victim, especially when the victim is America." In no time, Stein accused Huffington of dominating the conversation; the audience made a few comments; and then Huffington delivered the final blow. She told Stein "we should be able to hold two contradictory thoughts in our head, at least all of us except for Ben Stein, who seems to be only able to hold one thought. But we should be able at one and the same time..." Quick shot of Stein; he's delivering the finger to Huffington. Maureen O'Boyle, the host: "Oh, my goodness." Huffington: "No excuses for Charles [the Tampa teenager] and for what he did, and, at the same time, be able to try and understand what brought him to that point. These two things are not impossible to hold at the same time." O'Boyle: "Duchess, do you have something to say?" Ferguson: "Great role model, Ben." O'Boyle: "Yes, really. Hello." Stein: "I can't believe that. I don't think I want to -- why should I be here and be criticized by Arianna? I think my credentials for commenting on this are at least equivalent to hers. And I didn't say anything even slightly as belittling as what she said. What's the point of a conversation in which there's just belittling, slurring of one another?" The transcript notes applause from the audience. Stein: "If you want to just have a group of dogs barking at each other, just go to the pound and put your microphone there and you'll have a group of dogs barking at each other." After the commercial break, O'Boyle returned and told the audience Stein had decided to leave. And, at the end of the show when it came to thank the guests, Ben Stein's name wasn't mentioned.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of all was the verbal confrontation which nearly turned into fisticuffs between William F. Buckley, the conservative publisher of National Review magazine and Gore Vidal, well-known author and liberal columnist, during the 1968 Democratic Party convention. Stein's finger will take its place alongside these other moments in television history. And while his behavior was probably more a reflection of personal pique, or a bad day, in these times when the patriotic partisans of conservative correctness are flexing their muscles, it seemed to symbolize how they feel dissenting opinions should be dealt with. Give 'em the finger and move on -- or off the set. Thanks to Greg Paroff for his assistance on this story. Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right-wing movements. Contact him at wkbbronx@aol.com |
Television personality and former Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein gave the bird to columnist Arianna Huffington on CNN's Talk Back Live
Stein with former Win Ben Stein's Money co-host Jimmy Kimmel 
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