Ben Stein Watch: The Aftermath

Dear God what hath Ben Stein wrought? His latest column was as dreadful as most, but it seems to have touched one hell of a nerve.

I have a weekly Ben Stein Watch; I had to respond to it. But I was far from alone. I've already mentioned Paul Krugman, Dean Baker, Yves Smith, Roger Ehrenberg, and athenian_abroad; to that list should now be added numerous posts at DealBreaker (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), as well as posts by Fake Ben Bernanke, Brad DeLong, Calculated Risk, Chew Your Grouse, Ryan Avent, Talking Biz News, John Gapper, Mark Thoma, and many others. (Update: Add Herb Greenberg to the list.)

In the friends-of-Stein camp (it does exist), we have Daniel Altman, Howard Lindzon, Donald Luskin, and Charlie Gasparino (1, 2), as well as a bunch of strange bedfellows who would normally repudiate Stein's Republican views in a heartbeat but who now think he might be on to something, seeing as how he's bashing Goldman Sachs.

The reaction was so intense, indeed, that Henry Blodget and New York magazine (1,2) were able to turn the whole thing into a media story. Gapper nodded in that direction too, saying in Stein's defense that "a columnist ought to be provocative and entertaining".

Which makes Andrew Leonard's response seem all the more sensible: can't we all just stop reading the guy? Stein's an archetypal troll, and the best way to respond to a troll is to ignore him. But I have to say it would be a lot easier to ignore him if the NYT stopped giving the chap one of the most valuable soap-boxes in the land.