“Ben Stein used to be a speechwriter for Richard Nixon.”
I see that all the time!
What I haven’t seen is a specific reference to a speech, any speech, just one speech Ben actually wrote for the guy!
True, at the time writers weren’t credited, but it’s not hard to find speeches described and plainly attributed to Peggy Noonan, William Safire et al.
Safire writes the column “On Language” for the NY Times, and these have been compiled into several squillion books. He mentions Ben Stein exactly once, and that’s in the context of praising several generations of Stein writers. He said only that Ben had started to follow the family tradition by publishing a Hollywood novel (no title given) and pursuing a career as an actor.
So. William Safire, the “nattering nabob of negativism” guy himself, writing after the Nixon administration had folded, knew Ben’s family and knew what Ben was doing, yet he never noticed “young Ben” writing any Presidential speeches?
Hmmmm.
Google has lots of sites referring to Ben as a “Speechwriter for Richard Nixon,” but all of these seem to be quoted from the guy himself, his fan club or his publicists.
Anybody out there know more about this? Could B.S. be (so to speak) full of it?
oldbat
Heh, if you can find a Nixon speech attributed to Peggy Noonan, I’d like to see it! She wasn’t in politics or media at the time Nixon was in office (she was just out of college).
As for Stein, he was a speechwriter for all of one year. See:
I was thinking of Noonan as an example of a writer who has become (relatively) well known for her work on historically important speeches, not as a Nixonian. My post was pretty misleading there; good thing nobody’s counting on me to write the words that will echo thru future history! <chagrin>
Of course, if Dubya’s hiring…
Ben was in his 20’s-early 30’s, so he could certainly have been a speech-writing scut puppy at that period. I’m still looking, though, for somebody to say “Sure, I knew Ben back then. He wrote one heck of an Arbor Day address; really impressed me.” Or “What a dork!” Or something.
Thanks! This is even more fun than the time I researched the photographers responsible for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse!
Well, Ben’s father was Herb Stein, a well respected economist and head of President Nixon’s council of economic advisers. With a dad in that position, it wouldn’t be hard to get some kind of minor job (which is all speechwriting was, in those days; until fairly recently, a speechwriter was a low-level peon, not a glamorous celebrity) in the Nixon White House.
In any case, Ben Stein was only in that job for a year or so, and has never claimed to have been of supreme importance. Indeed, even now, contrary to what you see in “The West Wing,” most of the speechwriters in ANY administration are low-level flunkies who rarely/never see the President, and who watch Presidential speeches in the hope that, perhaps, one or two phrases they wrote will be used.
Yup. It was. Last I heard, the engineers, physicists, and mathematicians were still fretting their cute litle heads over actually how the wind did it, but no other suspects have been identified.
No, what I was after were the actual identities of the guys behind the cameras, what they were doing there (especially the two on the bridge itself!), whether they realized the thing was about to self-destruct right then…
Actually, I don’t have the links right at hand, so maybe I should come back later and give that story its own thread.
That’s what everybody thinks. Last I heard, the engineers, physicists, and mathematicians were still fretting their cute litle heads over actually how the wind did it, but as for investigating any other suspects…
Those media guys will go to any lengths to get a good story…
No, what I was after were the actual identities of the guys behind the cameras, what they were doing there (especially the two on the bridge itself!), whether they realized the thing was about to self-destruct right then…
Actually, I don’t have the links right at hand, so I should come back later and give that story its own thread.
When Ben Stein gave a speech at my school, he said he worked for Nixon and Ford. The only thing specific he told us was that he didn’t write the ‘Checkers’ speech.
Ben Stein may not have been Deep Throat, but he definitely plays a role in Woodward and Bernstein’s The Final Days. He is listed in the cast of characters as a White House speech writer, and he appears at various points in the book working in the press office. Although I know that the accuracy of Woodward and Bernstein has been criticized on some points, I can’t imagine them inventing a job for Ben Stein in the White House back in 1975.
Ah…the book has an index. So on page 139, for example, we find Stein being asked to write a speech supporting Nixon’s position on the transcripts. On page 144, he’s working on a housing statement. On page 339 he’s working on a defense against the charge of obstruction of justice. Most of the speeches he worked on seem to have been collaborative efforts, so it’s not as if you can point to a single speech written by Ben Stein, but it seems clear that he was a speechwriter for Nixon, working in the White House press office at the time of Nixon’s resignation.
Often the speechwriter’s stuff never actually comes out of the President’s mouth. They draft the President’s response to whatever issues are hot that day, and once approved the responses are released by the Press Secretary.
At the great risk of showing my age, I must tell you all that Ben Stein was my dorm monitor at UCSC in 1972. Yes, I am old as dirt, and most of you weren’t even born then. But I do have some fond memories of growing up in Santa Cruz in the 70s, and there are some great stories that include Ben Stein. He was just as outspoken and blunt then as he is now. And cute as a button.
A Nixon button.
Ben Stein. One of the few Republicans I actually admire. I disagree with him on a lot of issues, but the man knows his politics. I believe he has also taught Poli Sci, and Economics.
