Ben Stein's New York Times column axed

August 07, 2009 Ben Stein, whose career has spanned everything from White House speechwriter to teen film cameo actor, has lost his Sunday New York Times business column after he appeared in ads for a company offering credit reports. The Huffington Post reported Friday that Stein was bounced for violating ethics guidelines -- citing his involvement with FreeScore.com, a company Reuters' Felix Salmon described as "a sleazy company which exists only to extract large sums of money from those who can least afford it." The Times issued a statement to Huffington Post declaring, Ben Stein's fine work for us as a columnist for Sunday Business had to end, we told him, after we learned that he had become a commercial spokesman for FreeScore, a financial services company.

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