Herb Stempel, Quiz Show Whistle-Blower, Is Dead at 93

NYT ^ | 5/31/20 | Robert D. McFadden

[Borges]

In the isolation booth, Herb Stempel bit his lip to show tension. He dabbed sweat from his brow and sighed into the microphone. And as 50 million viewers hung in suspense, he seemed to agonize over the question in his last appearance on the rigged NBC quiz show “Twenty-One.”

What movie won the Academy Award for best picture in 1955?

It was Dec. 5, 1956, and Mr. Stempel, a City College student from Queens, was in his eighth week on the show, posing as a nerdy know-it-all. He had won $49,500. But his new rival was Charles Van Doren, a golden-boy Columbia University instructor, and the uninspiring Mr. Stempel was scripted to take a dive.

“On the Waterfront,” he said, knowing the answer was “Marty,” one of his favorites.

While Mr. Van Doren went on to become the most celebrated (and, later, vilified) contestant of the quiz-show era, on the cover of Time magazine and inundated with fan mail and contract offers, Mr. Stempel might have become a forgotten man. Instead, he helped blow the cover off one of the major scandals of the age, telling the news media, prosecutors and congressional investigators that it was all a hoax.

Mr. Stempel, who became a high school social studies teacher in New York and later worked for the city’s Department of Transportation, died on April 7. He was 93. His death, which was not publicly announced, was confirmed by a former stepdaughter, Bobra Fyne.

[DPMD]

Most of your post I don’t really understand; but to the question re Trump’s show, it was a reality show, therefore...my post. I never watched it, as your “us and him” suggests. But I’d rate it as a descendant of the 50’s hoax, along with the others. And just FYI, playing “devil’s advocate”, to me, is just another way of separating yourself from your beliefs to seem impartial, as is saying “some people would say...”