Dan Bernstein is out at 670 The Score

Social media claims yet another victim

WSCR-AM 670 The Score personality Dan Bernstein was fired Friday after approximately three decades at The Score after a social media incident where he openly sparred with a poster over a fish he caught and threatened to dox him.

According to the Sun-Times, 670 The Score Vice President and Brand Manager Mitch Rosen went on the station Friday afternoon to say that Bernstein was no longer employed  – an unusual move given most personnel decisions in radio aren’t announced on-air. “On behalf of [Audacy market manager] Kevin Cassidy and myself, we want to let all of you know that Dan Bernstein no longer works at the Score. We thank Dan for his time here and wish him nothing but the best. Please reach out to me if you have any questions. Thank you.”

Bernstein was suspended from 670 The Score this week as he was absent from his late-morning show with Marshall Harris. As of today, all information about Bernstein from 670 The Score’s website has been scrubbed. 

To recap, Bernstein caught a Northern Pike fish at Northerly Island and posted a photo of him and the fish on X (formerly Twitter) a week ago. A follower of him claimed he killed the fish, which Bernstein denied, saying he released it back into the lake. The discussion became heated as at one point, Bernstein threatened to dox the person (“doxxing” is posting private information about a person without their permission, like their phone number or address), and even threatened his kids, assuming the poster had any. He deleted his posts on X, but not before thousands of users saved them through screenshots. Last Sunday, Bernstein was dropped from the board of directors of local charity Camp One Step, which faced criticism for doing so. 

Perhaps the most famous case of “doxxing” in local media – before the term was coined, was in the 1990s when then-WFLD-TV news anchor Walter Jacobson listed the home phone number on-air of a judge who was presiding over the “Baby Richard” case during his Perspective segment. 

This is not the first time Bernstein got in trouble for his misuse of social media. In 2015, Bernstein was suspended for a tweet about WLS-TV meteorologist Cheryl Scott and also made cruel comments about Comcast SportsNet anchor Aiaynna Crystal on the same platform. In September 2020 his colleague Dan McNeil was fired after he made a crude post on former ESPN personality Maria Taylor, viciously criticizing her wardrobe, leading to his firing. 

Bernstein was involved in numerous controversies on-air as well, including a bizarre on-air exchange last year with Barstool Chicago personality Barstool Eddie, who referred to him by his last name and sparked a feud with Barstool head Dave Portnoy. Bernstein also chided callers at times. Despite all of this, his shows (with co-hosts raging from Terry Boers to Leila Rahimi), rated well among the key demos for sports radio, men 25-54.  

The lesson here is something this space pointed out before – use social media at your peril because even though you’re off the clock, you represent the employer you work for 24/7 – whether you work in media or not. There have been too many cases where people have lost their jobs because of what they posted or what they were observed doing on social media. Be careful what you post because you’ll never know who may be reading at the other end.