Dan Bernstein off 670 The Score after social media incident
He’s off for a week after a confrontation with a user over a fishing incident; this comes as Audacy announces a new CEO and management team
Don’t think Babe Winkleman ever had to put up with social media trolls.
But Audacy’s 670 The Score (WSCR) host Dan Bernstein did after he posted on Friday a picture of a fish he caught on Northerly Island last week on X, and a feisty exchange he had with a user is the reason why he isn’t on the air this week.
The caption featuring Bernstein catching a 32-inch Northern Pike was captioned, “This was a helluva fight,” but a commenter named “Greg Messenger” challenged him on Elon Musk’s platform, claiming he killed the fish, but Bernstein denied he did so, saying he returned the fish into the lake. The conversation escalated with Bernstein going off on the man, swearing at him and challenging the person to a fight but also threatening to dox the individual (doxxing means releasing an individual’s personal and private information without consent), even talking about the guy’s kids (though”Greg” didn’t mention he had any.)
The post, dated March 14, was deleted but was screenshotted. The story started making the rounds this past weekend, with Awful Announcing the first to report on the controversy Sunday. The Sun-Times reported he was taken off the air Monday.
On Sunday, the charity Camp One Step dropped Bernstein from its board of directors, a move that drew criticism from former 670 The Score personality Danny Parkins, who now co-hosts FS1’s new morning show Breakfast Ball.
Bernstein generally hosts his late-morning show on WSCR with former CBS 2 sports anchor Marshall Harris who replaced Laurence Holmes when he moved to afternoons, but on Monday, Leila Rahimi, who joins the show on Wednesdays, was filling in.
Since arriving at the score thirty years ago, Bernstein had been involved in questionable behavior at times. Last year, Bernstein got into a feud with “Eddie” from Barstool Chicago for addressing him by his last name. Months earlier, Bernstein hypocritically ripped into the local media, claiming they were giving Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf easy treatment (which wasn’t the case.) Ten years ago, Bernstein trolled former Comcast SportsNet anchor Aiyanna Crystal on Twitter, leading to her departure from the now-defunct regional sports network.
This isn’t the first time a 670 The Score personality got in trouble from social media posts. In September 2020, Dan McNeil was fired from the station after a controversial tweet about then-ESPN on-air personality Maria Taylor. WSCR did not announce Bernstein’s time out as a suspension, but it sure looks like it is.
The move comes as Audacy on Monday named Kelli Turner as their new President/CEO replacing David Field, who stepped down in January, and also named Chris Olivero as Chief Business Officer, and Bob Phillips as Chief Revenue Officer. Audacy is currently under investigation by the FCC on a deal that led hedge fund Soros Management to become the biggest shareholder in the company, with the agency’s Brendan Carr and Nathan Sigminton objecting saying the process to approve the deal was done improperly. George Soros is known for liberal causes, including donating to Kim Foxx’s re-election campaign for Cook County State’s Attorney in 2020.
[Editor’s Note: An earlier draft incorrectly stated Marshall Harris replaced Danny Parkins as co-host of the late morning show and said Bernstein made those cruel comments about Aiyanna Crystal on-air when it was on Twitter instead. T Dog Media apologies for the errors.]