Steve Forbes, chairman and CEO of Forbes Media, said the business media company will not “have blacklists” for members of the Trump administration.
“We are not going to have blacklists and the like,” Forbes told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “People can express opinions. Unlike other organizations, we have diverse opinions at Forbes and we value those diverse opinions and I think that shows strength, not weakness.”
Steve Forbes blasts ‘blacklist’ of companies that hire Trump officials https://t.co/wHulPkk0IU
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 13, 2021
“Let it be known to the business word: hire any of Trump’s fellow fabulists…and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie. We’re going to scrutinize, double check, investigate with the same skepticism we’d approach a Trump tweet. Want to ensure the world’s biggest business media brand approaches you as a potential funnel of disinformation? Then hire away,” Forbes Media’s chief content officer, Randall Lane, wrote in a Jan. 7 op-ed, (RELATED: Trump Aides Are Resigning For This Very Cynical Reason)
Forbes responded directly to Lane’s statement in the Fox and Friends interview.
“Unlike Twitter, media giants and big-tech companies, we believe in diversity of opinion. That is an opinion from a person that is our chief content officer. He has his opinion. I have my opinion. Here’s my opinion. This is reminiscent of what we had in the 1950s during the McCarthy era where there were blacklists, Hollywood Ten, people were denied work because of their political beliefs,” he said.
Forbes claimed that Twitter and other tech giants have tried to stamp out conservative opinions for years, in a video posted on Forbes website prior to his “Fox and Friends” interview.
“In the aftermath of that horrific mob attack on Capitol Hill last week they have shut all pretenses of objectivity,” Forbes said.