Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes Media, denounced the black lists of Trump administration officials in his defense of a controversial article in his magazine that threatened companies that hired “fabulists” for Trump.
“Unlike Twitter, media giants and Big Tech companies, we believe in diversity of opinion,” Forbes told Fox & Friends on Wednesday.
FORBES OP-ED ADVISES COMPANIES ON THE RUMP OF ‘MANUFACTURERS’ FROM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Forbes magazine content director Randall Lane has warned companies that they might consider hiring Kayleigh McEnany, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and others who worked for the Trump administration.
“Let him be known to the business world: hire any of Trump’s fellow fabulists above, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or company says is a lie,” Lane wrote in an article published on Thursday.
The CEO said that his opinion differs from his content director.
“This is reminiscent of what we had in the 1950s during the McCarthy era,” explained Forbes. “People have been denied work because of their political beliefs …”
“We will not have blacklists and the like,” said Forbes. “People can express opinions. Unlike other organizations, we have different opinions at Forbes and we value those different opinions and I think that shows strength, not weakness.”
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Forbes defended the article as an “example” of divergent views that are not so common at universities or at Big Tech.
The former Republican presidential candidate said he and Lane are against canceling the culture, which Forbes called “cancer” and called on the nation to “unite and move on”.
Joshua Q. Nelson from Fox News contributed to this report.