On his “Forbes Magazine” blog, lobbyist and public relations-superstar Jeff Ballabon published a piece titled “The 20 Most Ridiculous Things People Believe About The Hamas/Israel Conflict.” Within hours of the post going live, it was taken down. Ballabon was given conflicting reasons for the removal of the post. The one reason he wasn’t given was the most obvious one: “Forbes Magazine” did not like the post’s pro-Israel content.
After posting the article the morning of August 8th, Ballabon began to hear from friends that it was gone.
On the road, but lots of people telling me @Forbes yanked my piece about Hamas & Israel. Really hope it’s a tech glitch, not a moral glitch.
— Jeff Ballabon (@ballabon) August 8, 2014
I’m more stunned than outraged that @Forbes censored my piece about Israel and Hamas. But that’s beginning to change.
— Jeff Ballabon (@ballabon) August 8, 2014
Eventually, he reposted the article at the Gatestone Institute:
The 20 Most Ridiculous Things People Claim About #Israel/#Hamas: http://t.co/mDRIzZ86iU pic.twitter.com/tiKV1ZD07l
— Gatestone Institute (@GatestoneInst) August 11, 2014
Buzzfeed asked about the pulling of the article:
Forbes has since given him “conflicting and changing reasons,” as to why they took down the post, the most recent of which was “It’s just a list of links.” “There was no discussion of style, there was no discussion of format… All of those things could have been changed,” Ballabon said. “The only thing that can’t be changed is the substance.”
He said he believes the impetus for its removal was that “it was linked to a very controversial issue on which they’re taking a side.”
“I always thought that’s what opinion columns are for,” he said.
Mia Carbonell, Forbes’ SVP of Communications, didn’t respond to detailed questions about the decision and said in an email only that “this post failed to meet Forbes’ editorial standards.”
Ballabon has been unable to access his Forbes contributor account since the post was removed. His future status as a Forbes contributor remains unclear.
“I don’t think what they did can be justified and I think that’s why they’re not justifying it,” he said.
Cross-posted at The Lid
