Forbes Chairman and CEO Steve Forbes Wednesday insisted that his magazine will not participate in what he called "blacklists" after his magazine's chief content officer warned companies about hiring people who were key in the outgoing Trump administration.
"This is reminiscent of what we had in the 1950s during the McCarthy era," Forbes said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "We're not going to have blacklists and the like. People can express opinions. Unlike other organizations, we do have diverse opinions at Forbes and we value those diverse opinions and I think that shows strength, not weakness."
His comments came after Randall Lane, the chief content officer for Forbes magazine, wrote in an opinion piece that companies considering hiring people like Kayleigh McEnany, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and others will face extra scrutiny from the magazine.
"Let it be known to the business world: Hire any of Trump's fellow fabulists above, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie," Lane wrote in the article, published last week.
Forbes, though, defended the opinion piece as an example of diverse views in his company.
His comments come after he told Newsmax TV over the weekend that at Forbes, "we believe in diversity of opinion and he [Lane] says he's against cancel culture. I'm against cancel culture. And I think we have to keep in mind, in terms of blacklisting, which happened in the '50s during the McCarthy era, harm the culture, harm the politics. We don't want that again."
Forbes also told Newsmax TV that he hopes the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20 will usher in an era of "calm debate."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.