It’s no secret that Forbes magazine has largely betrayed its capitalist foundation by becoming a megaphone for some of the most vile left-wing, cultural Marxist tripe in the media ecosphere. But a new scandal did show that its top leadership didn’t completely abandon free markets when it suited their own interests.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Forbes chief content officer Randall Lane was fired after “the company discovered that he had received a payment of about $6 million from the founder of a firm that does business with the magazine.”
The payment was made after RJ Shook, the founder of the firm that worked with Forbes to publish wealth adviser rankings, “sold a majority stake in Shook Research to PPC Enterprises, a private equity firm, last August.” Lane made himself a spectacle of anti-Trump furor in 2021 when he threatened companies that dared to hire people who formerly worked with President Donald Trump, such as former White House press secretaries Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, and Kayleigh McEnany.
Reading his virtue-signaling now about “truth reckoning” in light of his own duplicitous violation of journalistic ethics is poetic justice. At the time, Lane promised his outlet will “scrutinize, double-check, investigate with the same skepticism we’d approach a Trump tweet” any company that hires one of the forbidden Trumpsters in his arbitrary blacklist: “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 doubled down on his threats: “Want to ensure the world’s biggest business media brand approaches you as a potential funnel of disinformation? Then hire away,” Lane quipped.
It’s reasonable to assume Lane wasn’t expecting his own outlet to eventually “scrutinize, double-check” and “investigate” himself for malfeasance. Karma doesn’t miss.
Oh, but it got funnier. In his 2021 screed, Lane praised former Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and former Clinton White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart as having “left the White House with their reputations in various stages of intact, made millions taking their skills — and credibility — to corporate America.”
It would take but a few years before Lane nuked his own “credibility” and “reputation” as a judge of character into orbit. The Times outlined the clear Forbes company policies that emphasize the gravity of Lane’s undisclosed conflict of interest:
Forbes has policies requiring its employees to seek permission before conducting outside business activities and prohibiting them from gaining personally — directly or indirectly — from the company’s business dealings, according to a copy of the employee handbook obtained by The New York Times. Traditional newsrooms usually forbid journalists to accept payments from sources or business partners to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of a conflict.
Oof! Not even a defibrillator could resuscitate Lane’s image as a journalist at this point.
But wait, there was more! It turns out a pursuing of Lane’s time at Forbes showed he played a key role in helping MS NOW’s Morning Joe co-host Mike Brzezinski launch a partnership between her Know Your Value initiative and Forbes with a 50 Over 50 list for businesswomen making a difference across four categories (Lifestyle, Impact, Innovation, and Investment).
Lane was also an occasional guest on Morning Joe and other shows across the network. His most recent appearance was on the July 2 Morning Joe, promoting his role in a musical about Benjamin Franklin:
One has to ask: What did MS NOW know and when did they know it?
