Forbes cuts ties with columnist

Forbes has cut ties with a professor who wrote about sports business after the NBA/WNBA had problems with a column he wrote about WNBA salaries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...witter_impression=true&utm_term=.c5b4fcddc858

Here's what jumped out at me: He's paid a base of $500 a month for writing seven stories. That's $71.43 a story. That's way too low.

 

Once is an accident. twice is a coincidence. three times is a habit.

‘Libraries play an important role in our society.’ Forbes deletes controversial column

 

I don't know what's worse, the fact Forbes allowed that dangerously dumb column to run in the first place, or the fact they deleted it after too many people criticized how dumb it was. Imagine working for a legacy media brand that won't have your back like that? Terrible all around

 

If this is anywhere near accurate, it's insane:

Berri included the earnings of Diana Taurasi and league MVP Breanna Stewart, who made $115,233 and $56,793 excluding benefits and incentives, respectively, in WNBA wages in 2018.

 

lol this reminds me that Barstool's college basketball writer vomited out a column built entirely on a fake Britney Griner quote, then smugly doubled-down when called on it being fake. But because it's Barstool, he wasn't let go, and the Big East featured him on a livestream Q&A just this week to try and get that all-important cult demographic. But I digress.

 

This is a good story on why it's not so easy to increase WNBA salaries.

Why increasing WNBA player salaries is more complex than you think

 

Forbes is the new Bell & Howell, a once-proud name in its industry that is selling its brand now to license just about any trinket from overseas.

 

"“The article was removed because it failed to meet Forbes’ strict editorial standards for accuracy and fairness..."

Does Forbes no longer have editors? A good editor would have said, "Hey, this is incomplete and not ready yet. Flesh it out."
But Forbes just prints something it later says didn't meet the editorial standards?

 

FWIW, the author in question has widely been seen as a joke in NBA media circles for many years.

 

Forbes has probably deteriorated more than any other publication out there. They used to have a bunch of really good reporters.

But this writer is a professor in southern Utah. He wrote an opinion piece for which he received $70. I don't think the guy wrote it for money but instead as a resume padder. If you pay $70 to free lance for an opinion piece do not expect a lot of reporting to take place. The author will get on the internet, pull up some research and turn the article in. He will not be making a lot of calls.

But Forbes runs tons of pieces like this, The difference with this piece is someone influential bothered to read it and Forbes threw the writer over the side of boat because they can always find someone who want's a byline in Forbes who works cheap.