The author says he wrote an op-ed defending J.D. Vance, Forbes took it down, and then fired him.

An article I wrote for Forbes about J.D. Vance published on July 18th began as follows: 

“Within a day of ex-President Trump’s announcement of “climate denier” Mr. J. D. Vance as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, the climate industrial complex and supportive mainstream media had the knives out.”

Little did I know that within a day of publishing that article, the knives would come out for me. 

The editors of Forbes deleted my article, stating that “we had to take down your latest Forbes article about J.D. Vance because it did not meet our editorial guidelines which we take seriously”. This was followed by a short note stating that I was sacked as a contributor. Similar complaints of not abiding by the magazine’s guidelines were made by an editor on a couple of previous published articles. 

It is possible that even though China doesn’t own Forbes, that this might be a case of: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. In fairness, an examination of Forbes‘ website shows it is pretty balanced as there are authors who publish pro and con op-eds on climate change though the publication does lean pro-energy.

In this case, there are two sides to every story. None the less, Mr. Doshi does deserve an explanation from Forbes, his account is very concerning, and what he raises is a data point to keep in mind. It will be interesting to see what transpires in the coming months.