A Forbes contributor quit after the site unpublished one of his articles, “Sexism And The Media: As Election Heats Up, Are We Nearer To Tipping Point For Equality?”
The writer, Tom Watson, announced his resignation on Medium and his personal website, where he re-published his deleted article, an interview with Jamia Wilson, Women, Action & the Media’s executive director.
Watson was a paid contributor for Forbes for “about three years,” he told iMediaEthics. “I posted directly to the blog, Social Ventures,” he said.
“Watson and Wilson discussed sexist media coverage of Hillary Clinton, the power of ‘Networked feminism,’ and ‘the need to create and improve newsroom standards about how sexual violence is discussed in the media,'” Media Matters reported.
Forbes Senior Manager of Corporate Communications Laura Daunis told iMediaEthics by e-mail: “Tom Watson’s post was removed from Forbes.com because Forbes felt the post was off topic and not aligned with the entrepreneurship channel’s mission.”
“The editors found it inappropriate for the section of Forbes I have contributed my Social Ventures column to for the last three years – and they removed it this morning,” Watson wrote on his blog April 28. “I strongly disagree with their decision and we have parted ways.”
Watson argued his article was “important” despite Forbes‘ defense that the post didn’t fit with the topic of his writing for Forbes.
“It’s an important story to cover,” he told iMediaEthics by e-mail. “I believe it was timely, and that Jamia’s point of view as a social entrepreneur organizing women against sexism in the media is particularly valid at the start of this presidential race.”
In addition to writing for Forbes and other online news outlets, Watson’s Forbes bio identifies himself as an adjunct instructor at Columbia University and the co-founder of three companies.
He was hired to cover “social entrepreneurship, non-profits, philanthropy, start-ups and digital activism space,” Watson told Media Matters. A Google cache of his article shows that Watson’s page on Forbes has him covering “social entrepreneurship, nonprofits and social causes,” iMediaEthics notes.
Watson’s Forbes article’s link goes to an error page on Forbes‘ website now.
Forbes contributor David Monagan quit Forbes in 2013, iMediaEthics reported at the time, after he falsely reported that Ireland’s president Michael D. Higgins is an “acknowledged homosexual.”
Hat Tip: Media Matters
UPDATED: 12:39 PM EST Forbes‘ bio said Watson was an adjunct instructor at NYU but he informed iMediaEthcs he is now with Columbia.