In an email, Harper told The Washington Post that his story was mischaracterized, writing, “Many people who only see my article’s headline are mistaking “Appeal” (verb) with “makes Trump appealing to Black voters.” Harper said that’s the opposite of what he wrote.
The Forbes Union denounced the story on X saying, “This post does not represent who we, @ForbesUnion, are as a newsroom, or our ethical and journalistic principles.”
Riley Hallaway, a video journalist at Forbes, wrote: “We have been fighting for a strong editorial integrity agreement to prevent things like this from happening. Contributors at Forbes have no editorial oversight,” on X. “Posts like these are removed only if the contrib ‘gets caught’ This does not represent our incredible newsroom.”
Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner (D) called Harper’s article “ridiculous and insulting.” Alexa Gagosz, a business reporter at the Boston Globe wrote, “This wasn’t written by a journalist. … It’s commentary, and labeled inappropriately by Forbes.”
There are at least two archived versions of Harper’s article. The first, which is 709 words, was archived Saturday at 10:27 p.m. The second appears to be updated and is 726 words and was archived Sunday at 8:37 a.m.
In the updated story, at least two sentences were added, which include: “Hopefully Trump doesn’t claim that his raised fist was an homage to Smith and Carlos, two powerful Black Americans,” and “Hopefully, being shot doesn’t become a similarly problematic strategy to link Trump with an experience that far too many Black people have.”
Harper noted that Trump has tried influencing Black voters after his indictment on several charges, along with his mug shot being taken during one of his cases last year.
He described Trump raising his fist after the former president said a bullet grazed him in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pa., and then went on to describe track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and the symbolism of raised fists during the 2020 racial justice marches after the shooting death of George Floyd.
“Trump could claim that his raised fist was an homage to the courage of Smith and Carlos who’d emerged victoriously after overcoming considerable odds,” Harper wrote.
Forbes.com features a mix of content from staff writers and contributors. In 2022, Joshua Benton, founder of Nieman Lab, wrote that outside contributors are “barely vetted, unedited, expected to produce at quantity, and only occasionally paid.”
Benton went on to write, “their work was published completely unedited — unless a piece went viral, in which case a web producer might “check it more carefully.”
Forbes did not respond to The Post’s request for comment about Harper’s article or their editorial guidelines for contributors.
As of Monday afternoon, Harper’s author page on Forbes.com says “former contributor.”
