An incomplete history of Forbes.com as a platform for scams, grift, and bad journalism

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/02/an-incomplete-history-of-forbes-com-as-a-platform-for-scams-grift-and-bad-journalism/

I sometimes think about what the, oh, 1997 version of me would find most surprising about the news industry of today. For all that’s happened in the worlds of newspapers and TV news, I think it might be magazines that would throw me for the biggest loop.

“You know Newsweek — the Cracked to Time’s Mad? The third-best option in your typical doctor’s waiting room? Now it’s pretty much a place to run alt-right conspiracy theories — especially since that big raid of their office. You pretty much only hear about it when someone says, ‘Oh, Newsweek isn’t really Newsweek any more.’ Oh, and they might be run by some fringe Christian sect out of Korea or something?”

“Sports Illustrated? Yeah, it’s still around, sorta — still some good writers there. It’s owned by the people who — you ever think, ‘I wanna make a mug, and I really want to put Marilyn Monroe’s face on it, but I don’t know who to call about the rights”? They’re the people you call! On the plus side, you can now get an SI-branded sports bra at JC Penney. (Yeah, they’re still around somehow too.) I miss the football phone.”

“Nintendo Power? They killed Nintendo Power. They’re monsters, Past Me, monsters. Also, I know these words don’t all make sense right now, but: Buy Bitcoin.”

But right up there in the Confusing Magazine Transition Dept. would have to be Forbes, the magazine David Carr once called “a synonym for riches, success and a belief that business, left to its own devices, will create a better world.” (Of course, he wrote that a year and a half into the Great Recession, so the shine was already coming off.)

*snip*