Forbes cuts ties with sports business columnist

Forbes magazine cut ties with a contributing columnist and sports economics professor last week after a dispute over his piece about WNBA player salaries. reports Jacob Bogage of The Washington Post.

Bogage writes, “David Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah University who studies gender and sports business and has written three books on the subject, argued in an opinion piece that WNBA players should earn higher salaries to boost their star power. The NBA voiced concerns with the piece to Forbes editors, who took the league’s concerns to Berri. As the conflict between writer and outlet unfolded, Forbes took down the piece and dismissed Berri as a contributor.

“In emails Berri provided to The Washington Post, a Forbes editor said the article was ‘misleading,’ ‘sloppy,’ ‘polemic’ and ‘just bad reporting.’

“‘The article was removed because it failed to meet Forbes’ strict editorial standards for accuracy and fairness,’ a company spokesman said in a statement. ‘Specifically, the contributor intentionally omitted facts and context from an authoritative source that would have undermined his thesis. As a result, David Berri was removed as a Forbes contributor.'”

Read more here.