A freelance journalist who boasted on social media that she was a “biased journalist” and would accept $500 from advertisers to get their products mentioned in stories has been bounced by Forbes, where she was a contributor.
Forbes told Media Ink it has severed ties with the journalist, Ky Trang Ho.
“All contributors to Forbes.com sign a contract requiring them to disclose any potential conflicts of interest,” said a Forbes spokeswoman. “When it came to our attention that Ms. Trang Ho violated these terms, we ended our relationship with her, and we are currently in the process of removing all of her content from Forbes.com.”
Trang Ho, who also works as a PR consultant, insists she never asked for money for products to be mentioned in articles she wrote for Forbes.
She said she has no problem straddling the world between journalism and public relations/marketing.
Trang Ho runs a company called Key Financial Media and describers herself as a business and financial writer, content marketer, search engine optimization specialist, and PR consultant.
She recently began asking companies for money to be mentioned in articles she places on BuzzFeed as a PR consultant, she said.
“I previously had two roles: one as a freelance contributor at Forbes and another as a freelance writer, content marketer and PR consultant. I am no longer with Forbes and now work solely as a freelance PR consultant as of last week.
“Thus, I am not posing as a journalist as you insinuated,”Trang Ho said. “I am ‘pocketing cash like any other marketing or PR agent.”