If you follow Kenneth Fisher's Forbes Magazine column online, you too have probably noticed an increasingly negative tone of reader comments posted in response to Ken's monthly "wisdom" bytes. Forbes' past efforts to close down the floodgates on Fisher-bashing have included all of the usual. Removal of "offensive" comments and of all comments from "undesirable" users, as well as blocking of the undesirables and of their IPs have been Forbes tools of choice in their fight with infidels on behalf of Fisher.

Fisher Investments, apparently, has been grateful to Forbes for all the tireless censorship and has flooded Forbes online with a steady stream of advertising. These days, it is tough to miss a Fisher Investments ad while surfing the Forbes Internet site, with some pages serving up not one, but two (!) full size Fisher Investments display ads.

With all this Fisher being crammed down Forbes readers' throats, I was starting to wonder if this flood of ads was, in fact, a sign of gratitude, or something entirely different – Fisher's desperate attempt to recruit and retain clients. Additional credence to this new thought was given by a slew of Fisher Investments ads that started to appear on other financial websites. Are these ads all new, or am I suddenly paying more attention to anything Fisher?

A friend, who manages money for a living, mentioned that his company was approached by Fisher to be acquired. Then, an anonymous caller suggested to me that Fisher Investments needs a steady flow of new clients in order to do well. Acquiring new clients during times like these is especially difficult. It must be even more so for Fisher Investments. Under the circumstances a much increased ad budget is almost a certainty.

But let's get back to Forbes online. In what appears to be a last ditch effort to save face of their prized advertiser, and just in time for Ken Fisher's April column, Forbes disabled commenting for Fisher's columns altogether. (Of course, you can still comment on articles by other authors, just not on Fisher's "gems.") Worse yet, all the comments that have been there for years are now gone, as well. The disabled feedback mechanism is especially sad, considering that Kenneth Fisher's latest Forbes article, "Dear Abby" is a feeble attempt to put a positive spin on all the negative feedback to his previous columns.