Jack Welch Steps Down From Writing At Fortune, Reuters After Controversial BLS Tweet
Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch will cease writing columns for Fortune and Reuters after a controversial tweet he sent last week essentially accusing the Obama administration of fudging jobs numbers in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
Jack Welch was one of many voices on the right suggesting that, in the wake of a debate in which public opinion favored the performance of Mitt Romney over that of President Obama, Bureau of Labor Statistics employment numbers were fiddled with or tampered with in order to reflect favorably on the current administration.
Welch later appeared on television (in a spot mocked by The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart), and when asked about his insinuation that the numbers released by the BLS were fudged, the former GE CEO admitted that he had based his suspicion on no real evidence. Welch also had it out with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, in an on-air knock down, drag out over the tweet.
But it wasn’t fallout from the tweet that caused the break in the relationship between Jack Welch and the outlets that published his work — instead, Mediaite explains, it was reporting done after the tweet that reflected upon the former GE CEO in an unfavorable light that caused the split.
The site quotes a Fortune writer, who contends:
“CNNMoney, which shares content with Fortune.com, ran a story on Friday covering Welch’s tweet. The piece said that even conservative economists thought Welch was wrong to question the jobs numbers. On Tuesday, Fortune.com ran a story detailing Welch’s record as a job destroyer. GE lost nearly 100,000 jobs during the 20 years in which Welch ran the company… Following the story, Welch sent an e-mail to Reuters’ Steve Adler and Serwer saying that he and his wife Suzy, who have jointly written for Reuters and Fortune in the past, were ‘terminating our contract’ and will no longer be sending our ‘material to Fortune.'”
A spokesperson for Jack Welch declined to comment on his departure from Fortune and Reuters.
Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers
— Jack Welch (@jack_welch) October 5, 2012
