Jack Welch Quits Punditry (For Now)
Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch has quit his punditry gigs -- except for Twitter, of course, which is the one that got him into trouble in the first place.Welch told both Fortune and Reuters that he and his wife Suzy were "terminating our contract," Fortune's Stephen Gandel reports. The decision follows the news organizations' reporting that Welch's conspiracy theory about a cooked jobs report was not supported by facts.
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"Unbelievable jobs numbers.. these Chicago guys will do anything.. can’t debate so change numbers," Welch tweeted Friday morning, referring to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' report that the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.8 percent. Some conservatives—like Florida Rep. Allen West—picked up on the conspiracy, which was quickly debunked by many news organizations. But Welch stood by his comments, saying Friday afternoon, "I wasn't kidding." Too bad -- a Reuters story on Welch's comments quoted financial money manager and blogger Barry Ritholtz saying the tweet was "hilarious."
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That's when Welch emailed Reuters' Steve Adler and Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer to say he was done writing for them, Gandel reports. Welch hasn't responded to Fortune's phone calls. Welch's last tweets were on Sunday.
