Jack Welch breaks with Fortune

Jack Welch, the former chief executive of General Electric, said on Tuesday that he would no longer write for Fortune magazine, after it criticised his comments last Friday about the monthly US jobs report.

Even corporate titans have feelings.

HT Image

Jack Welch, the former chief executive of General Electric, said on Tuesday that he would no longer write for Fortune magazine, after it criticised his comments last Friday about the monthly US jobs report.

The jobs report showed unemployment rate dipping below 8% for the first time since January 2009, and Welch suggested on Twitter that the administration had manipulated the numbers to help Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

Those comments came under widespread attack; critics included Fortune; its managing editor, Andy Serwer; and CNN Money.

On Monday morning Serwer went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and disputed Welch’s contention about job manipulation. Early Tuesday morning, Fortune.com posted an article highlighting the fact that General Electric shed some 100,000 jobs during Welch’s leadership.

By breakfast time, Welch had had enough, and said in an email that he and his wife Suzy would no longer contribute to Fortune or Reuters, and would have an article in The Journal instead. “Effective today, we’re terminating our contract,” he wrote. “It’s just a better platform for us.”

NYT