Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch will no longer contribute to Reuters.com as an opinion columnist, Daily Intel has learned, following the uproar caused by his Labor Department conspiracy-mongering last week. “Unbelievable jobs numbers,” Welch wrote, “these Chicago guys will do anything.. [sic] can’t debate so change numbers.” He later appeared on Fox News to explain that “these numbers don’t smell right when you think about where the economy is right now.” The column by Welch and his wife, Suzy, a former editor of the Harvard Business Review, is also syndicated by Fortune; his comments were the subject of criticism from within both publications.
“We let Reuters know today that we were going to cease our column with them,” Suzy Welch told Daily Intel. “We loved our experience at Reuters, it just wasn’t getting a lot of traction.”
The Welches’ contributions, which focus on management and politics, have been running since January. Asked if the decision to quit had anything to do with last week’s jobs numbers, Welch said, “No.”
A spokesperson for Reuters confirmed the split.
