Categories: OLD Media Moves

Homer Simpson hiding in WSJ publisher's desk drawer

Advertising Age’s Simon Dumenco received an e-mail last week from Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, who took issue with Dumenco’s characterization that he will be uncomfortable working with News Corp. executives.

Dumenco specifically said Crovitz would be uncomfortable working next to Homer Simpson.

According to Dumenco’s Monday column, Crovitz replied in an e-mail, “That’s crazy. For many years, I have kept a miniature Homer and son Bart in my desk drawer to call on for management advice and inspiration. Indeed, I must turn to the wisdom of Homer himself to find the right words of response: ‘You couldn’t fool your own mother on the foolingest day of your life with an electrified fooling machine!'”

Replied Dumenco: “I stand corrected, Gordon! And now, given that I know that you rely on Homeric wisdom, I’m newly optimistic about the Journal.”

Read more here. D’oh!Â

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.