Of all the billionaires lining up to buy metro newspapers, Jack Welch is the first one I’ve heard say something actually intelligent about the local news business.

“You’ve got to make the newsroom not control the world,” Welch told the cable show’s host Carl Quintanilla and Michael Wolff, a media critic for Vanity Fair magazine.”I’m not sure local papers need to cover Iraq, need to cover global events,” Welch said. “They can be real local papers. And franchise, purchase from people very willing to sell to you their wire services that will give you coverage.”