Rumours of his demise,...
As if the stock markets were not unstable enough already, Apple shares fell by over five per cent after a "citizen journalist" wrongly reported that Apple founder Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack.
In the last issue I wrote about how a six year old news story on United Airlines had resurfaced on Google News and triggered a shares scramble when dealers wrongly assumed it was hot off the press in 2008. Hard on the heels of that comes news of a similar fiasco caused by an unconfirmed report logged by a so-called citizen journalist. The report which was posted anonymously on iReport, a website owned by CNN, read as follows:
"Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it."
This report was a complete fabrication and Apple rapidly denied it. CNN acted quickly to remove the report, but the rumour mill had already been set in motion and that was reflected in a fall in the Apple share price. What makes this case unusual is that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which overseas Wall Street, has set up an inquiry into the incident. The agency's enforcement unit is trying to determine if the posting was intended to push down the company's stock price, a deliberate attempt to manipulate the markets.
This is not the first time that rumours of Steve Job's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but has since made a full recovery. In July of this year the New York Times reported that he was now cancer free. A month later, Bloomberg accidentally published his obituary.
18th October 2008
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.