This morning a CNN iReport poster reported that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the Emergency Room after a severe heart attack. Apple has categorically denied the false report.
“Citizen journalism” apparently just failed its first significant test. A CNN iReport poster reported this morning that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the ER after a severe heart attack (story and screenshot below). Fortunately, it appears the story was false. We contacted an Apple spokeswoman, who categorically denied it,” Henry Blodget explains for Silicon Alley Insider.
We expect this will lead to an SEC investigation. The IP address of the iReport poster will be easily traceable, and we expect the SEC will want to interview him or her to see if the story was “placed.” (You don’t have to be George Soros to figure out how the stock would react to a story like this.)
It is significant that this report appeared on a site owned by CNN. CNN does not profess to be directly responsible for iReport, but its name is at the top of the site. It’s possible that reports like this will significantly damage CNN’s credibility, and we wouldn’t be surprised if this caused them to pull back from association with “citizen journalism.” As of 10:07 AM ET, ten minutes after we published Apple’s denial, iReport was still “reporting” the story. By 10:20, the story had been removed and replaced with this:
Immediately after reading the iReport story, we contacted Apple. Katie Cotton, Vice President of Worldwide Communications, replied quickly, saying “It is not true.”
