Jobs Rumor Debacle Besmirches Citizen Journalism 286
On Friday someone posted a false rumor that Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack on CNN's unverified citizen journalism site, iReport. Apple's stock price went vertical, losing 9% before Apple stepped in and denied the rumor; the stock then recovered most of its loss. The SEC is investigating. PCWorld looks at the hit taken by citizen journalism as a result of this incident. "[The] increasingly blurred line between journalism and rumor is a serious concern for Al Tompkins, the broadcast/online group leader at The Poynter Institute — a specialized school for journalists of all media forms. 'How could you possibly allow just anybody to post just anything under your [CNN] label unless you have blazing billboards that say, "None of this has been verified, we've not looked at any of this, we have no idea if this is true"?' he asks."
Re:Someone is going to get into trouble (Score:5, Funny)
CmdrTaco is dead. Sell SourceForge now.
An unsubstantiated rumor is merely an attempt to manipulate a stock, it takes an idiot or ten to actually do it.
Re:Someone is going to get into trouble (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hoaxing and pranking != journalism (Score:4, Funny)
really? you should watch fox more
But what if...? (Score:3, Funny)
Fake Steve Jobs' writer had a real heart attack?
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
"Hell? Even 4chan and Slashdot are pretty clear about who owns the comments and the veracity of the comments."
That's why they are my primary news sources.
Re:Eggs in one basket? (Score:4, Funny)
What are they going to do when Jobs finally does pop his clogs? Sooner or later, that is going to happen, and they need to think about that now rather than later.
Nonsense! Sir Jobs is as immortal as he is invincible. You're obviously not listening to your iPod often enough.
Re:Eggs in one basket? (Score:3, Funny)
It's really time to improve the education of traders, journalists etc so they can take a more mature view of things instead of this comic book simplicity. One nasty side effect of this immaturity is large numbers of talentless wandering CEOs that honestly beleive that their mere presence ensures success. Sometimes they escape the US environment and end up running telecommunications companies in places like Australia to the horror of the natives.
Forget the hero. It took a lot of people to create today's Apple.
Re:Eggs in one basket? (Score:3, Funny)
You've seen futurama, right? There's no reason why he can't run apple from a jar. Stupid FUD-mongers are just trying to cause a panick.
Re:Eggs in one basket? (Score:1, Funny)
You haven't heard the latest Apple rumor? They're coming up with something to deal with this very problem. Supposedly it's going to be called iMortality.