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Post Hate Mail About Our Link To Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report Here

stevejobs.jpg UPDATE: The crowd has spoken, and they want us drawn and quartered (especially me). Add your outrage below!

EARLIER: Around 9:15AM yesterday, we learned that the lead story on CNN's citizen-journalism site iReport said that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the hospital after a heart attack. By the time we found it, the story was already getting significant attention in the tech community (Twitter, Digg, etc). We didn't know whether the story was true, and we had no immediate way to confirm or debunk it. We viewed it as significant, however, both for those who care about Apple and Steve and as a first meaningful test of "citizen journalism."

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We knew that our readers would want to know about the story and evaluate it for themselves. So we did what we did what we usually do in such cases: We published a post describing the iReport story and noted that, true or false, this was a big moment for citizen journalism.  In our post, we said that we had no idea whether the story was true, that we were making calls, and that we would update the post the moment we knew more. We also reached out to Apple and CNN. As is always the case when you contact sources--especially corporations--we didn't know when or if we would get a response. (Our original post is below)

Over the next twenty minutes, the story continued to spread. Diggs and Twitter references continued to rise, and visits to our own post, which started slow, began to accelerate. We soon updated the post with a real-time Twitter feed, so we and our readers could keep up on the latest chatter. Around 9:40, Apple's stock, which had opened strong, took a nosedive as the market became aware of the iReport story. Our readers, Apple stock traders, and the tech community all wanted the same answer: Was it true?

At about 9:50, 25 minutes after we published our original post (which we had already updated several times by then), we heard back from Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton. We immediately updated our post and broke the news that the iReport story was false.

Within a minute, Apple's stock recovered. A few minutes after that, chatter in the tech community and our Twitter feed changed to relief. Visits to our own post also soon went through the roof.

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Twenty minutes after we reported that the iReport story was false, CNN removed it.  A few hours later, CNN added a statement explaining that the iReport community had alerted it to some "fraudulent" content, so it had taken the story down and frozen the poster's account. By mid-afternoon, the SEC had already begun an investigation. If the iReport poster is found and happens to have been short Apple (or conspired with someone who was), he or she will probably go to jail.

Most of our readers were grateful that we drew their attention to the iReport story and very grateful when we reported that the story was false. A small, vocal minority, however--including some members of the mainstream media--believe we should have waited to comment on the iReport story until we had heard back from Apple.

We respectfully disagree.

As many observers have noted over the past five years, online journalism occupies a new and unique niche in the media continuum: Specifically, it lies somewhere between print, broadcast, and person-to-person communication, and shares attributes of each. Unlike most other media, online journalism also benefits from an immediate feedback loop: Our readers collectively know far more than we will ever know, and by responding to our posts, they quickly make our coverage more nuanced and accurate.

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Unlike mainstream media organizations, we do not view our role as one-to-many media "gatekeepers." Rather, we view ourselves as full-time members of the tech community--engaged in gathering, discussing, and analyzing information that we believe is relevant to the community at large.

Sometimes this information is fact. Sometimes it is rumor or scuttlebutt. Sometimes it is speculation. Always it is information that we believe is credible or interesting enough to bring to our readers' attention.

When I worked on Wall Street, events like yesterday's happened all the time. A stock would move suddenly as some scuttlebutt entered the marketplace. Clients and journalists would start calling, asking what knew. Within a few minutes, we would usually hear the rumor: the CEO was leaving, the company had lost a major customer, the company was about to be bought.

As soon as we knew what the story was, of course, we would want to tell our clients. Not necessarily whether it was true or false--which we often didn't yet know--but what was moving the stock and whether we thought such a story made sense. At those moments, a small group of privvy traders knew something that everyone else didn't, and we wanted to help answer the question everyone else was asking: "What the heck is going on?"  Unfortunately, as Wall Street analysts, we couldn't do that, because compliance regulations prevented us from "commenting on rumors."

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Our next step, therefore, was usually to call the company. More often than not, if we got anyone on the phone, the company would say it "didn't comment on rumors"--which either meant, "yes, of course it's true" or "no, of course it's not true."  We would then have to sit around and wait until one of two things happened:

  1. the company confirmed or denied he rumor,
  2. someone else wrote about it

We would then be allowed to publish a note describing what, by that time, almost all industry insiders already knew from talking amongst themselves (And, ironically, while we were waiting, we were free to talk, too.)

This seemed ridiculous to me then, and it seems ridiculous to me now.  You, our readers, are smart enough to know the difference between rumors and facts, and you are smart enough to evaluate what we tell you. As long as we are clear about what we know, where the information came from, and what we think of it, we are confident that you will give it the weight it deserves. And we are also confident that this is exactly what most of you want us to do.

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Getting information into the marketplace immediately also serves another function: It flushes out the truth. If no one had commented on the Apple story yesterday, the tech community and Wall Street would have been buzzing about it (and, in my opinion, the stock still would have tanked). I think it is unlikely, however, that the truth would have emerged so fast. If nothing else, we would not have had people checking SAI for updates, and the stock would not have recovered so quickly.

The next time something like this happens, we will do the same thing we did yesterday: We will evaluate the information and decide whether it is worth bringing to your attention.  We will tell you what we know (and what we don't know), and, when necessary, we will work as fast as we can to get you more information. And some of you, thankfully, will help us with that process.

Why will we do this? Because it is exactly what we would want you to do if you were in our shoes. We wouldn't want you to not tell us what everyone was talking about because you couldn't verify it--costing us precious minutes or hours as the story continued to break. We would want to know what you knew. And when you finally had hard facts, we'd want you to share them, too.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

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Henry Blodget
Editor in Chief
hblodget@alleyinsider.com

See Also:
Apple Denies Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report: "It Is Not True"
SEC Investigating Fraudulent Steve Jobs Story On CNN's iReport


First post, approx 9:25AM Friday:

Apple's Steve Jobs Rushed To ER After Heart Attack, Says CNN "Citizen Journalist"

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"Citizen journalism" gets its first real test.  A story of major consequence that, thus far, no one else has reported.

CNN's iReport:

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.

We're making calls, but as yet we have no idea whether it's true.  Confirmation/denial the moment we get it.

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Meanwhile, very interesting that this report appears on CNN's site. If it proves correct, CNN will look great.  If it is wrong, CNN's credibility will likely be hit. Here's CNN's vision for iReport:

With this site, we want to share our passion about the news in a way that invites you -- and everyone else -- to share your passion about the news. At CNN we live for news. We love talking about it. And we know that there's a whole lot more to it than what you see on TV or read on your favorite Web site. So we've launched an independent world where you, the iReport.com community, tell the stories we're not used to seeing. And the most compelling, important, and urgent ones may get seen on CNN.

So head on over the homepage and jump in. Tell your story and see how it connects to someone on the other side of the world -- and build a new kind of news site, one made from communities of shared interests, impassioned discussions and great storytelling.


Update after Apple response:

"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.  Fortunately, it appears the story was false. We contacted an Apple spokeswoman, who categorically denies this. 

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CNN's iReport:

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.

We contacted Apple.  Katie Cotton, Vice President of Worldwide Communications, replied quickly, saying "It is not true." 

Twitter is abuzz. (See the live Twitter feed, which we've embedded below).  Apple's stock also took a major hit before bouncing back:

Applechart.png

It is significant that this report appeared on a site owned by CNN.  CNN does not edit 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 Apple's deni iReport was still "reporting" the story.  Here's CNN's vision for iReport:

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With this site, we want to share our passion about the news in a way that invites you -- and everyone else -- to share your passion about the news. At CNN we live for news. We love talking about it. And we know that there's a whole lot more to it than what you see on TV or read on your favorite Web site. So we've launched an independent world where you, the iReport.com community, tell the stories we're not used to seeing. And the most compelling, important, and urgent ones may get seen on CNN.

So head on over the homepage and jump in. Tell your story and see how it connects to someone on the other side of the world -- and build a new kind of news site, one made from communities of shared interests, impassioned discussions and great storytelling.

And here's the Jobs story, at the top of the front page:

jobsstorry.png

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