Apple Tanks; Fake Steve Jobs Heart Attack Story
Can you spell "SEC investigation?" There is definitely going to be one after this. A post at CNN's new social news site, iReport, resulted in Apple stock plummeting this morning, when it was rumored that Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack. iReport allows users to post unvetted stories, which then --- after vetting, may be posted to the iReport page on CNN.com. This story obviously didn't make it there, and has since been taken down.
Interestingly, this user has never submitted a story previously. And the time of the story posting, 6 AM PDT, was obviously very suspicious. The story read:
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.
Uh, huh. Well, the stock tanked as you can see on the left. It's since recovered, and Katie Cotton, Vice President of Apple Worldwide Communications, has said quite succinctly, "It is not true."
iReport calls itself "unedited, unfiltered news." I'll bet they wouldn't want to see this story posted, if I tried.
Steve Jobs' health has been the subject of much speculation, and he took it head on at Apple's recent "Let's Rock" event with the following slide.
It appears this rumor is just as exaggerated.
Interestingly, this user has never submitted a story previously. And the time of the story posting, 6 AM PDT, was obviously very suspicious. The story read:
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.
Uh, huh. Well, the stock tanked as you can see on the left. It's since recovered, and Katie Cotton, Vice President of Apple Worldwide Communications, has said quite succinctly, "It is not true." iReport calls itself "unedited, unfiltered news." I'll bet they wouldn't want to see this story posted, if I tried.
Steve Jobs' health has been the subject of much speculation, and he took it head on at Apple's recent "Let's Rock" event with the following slide.
