False ‘citizen journalist’ report about CEO knocks down Apple stock

An erroneous report about Steve Jobs’ health on CNN’s iReport.com citizen journalist Web site sent Apple shares tumbling more than 5 percent Friday morning, though they later recovered, Bloomberg News reported.

The iReport item said Jobs, chief executive of the computer and music player giant, had suffered “a major heart attack” and was rushed to a hospital. It cited an anonymous source, according to Bloomberg.

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Associated Press

Apple CEO Steve Jobs had surgery four years ago to treat pancreatic cancer.

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The report was not true, Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told Bloomberg.

The report was later removed from the iReport Web site. By midafternoon Apple shares were up about 1 percent.

Atlanta-based CNN described iReport.com in a written statement as “an entirely user-generated site where the content is determined by the community” and removed when it violates the community’s guidelines.

“After the content in question was uploaded to iReport.com, the community brought it to our attention,” the statement said. “Based on our terms of use … the fraudulent content was removed from the site and the user’s account was disabled.”

Concerns about Jobs’ health have contributed to a drop in Apple stock this year. Apple has declined to comment on Jobs’ health, other than to say in June he suffered a “common bug.” Jobs, who had surgery to treat pancreatic cancer four years ago, told Apple’s board in July that is cancer-free and dealing with related weight-loss problems, Bloomberg reported.