“‘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 denied it,” Henry Blodget reports for Silicon Alley Insider.
“CNN’s iReport kept the report up until at least 10:15 AM, about 20 minutes after we published Apple’s denial,” Blodget reports. “The story has since been removed.”
“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,'” Blodget reports.
Full article, with CNN’s original “iReport,” here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Ampar” and “R. Benz” for the heads up.]
Yeah, as if the SEC is going to do anything about Apple stock price manipulation, one of Wall Street’s favorite sports.
Oh, you know, C1…you know…..
Good to hear from ya.
Jim Goldman is rapidly becoming the gold standard of market reporting. Kathryn Huberty is clearly incompetent. CNN is clearly without a clue.
“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,'” Blodget reports.”
Sounds like someone has never heard of proxies…
Wall Street is so corrupt that now everybody can see it. Blackmailing for Trillions and the bailout won’t stop the crash. Traitors sold out the USA. Not much time left.
Speaking of pulling a boner, did anyone catch the ‘Bill and Barney’ show last night?
Geez, talk about a couple of blowhards going at it….
Salutations kind C1! Always a pleasure to see you ’round. Hang in there through this difficult downturn!
@All I have To say Is….
Actually, you PC cretin, that’s all you CAN say. Your oral fixation betrays your true agenda in life: self-gratification and being able to catch your baby brother with his pants down.
How truly pathetic is your infantile approach to dialogue with your intellectual betters.
“‘Citizen journalism’ apparently just failed its first significant test.
First significant test? Really?
To Randian: Relax. It’s a post mocking Zune Tang from awhile back.
For those who don’t follow the markets; Apple stock took a 10-minute ride from about $106 down to $94.65 (first time below $100 in about 15 months) and back to about $103. It is now around $104.5. In other words, it lost some 11% of its value in a matter of minutes, only to regain most of it a few minutes later (as soon as the report was proven false).
This reminds me of a situation last year when Engadget reported sometime in May that iPhone was going to be delayed by several months. The stock lost some 8% in 15 minutes, and recovered back very soon, when the report was proven false (by Apple spokesman).
This type of manipulation helps shorters very much. Here’s how it works.
You wait for a nice morning run-up (this morning, from $102 yessterday’s close to about $106). You sell tons of shares short (if you can, naked short; you don’t need to even borrow those shares you’re selling). You fload the rumour and spread it around. Stock begins to tank, as hedge funds begin to sell quickly. As it passes below $100, many automated triggers fire off, selling vast quantities of small blocks, pushing it down even faster. You begin buying back in pieces, from $94.65 up. You make sure to cover it all before it’s back above $100. In 10 minutes, you have made at least 6% on your investment without even putting a penny of your own money into it.
Let’s just find out what SEC will have to say about this. Somehow, I have a feeling they’ll be busy with other stuff today, but one never knows… After all, almost 30 million AAPL shares got traded during those 15 minutes (which is an average daily volume for AAPL on a moderatly slow day).
first: short-selling should be forbidden all together. second: apple, start paying a dividend (and so strenghen investors return) if you can’t give us a rising stock-price anymore. because the 20 bn you have on the bank is MY money (mine and that of all the other stock-holders). something the board seems to forget about when they give 120 million to a few managers and do nothing about rumor-spreading analysts that drive the stock down 40 billion in a week!
mdn word “nuclear” as in these are nuclear times.
Next thing you know, that weasel will corner the frozen concentrated orange juice market unless someone beats them to it.
Eggnog?
AMPAR?
Towertone?
ChrissyOne?
Oh my, now I know we’ve been invaded by a bunch of Windows Lurkers and PC fanbois.
Where do people come up with those ridiculous names?
MDN word is “nukular”?
So we’ve got rumor-mongering, an “accidental” publication of an obituary, and now an unsubstantiated heart attack rumor.
Next month it’ll be a stroke, the month after that it’ll be hit by a car, then it’ll be died in a plane crash…
At some point, somebody, somewhere has to be held accountable for this crap. Not that the SEC seems to care.
The stock market: it’s all a numbers game, people. Any correlation to reality is strictly coincidental.
Bluefin is truly an ingenius name…you should market it.
Who the hell is SeeOne?
CNN is reporting falsehood as truth?
Nooooo
I’m telling you. This is how M$ is spending its $300M on advertising. Every other ad campaign is tanking!
Macs are emitting noxious fumes.
Drop the target price on APPL stock.
Jobs has had a heart attack.
I can just see Balmer sitting at his computer somehow causing these rumors and laughing in a fiendish cackle – “Who you calling uncle Fester now, Fanboys?”
How the Hell do you bust her?
Jim Goldman’s penultimate line:
“Selling first and asking questions later is the work of amateurs.”
Link repeated for ease of use:
Latest Jobs’ Health Rumor: It’s NOT True He Had Heart Attack
This is really a bad situation. The internet makes it possible for any moron to spread false rumors for the specific purpose of driving down Apple’s share price. There should be severe penalties for doing this. But wait… We live in a country where the innocent are punished and the guilty get a free lunch whenever they’re hungry. What a world!
Reckon I’m a little behind the curve on this dubya dubya dubya internets thang
Had never heard of iReport
Catchy title though with the little “i”
Must mean they’re really hip hop and totally rad – so guess that’s the place to be if ya kewl – youbetcha
They describe themselves as:
Unedited Unfiltered News
Annnnk, sorry Grasshopper, want to try to snatch the pebble again ?
“News” IS Editing and Filtering AND Verification – 3 sources is The Standard, and if you go with less than 3, watch yer ass
********************
So …
What do you get when you “run a story” with just one source, and unverified ?
The MDN Message Boards
Yea, yea, ok, was a trick question
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Later, BC
-30-
p.s.
And if Wall Street makes their decisions on information of that nature ?
Holy Shit
We ARE in serious trouble
“CNN = We don’t care if it’s accurate, as long as we promote our agenda.”
lol, can we do tags for everyone?
MSNBC, cause a 4th rate news group plus a fifth rate tech company = good stuff, right?
Fox News, we report what the GOP tells us too, you can’t decide, cause most of our demographic is in the old folks home.
Wall Street Journal, seriously? after a life time of asking for deregulation leading to a total financial melt down you still read us? sweet! raise the edition price!
any others?