Wall Street Gets Sucker Punched By Main Street Via CNN iReporter

A hoax heard around the world traveled through the Mac community fast enough on Friday to have an immediate effect on Apple's already battered stock, causing as much as a 5.4 percent drop after a false story was posted on CNN's iReport website. The iReport in question claimed insider information that Steve Jobs was taken to the emergency room by paramedics after suffering a major heart attack. News that caused Wall Street to flinch first. (see iReport screen capture above)

Apple's stock quickly rebounded into positive territory after Katie Cotton, Apple's Vice President of Worldwide Communications, replied to the claims, saying "It is not true." The story was later removed by CNN which is certain to spark controversy since CNN promotes their iReport features as unedited, unfiltered news. iReports are typically posted daily by citizens with little or no journalism experience covering local or national stories that only qualify as real news by decree. It's CNN's version of social networking. I find it baffling to read no official CNN reports covering this story, not even in their Tech postings. Maybe if they close their eyes long enough it will just go away. I doubt it.

It's truly chilling to witness how much power one citizen from main street really has over Wall Street, even when the story reported turned out to be blatantly untrue. Unfortunately a filthy hacks like johntw has equal access to posting unfiltered news stories anytime he chooses. A fact helping to remove any doubt that the internet still qualifies as an untamed frontier. Attention has become the new currency in our business economy which leaves little room for filters or even facts in the quest for eyeballs online. When the dust clears CNN will ultimately be held accountable for this grand act of buffoonery. Which I expect will lead to the immediate firing of several dozen iReporters without any severance package.

The worse news is that johntw may have ruined CNN citizen journalism for the gaggle of attention whores still waiting in the wings for their moment in the viral news spotlight. I'm not sure who johntw is, but I'm convinced his fifteen minutes of fame is still pending since an SEC investigation into this hoax is inevitable. That's one iReport I would love to get an exclusive on.

UPDATED: A CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin said the SEC contacted iReport.com Friday afternoon, and that the site's staff is "doing its best to provide them with information about the posting." [link]

CNN Money posted a report on this subject in an article by Steve Hargreaves.

Friday 10-3-08   11:03 PM PST

[Source - Silicon Alley Insider]    [Screen Capture by Vedia - slightly modified for clarity]

Comments

[Sean]

If they ever catch this guy, I look forward to iSatire worthy of Debbie Norom.