Regardless of what you may have read on Bloomberg, Steve Jobs is still very much alive. The newswire accidentally published his obituary yesterday for a brief amount of time.
Flubs like this are going to occur in the publishing industry, and this one should probably not be held too harshly against Bloomberg. They were clearly just trying to stay on top of the game for when the event actually happens, so they can break the news as fast as possible (although after this, readers might question it next time). After all, people want news as soon as it happens. In fact, pre-writing obituaries is even common practice. John C Abell at Wired explains:
As morbid as it may sound obituaries are, of course, written way in advance whenever possible, especially when the subject is getting on in years or health issues emerge. The subjects are often happily interviewed for their own media epitaphs (maybe not the media-averse Jobs, perhaps).
Maybe this is a strategy our own FamousDeadDB should use. In any case, Bloomberg at least acknowledged their mistake, which was likely just someone accidentally hitting a button that shouldn’t have been hit. They issued a retraction saying:
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) – An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today. The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.
It’s a little vague, but at least they posted it. Gawker has reprinted the entire thing, which it describes as “a bit macabre to read but should not scare you out of your Apple shares.”
I’m curious to know what Jobs himself thinks of the whole thing. He is apparently doing fine, so just forget the obituary was ever posted.
