So that fraudulent “citizen journalism” report claiming Apple CEO Steve Jobs had been rushed to the hospital with severe chest pains and shortness of breath? The one that allegedly shaved about $4.8 billion off Apple’s market value after Silicon Alley Insider picked it up and published without verifying it? Securities and Exchange Commission investigators have tracked down its author and it’s not the short seller many had expected. It’s an 18-year-old with no clear motive, according to Bloomberg (ironically, the source of the Jobs obituary accidentally posted to news wires in late August). Which means the SEC may not have a case. “If the posting wasn’t directly related to the purchase or sale of a security, it’s questionable the SEC would have jurisdiction,” Michael Missal, a former enforcement lawyer told Bloomberg. “That’s not to say some other agency of the U.S. government couldn’t take action if it felt a law was violated.”
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
So that fraudulent “citizen journalism” report claiming Apple CEO Steve Jobs had been rushed to the hospital with severe chest pains and shortness of breath? The one that allegedly shaved about $4.8 billion off Apple’s market value after Silicon Alley Insider picked it up and published without verifying it? Securities and Exchange Commission investigators have tracked down its author and it’s not the short seller many had expected. It’s an 18-year-old with no clear motive, according to Bloomberg (ironically, the source of the Jobs obituary accidentally posted to news wires in late August). Which means the SEC may not have a case. “If the posting wasn’t directly related to the purchase or sale of a security, it’s questionable the SEC would have jurisdiction,” Michael Missal, a former enforcement lawyer told Bloomberg. “That’s not to say some other agency of the U.S. government couldn’t take action if it felt a law was violated.”
