A few weeks ago, the gadget blog Gizmodo reported as rumor that Jobs' health was "declining rapidly", and he would not be giving the traditional Macworld Expo keynote. Goldman, a reporter for CNBC quickly shot down the rumor, citing sources.
A few days later, Jobs sent a note in which he explained his problem with a "hormone imbalance," implying that it was the reason he stepped down from the Macworld appearance. Goldman had been wrong. Then, on Wednesday, Jobs announced that he was taking the aforementioned leave of absence and that Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook would handle management in the interim.
"You can try to backpedal and say that what you reported was true," Lyons said to Goldman on CNBC, adding that the broadcast journalist had been "played" and "punked" by his sources at Apple, "but look, you should apologize to Gizmodo for having criticized them and apologize to your viewers for having gotten it so wrong."
This is actually one of my big pet peeves about traditional media reporting; there's definitely a lack of follow-up and scrutiny in reporting; when a news story gets it wrong, the corrections (especially in television) just aren't made, and the damage caused by the mishandling of a story without getting all the facts can cause some real damage.
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