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CNN's Citizen Journalism Goes `Awry' With False Report on Jobs

By James Callan

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- CNN's plunge into online citizen- journalism backfired yesterday when the cable-news outlet posted what turned out to be a bogus report claiming that Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack.

Apple shares fell as much as 5.4 percent after the post on CNN's iReport.com and rebounded after the Cupertino, California- based company said the story was false. Atlanta-based CNN, owned by Time Warner Inc., disabled the user's account and said it tried unsuccessfully to contact the individual.

The event underscores the need for news organizations to verify content generated by users before it is published, William Grueskin, dean of academic affairs at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, said in an interview from New York. CNN competitors Fox and MSNBC also have added interactive features to stretch resources and follow their audience to the Web.

``It can be a very powerful influence when harnessed the right way, but sometimes it goes awry as it clearly did in this case,'' Grueskin said. ``News organizations are really getting squeezed and so it's incumbent on them to be looking for ways to engage citizens in the process.''

The Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement unit is trying to determine whether the posting was intended to push down Apple's stock price. CNN is cooperating with the probe, Jennifer Martin, a spokeswoman for the network, said in a telephone interview. She declined to say whether CNN provided the user's IP address to the SEC.

CNN describes iReport as a place for ``unedited, unfiltered news'' and said it ``makes no guarantee about the content or coverage.'' The site was started in August 2006 as part of CNN.com and became a standalone Web site in February.

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CNN's plunge into online citizen- journalism backfired yesterday when the cable-news outlet posted what turned out to be a bogus report claiming that Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack.