Apple iPhone story should have been stopped

Jonathan Berr, writing on the BloggingStocks.com web site, says that the story Wednesday about Apple delaying the launch of its iPhone, which turned out to be false, was one of the oddest he’s seen in business journalism.

Berr wrote, “From the start, there were plenty of red flags.

“Firstly, why would a company whose obsession with media leaks rival that of the late Richard Nixon distribute an open memo to employees on such a sensitive topic? Apple is being closely followed by a huge and ever-growing number of media outlets. Any memo detailing anything regarding the much-anticipated iPhone would have been leaked within minutes. And let’s credit Apple CEO Steve Jobs with a little more savvy than that. This is a company with a tense relationship with the media already.

“Secondly, Apple would have been required to put out a public statement about an iPhone delay. In the eyes of the SEC, this is material information that must be disseminated. If you have any doubts about that, check the chart of the company’s stock yesterday.

“Should Engadget have been more careful about how it reported the rumor?

“Perhaps. It’s not the first media outlet, online or old-media, to be burned by a false rumor or phony documents. My former employer Bloomberg News got conned a few years ago by a phony press release.”

Read more here.