Whoops. The Bloomberg newswire made a bit of unwanted news of its own Wednesday when it accidentally posted an obituary for Steve Jobs who, by all accounts, is still very much alive.
Bloomberg quickly removed the post (although not before Gawker.com [published the gaffe](http://gawker.com/5042795/bloomberg-runs-steve-jobs-obituary)), when it realized its mistake. Publications routinely prepare draft obituaries on famous people in advance of their demise. After surviving a cancer scare several years ago, the Apple CEO’s gaunt appearance in recent months raised new concerns about his health. For the record, Apple has said Jobs was recovering from the flu and adjusting to the effects of a new diet following his earlier surgery for pancreatic cancer.
Gawker said a Bloomberg reporter was updating the 17-page obit and somewhere in process it was accidentally published. Bloomberg sent out a correction without referencing the obit or Steve Jobs directly, rather just noting: “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 The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.”
The Bloomberg story file notes a long list of people to call for comment on Jobs including: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; Heidi Roizen a well known Valley venture capitalist (although she recently quit the biz to focus on [a very different venture](http://www.skinnysongs.com)) who once dated Jobs; A.C. Mike Markkula, the first venture capitalist to fund Apple; California Attorney General Jerry Brown (listed as a personal friend) and former VP Al Gore who currently is a member of Apple’s Board.
The obit starts by crediting Jobs for helping to make personal computers easy to use (one of his famous catch phrases from the launch of the Macintosh was that it could “be used by mere mortals”); changed the way animated films are made (via Pixar); persuaded consumers to tune into digital music (iTunes) and refashioned the mobile phone (iPhone).
Oh and he’s a college dropout, but then so was his sometimes buddy and fellow billionaire Bill Gates.
