In an ironic twist, technology killed Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
But only for 30 seconds.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg News accidentally published a lengthy, but incomplete, obituary of the man behind the iPod – with the cause and date of death left blank.
The gaffe occurred during a routine update of Jobs’ biography by the news service’s obits department, said Judith Czelusniak, a Bloomberg News spokeswoman.
“It was not meant for publication and by mistake was put on the external wire instead of the internal wire, for a moment. It was removed within 30 seconds,” she said.
Still, the timing couldn’t have been worse as the draft obit, which a reader sent to gawker.com, comes amid rampant speculation about Jobs’ health following sightings earlier this year of him looking thin.
Bloomberg has yet to identify the person behind the slip-up, but fingers have pointed to James Greiff, a high-ranking columns editor in charge of obits and letters to the editor.
Greiff declined to comment, and Czelusniak didn’t respond to requests for comment about Greiff’s role.
Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Matt Winkler is infamous for his impatience with gaffes, but Czelusniak said chatter that heads would roll is “nonsense,” adding, “We stand behind our employees.”