Reports untrue: Steve Jobs did not appear at Disney meeting

Apple CEO Steve Jobs did not attend Disney's shareholder meeting Tuesday, as was briefly reported.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Just to get this out of the way up front, Apple CEO Steve Jobs did NOT make an appearance earlier Tuesday at Disney's annual shareholder meeting.

Marketwatch's RealTime Headlines section reported Tuesday that Jobs did show up at Disney's meeting--which would have marked his first public appearance since announcing a six-month medical leave of absence--and the Internet was off to the races. ZDNet's Sam Diaz captured screengrabs of the original headlines here. Marketwatch did not correct its headline for over an hour, posting the headline at 1:12 p.m. EDT and not posting a correction until 2:32 p.m. EDT.

As of this writing, several blogs and Twitter users are still reporting that Jobs did appear at the meeting. Ordinarily, it wouldn't have been odd to see Jobs at a Disney annual meeting: he's a member of the board of directors and the single largest individual shareholder in the company with 7 percent of its stock following Disney's acquisition of Pixar.

But Jobs didn't even show up at Apple's annual shareholders meeting due to his medical leave of absence. It seems Marketwatch, while watching a Webcast of the Disney event, was confused by questions about Jobs' large stake in Disney and potential contingency plans if his shares were to hit the open market; a polite way of asking whether Disney thought Jobs was going to die.

In any event, Jobs was easily re-elected to Disney's board of directors.

[zmonster]

Here's a story for you to report: Apple stock up nearly 7% today.

[digiguy23]

It seems now all Apple news is based on rumors.

[fgwgner]

Who cares

[TxTom21]

People who are concerned for the well-being of others. That's who.

[knowles2]

Or people who got shares in Apple they either go up or down depending on the rumor mill. Job is on the death bed dump them and quickly before they plummet, he returning to work buy more why they cheap and reap the profits.

[donsms]

Leo LaPorte got all giddy about this story on his MW podcast yesterday,then dropped it like a bad dream when he was informed that the story was incorrect.Leo needs to check with more than one source before reporting a news flash or end up looking and sounding foolish.

[fgwgner]

Hay Txtom21 to bad that your I Jesus is sick