CBS’ enormous gaffe on Twitter: “Steve Jobs passed away”

Steve Jobs resigns forced by pancreatic cancer?

CBS News made an enormous gaffe by reporting that Apple CEO Steve Jobs died in a careless post on Twitter.com today.

A Twitter account tied to the CBS series “What’s Trending”, hosted by Shira Lazar, sparked an internet firestorm with a post reading:

“Reports say that Steve Jobs has passed away. Stay tuned for more updates.”

The post was pulled few minutes later, but the text still exists on the website, because so many people retweeted it.

A while after the huge error, an apology appeared on Twitter.

“Reports of Steve Job’s death completely unconfirmed,” the post read.

Shira Lazar, who is also the CBS “What’s Trending” show’s executive producer, followed with an apology.

“On behalf of all of us at @disruptgroup we sincerely apologize for the inaccuracy that was tweeted earlier today.-EP/ Host @WhatsTrending.”

The incident has fuelled speculation as to the state of Steve Jobs’ health.

Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple was seen for the first time since his departure in August, his frame looking so incredibly frail it fuelled fears that he was nearing the end in his eight-year battle with the pancreatic cancer.

However, Steve Jobs made no direct reference to his health problems in his letter of resignation to the Apple board.

The former Apple boss wrote only that he had always said he would step down as CEO if he felt he could no longer do the job to his high standards.

Steve Jobs had surgery to remove a tumour after being diagnosed with a rare type of pancreatic cancer in 2003 and had a liver transplant in 2009 in a further attempt to prevent the spread of the disease.

Steve Jobs went on medical leave in January 2011, but still introduced the second generation iPad a couple of months later and has led the development of the iPhone 5 and iPad3.