CBS News Unpublishes 'Internet News' Stories after Fake Steve Jobs Dead Tweet

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What's Trending's Shira Lazar tweeted an apology for the group's fake news tweet -- but CBS News still ended its publishing relationship with What's Trending. (Credit: Twitter)

CBS News unpublished all of its “web series” posts from “What’s Trending” because “What’s Trending” tweeted fake news that Steve Jobs died, Hollywood Reporter reported.

According to Hollywood Reporter, “CBSNews.com had been hosting the web series since May. But the show and Lazar had no newsgathering partnership with CBS News.”

What’s Trending is “independently produced” and “anchored by Disrupt co-founder Shira Lazar.” In a separate article, the Hollywood Reporter described “What’s Trending” as an “internet-news show.”

Lazar later tweeted our two apologies for the fake news and deleted the “Steve Jobs dead” tweet, but the fake news ended up being linked to CBS News. Lazar explained earlier this week that the fake news occurred after “a miscommunication in the newsroom resulted in a junior staffer at What’s Trending sending a tweet that contains an unchecked, unconfirmed and ultimately untrue report about Steve Jobs,” the Hollywood Reporter reported.

The New York Times described Lazar’s Sept. 13 apology on air “long and fairly excruciating” and noted that Lazar said the tweet in question was only published for “less than a minute.”

The Hollywood Reporter noted that just after Lazar tweeted the fake news, NBC News’ Twitter account was hacked. As iMediaEthics reported, NBC News’ Twitter account was hacked to post fake news that Sept. 11 anniversary attacks had happened at the site of the World Trade Center.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the “FBI cyber crimes unit” is looking into the hacking.

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CBS News Unpublishes ‘Internet News’ Stories after Fake Steve Jobs Dead Tweet

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