“Steve Jobs has died…of pancreatic cancer,” Scott Pelley said just a few minutes ago on CBS.
I spent most of my life working in journalism–both as a reporter and as a teacher. The first thing my first editor told me was it is more important to get it right than to be first in print. The first thing I taught my students about being a reporter is always get the facts right. Being first is not as important as getting it right.
Getting the facts right means the truth matters to you. Getting the facts wrong sends the message that you don’t care about the truth. And journalism trades on its credibility.
Tonight CBS gave me one more reason not to trust them. But this one hurt more than the other betrayals of the mainstream media.
Steve Jobs did not die of pancreatic cancer. He died of neuroendocrine cancer that originated in his pancreas. That may, to some, seem a fine distinction. It is not. Had he had pancreatic cancer he would have been dead several years ago. The liver transplant that bought him several years of life would have done nothing for him.
A normal tumor takes up space, consumes resources and gradually destroys the organs a round it. It is a pretty passive creature.
But a neuroendocrine tumor takes an active role in the body’s chemistry. Once it forms–and it can form anywhere, the pancreas being one of the rarer locations–it can produce nearly any hormone or peptide the body produces. And those additional chemicals mess up the body in a variety of ways–none of them pleasant.
I have seen a death from pancreatic cancer. it is not an easy one. But death from NEC is even more difficult. Those extra years of life likely came with a steep final cost.
Steve Jobs was a noble human being. He did a lot of things that created the world we live in. His popularization of the graphical user interface changed the way people used computers. It made possible desktop publishing–which started a revolution that leads inexorably to this page–and everything else we see on the internet. Without DTP the content of the Internet is controlled by the same handful of organizations that control both the print and the broadcast media. He saw a need for ultra small computing that led to the Blackberry which led to the iPhone which led to the iPad and will lead us god only knows where. In many respects, his vision is, technologically, the world we live in today.
Arguably, there is no Arab spring without Steve Jobs, no occupation of Wall Street. Where those things will lead none of us knows. But to the extent that good grows out of them, Steve Jobs will have had a hand in it.
Jobs led a life that mattered. His death matters. What he died from matters.
Just as Jane led a life that mattered. Her death mattered. What she died from matters.
When the news media get it wrong they condemn others to the deaths these two great minds suffered. As one who has witnessed death from this disease far too closely and far too personally, I can tell you that CBS’ blunder is deeply disturbing.
It is disturbing to me as a reporter because ethically I have an ongoing love affair with truth and accuracy. It is disturbing to me as a citizen because I need to be able to rely on the professional media to tell me the truth about events I cannot be physically present to witness.
And it is disturbing to me as an advocate for a disease about which the general public is unaware because it makes my job more difficult. When you are hunting horses disguised as zebras, it doesn’t help when the media calls it an antelope.
