Steve Jobs is not dead

Major newspapers and news services keep “file” obituaries for famous living people — celebrities, political leaders, business leaders, and the like. That way, if something horrible happens, most of the person’s life story is already researched and written. (Cue your recording of Dirty Laundry, by Don Henley.)

Every so often, one of those file obits accidentally slips out. That’s what happened Wednesday afternoon, when Bloomberg News posted its file obit for Apple’s Steve Jobs. While the file obit was marked “Hold For Release – Do Not Use,” it’s still bad that it got out.

Bloomberg retracted the story shortly thereafter — but not after the snafu became its own news story. Read the coverage of this in the Silicon Valley Business Journal and the London Times, for example.

The whole file obit is available from Gawker. It’s fascinating reading. They’re also the source of our graphic.