Steve Jobs Is Not Teminally Ill, Times Confirms Again

Leander Kahney ()

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Steve Jobs does not have a terminal illness, the New York Times says, in an amazing story that Jobs refused to cooperate in the writing of — but actually did in his own singular way.

Reports Joe Nocera:

On Thursday afternoon, several hours after I’d gotten my final “Steve’s health is a private matter” — and much to my amazement — Mr. Jobs called me. “This is Steve Jobs,” he began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.” After that rather arresting opening, he went on to say that he would give me some details about his recent health problems, but only if I would agree to keep them off the record. I tried to argue him out of it, but he said he wouldn’t talk if I insisted on an on-the-record conversation. So I agreed.

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Because the conversation was off the record, I cannot disclose what Mr. Jobs told me. Suffice it to say that I didn’t hear anything that contradicted the reporting that John Markoff and I did this week. While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than “a common bug,” they weren’t life-threatening and he doesn’t have a recurrence of cancer. After he hung up the phone, it occurred to me that I had just been handed, by Mr. Jobs himself, the very information he was refusing to share with the shareholders who have entrusted him with their money.

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About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, Steve Jobs |

  • Snerdly

    After reading the Joe Nocera piece last night, I can concur, Joe is a slime bucket. The tone of his article is the epitome of the wall street slime bucket. He is obviously way more concerned about money than he is with a fellow human being’s health and privacy.

    From the article:

    “It would be horrible if Mr. Jobs had a recurrence of cancer. I hope it never happens. At 53, he is in the prime of his life, the father of a young family. And for the rest of us, it’s exhilarating watching him work his magic in the marketplace. Steve Jobs has created more value and driven more innovation than just about anybody in business. Who doesn’t want to see what he’ll come up with next?”

    Isn’t it enough to hope someone, anyone, does not have cancer? Does it really matter how much “marketplace magic” they have made or how much “value” they have created? Slime Bucket.

  • Steve

    Great Article! – I believe it is a private matter and all these arrogant f**ks out here are trying to make it a big issue!. I’m glad to hear it’s not life threatening (or not really hear?)

  • Curtis

    The actual evidence that his health is fine. Oops http://macenstein.com/default/archives/1531

  • http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_details.asp?individual_id=143693&sort_by=1& deocliciano

    What a GUY!
    … That S. Jobs.

  • Doug S.

    I stand by the best guess that I posited in response to Leigh’s post: Jobs isn’t ill, but the cancer surgery that rearranged his digestive system has probably left him with routine maintenance issues that most of the rest of don’t have (Philip Elmer DeWitt has deduced much the same in his Fortune column).

    If I were Steve Jobs, I would not want to have to think about these things on a constant basis, much less discuss them with the press. Best not to open the door, because if you do so once, it never closes again. If I was Peter Oppenheimer and had to do the conference call every quarter, I would not want to open the door for discussion of these things either. It’s distracting and potentially alarmist to always be talking about what’s going on with the CEO’s innards.

  • Sean Peters

    I’m very impressed by Joe and his reporting. Especially the part about how he’s so cool that Steve Jobs personally called him to chat him up about his health. Not that us lowly readers are cool enough to actually get any details, though.

    Memo to Joe: off-the-record interviews suck. You shouldn’t do them. And if you do get forced into an OTR conversation, how ’bout you just don’t mention it in your article. Does this “I’ve got a secret, but I can’t tell you what it is” game serve any purpose (other than to make you look like a name-dropper)?