There are a lot of good things that can come out of citizen journalism — but only when the journalists are telling the truth.

Today, a false story on CNN’s iReport of Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs suffering a heart attack caused stock in the company to temporarily stumble by more than five percent.

“It’s not true. There is no truth to the rumor,” said Apple spokesperson Katie Cotton.

It appears that sometimes all it takes is a simple headline to send uninformed stockholders to jump the gun and sell their holdings. Almost a month ago, United Airlines stock free falled 75% when a bankruptcy story from 2002 resurfaced on Google News, six years after its original posting.

But we’re glad to know that Steve Jobs is doing just fine and that reports of his demise, to paraphrase Mark Twain, have been greatly exaggerated.