If Apple had made a preliminary announcement in December, things would have been better for them

On Sunday night, I publicly expressed a desire to reduce the number of times that I share a Google Reader item without a note. There is a clear preference for adding explanatory notes to Google Reader shared items, but unfortunately I am unable to add notes when sharing items from my (older) cell phone. So, last night I said:

...when accessing Google Reader via mobile, concentrate more on deleting than sharing. Wait about sharing until I'm at a desktop or laptop, unless the item title is really descriptive...

Both invariant and April Russo suggested that I star items while on mobile access, and share them with notes later when on desktop/laptop access.

And I did, until I saw this item from Silicon Alley Insider early Monday morning. The title? "Steve Jobs Admits Health Caused Him To Skip Macworld (AAPL)."

Silicon Alley Insider links to this January 5 letter from Jobs.

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I'm getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I've decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been "robbing" me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I've already begun treatment. But, just like I didn't lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple's CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple's CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

But it took Steve Jobs a long time to make his statement, and while Jobs was patiently silent, the "Steve's health" story took all sorts of interesting turns, going from a stock exchange to a trade show to a Palo Alto yogurt shop.

And Loren Feldman is sick of the coverage. He said this back in July:

We are talking about a human being for chrissakes. Steve P. is one of the most important men of the 20th century. A brilliant visionary who has quite literally changed the course of humanity as we know it. A son, a father, a husband. A cancer survivor. Yes he is the CEO of a public company, but this is a PRIVATE matter, you greedy pieces of...

Read the last word here.

I'll admit that Feldman has a point, and if we start sharing health issues for every CEO, then where do we draw the line? If a CEO has the flu and calls in sick, does his/her employer need to issue a press release? And what about the people who do the REAL work? Do we need to report aggregate daily fat percentages and cholesterol levels for all UAW workers, for example?

But I think that, at some point, Apple did have an obligation to share what it knew about Jobs' health, even if it didn't know everything at the time. And, at the very latest, that information should have been shared when the Macworld speaker choice was revealed.

Here's what Steve SHOULD have said - not on January 5, but back in December. For argument's sake, let's assume for the moment that Steve didn't know about the hormonal imbalance at the time:

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I'm getting ready to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote. Phil will be delivering the Macworld keynote in my place.

I've decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show next month.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. I've decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple's CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

Yes, such a statement would have raised its own barrage of questions, again assuming that Steve didn't yet know about the hormonal imbalance when the Macworld decision was made. But that decision was an important decision for those within the Apple sphere, and I believe that it would have been better to say something, rather than to remain silent.

While I respect Loren Feldman's view, I believe that anything that affects one's ability to be a corporate officer should be addressed in some way. At the very minimum, the company should acknowledge that the executive in question is undergoing a personal matter, but is still able to perform corporate duties.

Saying nothing ends up doing more harm than it does good. In this case, the silence after the Macworld announcement led to things like the Gizmodo rumor that Jobs' health was "rapidly declining.".

Then again, on the other hand, we got a funny video out of the whole mess. However, I think that Loren would prefer not to have had to make that one.

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