Jim Crowe is Alive and Well

This morning on CNBC, the opening bell report from the NASDAQ mentioned Level 3 was in the news, as its CEO had died unexpectedly. I went online to look for news, and found none. Later in the day, Level 3 issued a statement:

“There was an incorrect media report today stating that Level 3′s CEO had passed away. The report was in fact incorrect and CEO Jim Crowe is well.”

I worked in newsrooms for a lot of years, and folks get plenty worked up about erroneous death reports. It’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make. So what happened? It turns out that a CEO did pass away, but it was Frank Lanza, the CEO of defense contractor L3 Communications.