We here at Instablogs report on hundreds of issue, but few hit home as close as this story. CNN’s much-touted iReport ciziten-journalism recently caused trouble on Wall Street due to the network posting false information from a sender.

An iReport contributor reported that Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs had had a heart attack. Within moments of the post, the companies stock began to dip until Apple quickly responded that CNN’s third-party reporting was false, Mr. Jobs was fine.

The stock then resumed its normal trading pattern. CNN has since removed the post, obviously. But the fact that such false information about a prominent American CEO could be posted, without verification, on the website of one of the United States’ and the world’s most reputable news organization raises serious questions about the conduct of citizen journalism: who are the editors and what are the standards?

Here at Instablog this is something that we all most confront if we wish to maintain the high standards and reputation of our forum. Without fact-checking and proper conduct editing, Instablog could be what CNN iReport became last week: a network for falsehood.

The standards to be maintained are simply and obvious, they are the standards upheld by most news bureaus: honesty, decency and thorough fact-checking. As to who are the editors: we all are. It is up to us in the Instablog community to be each others editors 24/7. We must read one another’s posts and make sure that no one is intentionally spreading falsehoods and indecency (i.e. hate speech).

It also means that as public editors we should offer one another constructive criticism. I invite you all to offer comments on my writings and as an Instablog friend, I will reciprocate the honor.