Morbid news from TV land--the big network news operations have started working on their obits for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. They’re shooting interviews now so that they’ll have their stories ready to go, if or when the bad news hits. You can’t blame them for trying to be prepared. But it does say something about Apple’s credibility on this issue. The company insists Jobs is simply taking a six-month medical leave, and will be back in June. Then again, until last week, the company was insisting that that Jobs was fine, even when it was apparent that he was not.

Earlier this month Jobs published an open letter claiming he was suffering from a “hormone imbalance” that was “relatively simple and straightforward.” Nine days later, however, Jobs said his condition was more complex than he’d originally thought and he would be taking a leave of absence.

The matter reportedly has prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Apple misled investors about Jobs’s health. Apple’s stock has bounced up and down for months as different reports have surfaced about Jobs. Last June he appeared on stage looking frail and gaunt, which aroused fears that Jobs might have suffered a recurrence of pancreatic cancer, for which he underwent surgery in 2004.

In December, after a blog called Gizmodo reported Jobs’s health was “rapidly declining,” a reporter from CNBC claimed sources at Apple had told him Jobs was fine--and Apple shares jumped on the news. Who were those people at Apple claiming Jobs was fine? The SEC may want to know.