You Can't Libel the Dead, Nor Can You Reveal Their Off-the-Record Comments

So saith the journalistic ethics mavens at Columbia Journalism Review, upbraiding both the Wall Street Journal and Fortune for ruining the afterlife of a dead Apple exec who told them highly secretive secrets about Steve Jobs' medical care, secrets that must remain, ethically, to be excavated by archeologists from a far, far future.

"Off the record" means off the record, in perpetuity throughout all known universes, the CJR thinks–though clearly the WSJ and Fortune don't. Bioethicist Arthur Caplan is silent on the matter, though he might not approve of the "unusual radiological treatments" Jobs underwent that the unethical revelation revealed.

For insider trading law lovers: does telling someone something you know about Jobs' health that inspires them to sell off Apple stock break the law?