What company is the most effective for stock manipulators to work over? The Street doesn't invent Microsoft products or set unrealistic expectations for Xbox uptake. The only reason for covering the Zune at all is to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Apple's iPod business. Nobody cares about Microsoft's stock price; the company can't even goose it itself. It's dead, and no amount of fake information will cause it to dance up and down in ways that short term speculators can exploit.

"Crazy" Jim Cramer's entire business is to create false information to invoke a calculated reaction, then profit from others' fear or credulity. It's not a closely held secret.

The floating news items picked up by rumor sites, reports based on scraps of papers found on trading floors, and all of those ghosts whispering news that pretends to be of great import for Apple's stock price are all lies generated by a few sources, intended to exploit the trust of investors and get them to sell off or buy up stock.

[More Absurd iPhone Myths: iSuppli, Subsidies, and Pricing]

Unprofitably Scandalous News.
This explains why nobody reports on Microsoft's six billion dollars of losses in consumer electronics, or its inability to expand into new markets. That information can't be used to manipulate stock prices and subsequently make a profit on it, because Microsoft's stock is stuck in a rut.

It explains why Microsoft's president of its Entertainment and Devices division, Robbie Bach, could dump $6.2 million of stock just before announcing another billion dollar loss related to Xbox failures, but not face any media coverage regarding his insider trading. The news was only a minor curiosity because Microsoft's stock is as flat as a frozen lake.

10 FAS: 9 - Troy Wolverton, Neil Cavuto, and the Apple Stock Scandal