Apple telling the press that the state of its CEO’s health is a “private matter” was like waving a red cape in front of a bull.

Within hours Fortune and the New York Times were reporting that the 53-year-old cancer survivor probably wasn’t dying – as everyone had surmised by his emaciated appearance at the iPhone G3 introduction last month.

The Times talked to people who talked to Jobs and said they said that he said he was cancer-free.

Fortune came back with diagrams from the Mayo Clinic of what Jobs’ rearranged insides must look like since his 2004 surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer that “removed,” it said, “large parts of his digestive system and reassembled parts in a new configuration.”

The result of this procedure is that patients “typically lose up to 10% of their body weight and may suffer digestive problems for the rest of their lives,” which is the same story the Times got but without the pictures.

Fortune says of course it’s possible the cancer has returned – the fear that was weighing on Apple’s stock – but figures the impact of the operation is “probably sufficient to explain Jobs’ weight loss.

According to the Times Jobs reportedly submitted to a second operation earlier this year to address his weight problem. It also said he was running a high fever for weeks before the iPhone launch and considered not showing up for the affair, but did anyway.

Apple explained his appearance then by saying that he had a “common bug” and had been taking antibiotics, a story nobody bought.