The news is now fiction

If you think the media can sell papers by printing things which haven't happened then really we needn't have any news at all. Slow news days already create pages by asking officials silly questions, and then reporting some crap like 'Minister does not intend us to eat children' or similar, but taking a suggestion not yet even deliberated in parliament in Cyprus, and spending three entire days treating it as an event until, well, it hadn't happened at all and wasn't even approved.

That has dropped our entire media (as there was only the one story going round whoever reported it) to a whole new level. It's too late afterwards to try and apologise (oh, they didn't) as no different from a thief offering the stolen goods back when caught, and clearly set out their stall that rather than print more cartoons or photos of Pippa's blurry tits taken from a mile away they basically make stuff up. Had they even been accurate and reported 'Cyprus are considering taking money directly from the bank accounts' it would have provided almost the same impact, plus the bonus of being correct. I am now guessing the reason it was reported this way was to see the reaction before voting, so possibly a deliberate request from the Cypriot government to see if the riots began or not, and clearly decided the reaction wouldn't be worth the risk.

We have been treated like dirt once again, both by the press and the politicians, and most likely working together. This is the standard of both in the 21st century, along with Chris Huhne's conviction for fraud and Julia Gillard's ongoing investigation for it. She says she wasn't involved on the case as handed to a clerk (although lawyers must sign off their clerk's work) although her boss says she was, so of course one must be lying, and the boss has nothing to lose either way as a clue. Unless and until we wake up to the very basic tricks played by both, no different to a third rate conjurer, we will always be played like fools by governments using the press to maintain the illusion, while the tiny minority of those aware are told to shut the hell up and stop causing trouble.
Be part of the solution, not the problem.