A big enough lie

You sit, you watch you don't believe but decide not to show your disbelief. The machine has done its little work again. The coverage is total. Even the tennis - the tennis - is cancelled. It's a full beam spectacle. But still. The story seems too pat, too just so, too James Bond - they even describe it like that 'It was very James Bond!" - you think "Are they taking the piss? But everyone seems so happy. It can't not be untrue! And no bloodshed too. How, er unlike James Bond er..." And most of the people you know don't talk about it. Those that do give it ironic reference. It grows dull. The intrusion into the re-encounterings becomes embarassing and - what's this - the first hint of fakery thought: the soldiers waving too enthusiastically, the presenters smiling that bit too much, the woman herself holding hands with the sinister clown himself for just that bit too long (and her looking really really well). Sarko revels in it. Smiling. Rocking backwards with pleasure. The Publicity. At the edges, it starts to appear faintly desperate.

Then . The first hint that it's all been a scam.

What gives the accusations legs, (legs that's all for the moment) is that "As the General Commander of the [Colombian] Armed Forces and on my military honour, I deny that the Colombian Government has paid a single peso, a single cent," [General Freddy Padilla] said. I mean, what's that worth? Plus his account is consistent with the fact that someone paid a ransom - plus the source for all this is steel plated copper bottomed uranium tipped reliable.

And if this is mere spectacle 'Freedom' itself has been consumed by it.