"Microsoft tablet snatches the spotlight," proclaimed Australia's .

Really? All based on a single, unsourced post from someone called "The Paperboy" and accompanied by easily manufactured computer-generated images that don't even mention Microsoft? Really? (Computerworld also on online media reports of a Microsoft tablet.)

In fairness, nearly all major media stories mention that Gizmodo is their source. But should major organizations even be mentioning such flimsy rumors, given the important news elsewhere they have no space or time for? Shouldn't the headlines contain the words "rumor," or "blog says" or "may be developing" rather than "developing"?

The cause of this media tragedy is a growing confusion between the real and the unreal in our culture.

is so dazzling, and the functioning of real technology so unknowable, that, well, what's the difference? It's all pretty much magic anyway, so why nitpick about unimportant distinctions between design and engineering, between imagination and invention, between fact and fiction?