He catapulted himself onto the Olympus of media with a fake fake — presenter Jan Böhmermann of German television broadcaster ZDF made history with the faking of a fake video. You’ll say what’s the news, everything can be manipulated these days. We don’t trust the authenticity of photos any longer, but don’t we trust TV images?!

The story is this: ZDF’s satire show Neo Magazin Royale exposed that Greek finance minister Janis Varoufakis didn’t give Germany the finger, as seen on a video recorded in 2013. No, Böhmermann went to great lengths to uncover that the finger-video was actually fingered with:

Beautifully produced, who would doubt this confession’s content! Well, soon after setting the record straight Böhmermann went public again, this time saying, “The Video is faked. By me.”

Well even the honorable New York Times reported on Germany’s fingergate. The moral of the story? Doesn’t matter what really happened. Who can separate fiction from fact?

It’s the total confusion, made possible by modern technology deceiving our senses and expectations. Can’t trust politicians, can’t trust the media, can’t trust anything you see.

What’s Greek finance minister Varoufake saying? He tweeted something about “unscrupulously” and “doctored,” confirming that even he himself couldn’t tell fact from fiction anymore… It even got weirder. The “conciliatory Greek voice” Varoufake demanded an apology.

Beware. Our eyes deceive. Sometimes visuals evoke an unintended reaction, sometimes the confusion is intended. Problem is, with today’s manipulation capabilities, fiction can become fact. Couldn’t be, or could it, that in the end everything turns out to be satire? Look at Greece’s debt crisis. In fact it’s a bailout of European banks. Only a small part of all the billions paid to Athens is for the country and people. 80% of the bailout money goes to European Union banks…

Varoufake should have stood by his finger, and fact would have remained fact.