PS3 Price Drop Imminent?

OK seriously, why does every PlayStation 3 pricing announcement have to turn into an enormous clusterfuck of confusion?

Let me lay it out for you, generically speaking:
1. First come the rumours about something.
2. Then come the general denials from Sony.
3. Then come more rumours in bigger publications.
4. Then come the categorical denials from Sony.
5. Then comes the statement the contradicts the categorical denial.
6. Then comes the announcement.

Apparently we are currently at step number five with this latest PS3 price drop rumor. At least if Thomson Financial Services (a competitor of Bloomberg and Reuters) and CNN Money is to be believed we are. In the latest story about the price rumor, Thomson reports the rumour as written about by a French newspaper and then follows up with this dandy of a Sony statement:

A Sony spokesman would not confirm the figures cited by Les Echos but said an announcement was ‘imminent’.

OK, so correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t that slightly contradict Sony saying they have “nothing of the sort planned”?

Sony to Cut Playstation 3 Price in Run-Up to Christmas [CNN Money]