Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

Is the French government taking advice from Sidney Blumenthal? We ask that question after last week's news that our erstwhile ally has formally protested to the U.S. government against what it claims is a concerted "disinformation" campaign against France.

Readers may recall that Mr. Blumenthal was the sharpie who reinforced Hillary Clinton's belief in what she famously called the "vast right-wing conspiracy." ...

... Jacques Chirac's government is now in thrall to a similar victimology that it is being punished by a U.S. government campaign to spread lies to convince Americans that the French don't like us.

But who needs to lie? It's true that a few silly American politicians have demagogued against "French fries" and the like. But they are following public opinion, not leading it. Americans have had more than enough opportunity to make their own judgments about French friendship in recent months. To take one example, many Americans probably read that French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin declined to answer when he was asked during the recent war whether he preferred victory by the Americans or Saddam Hussein. Monsieur de Villepin later said his silence was misinterpreted.

France's biggest U.S. image problem isn't with politicians; it is with America's late-night comedians. During the Cold War they told Russian jokes; now they tell French jokes, and not because John Ashcroft is ordering them to do it. Americans laugh at these jokes because the stereotype of France as a truculent but ultimately feckless adversary of America has sunk deep into the U.S. psyche. The only people who can change that image are the French themselves.

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