French: The Language Of Credibility

First it was Sarah Palin and the fake phone call from French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Now it's the venerable New York Times and the fake letter from Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë.

Why does the French accent carry such an air of truth to us Yanks? It seems like anyone who can pronounce "crepe" correctly can get a direct line into the most exclusive places in our culture: Dozens of some of the most respected respected reporters in America couldn't get a phone call through to Palin for months back on the campaign trail, yet a québécois disc jockey could just by speaking through his nose and saying he was Sarko. And you can bet that your letter to the Times won't get published, but if you pretend you're emailing it from the Champs-Élysées (from where, I assume, the Mayor of Paris always sends his emails...while smoking a Gauloise...and wearing a beret), it'll go straight into the same paper that watches over the random comments it gets on blog posts like a hawk.

Let's just put this to bed now -- the French can fib like anyone else. And they can even be good at it. I mean, haven't these people ever had the waiter at a French place say to them, "it was a pleasure serving you this evening"?

(EVAN McMORRIS-SANTORO)