60 Minutes embarrasses Sarkozy

It certainly wasn’t a question about Nike golf clubs that caused French president Nicolas Sarkozy to walk out of tonight’s interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes interview, conducted by Lesley Stahl.

Instead, it was just another case of CBS News stepping over the line of respect for a conservative, a line they would never have crossed had the interview been with a liberal like previous French president Jacques Chirac.

Chirac, subject of many a glowing 60 Minutes interview, was a socialist/communist and more than willing to play along with the US media’s game of, “Let’s embarrass President Bush.” Simply for the crime of being a conservative, 60 Minutes pulled its ambush style of journalism of the French president, with Stahl taking a combative tone and finally asking questions about his marriage to his wife, which was on shaky ground at the time and from whom he ultimately filed for divorce two weeks later.

Of course, 60 Minutes ran the piece Sunday to make the French president look as bad as possible. Anyone thinking his treatment has nothing to do with his conservative viewpoint needs to ask themselves why 60 Minutes never pressed Bill Clinton that hard about Juanita Broaddrick.