When President Bill Clinton became embroiled in a scandal in 1998 for trying to cover up the fact that he’d had sexual relations with a 22-year-old intern, France watched with a mixture of amazement, irony and — should we deny it? — a certain pleasure.
America trapped in its puritanism! The political life of the world’s leading power paralyzed by a trifling private matter! This lack of understanding between two sides of the Atlantic did not prevent Le Monde from achieving one of its highest sales with the publication of the prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s report on the most intimate aspects of Mr. Clinton’s private life.
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