How the mighty (stupid) fall

Apparently, on receiving word that the (now) former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been arrested for rape, French President Nicolas Sarkozy shrugged and said, "Well, we did warn him."

A 'serial seducer' with a history of sometimes persistent unwanted advances, before being sent off to head the IMF, Mr Sarkozy's likely socialist rival in next year's presidential elections had been given a little chat by his conservative foe. Mindful of Bill Clinton's sex scandal, Mr Sarkozy reminded DSK, as he is known in France, that the Americans "don't joke" about this sort of thing.

We must, of course, presume Mr Strauss-Kahn to be innocent until he has had his day in court. Nonetheless, if the trial reveals him to have pushed the limits of legality, in a country where perfectly legal, if seedy things - Bill Clinton's stock-in-trade - suffice to make a scandal, the favourite for next year's election will be guilty of a monumental lapse in judgement.

Meanwhile, his friends on the French left have done better than presume his innocence. The press in France has been filled with angry articles slamming the US justice system for treating Mr Strauss-Kahn as if he is already guilty. Yet the same articles, all too often, rush to claim that Mr Strauss-Kahn couldn't possibly have done what he stands accused of. Guess the court of public opinion there has already rendered its judgement: the woman is obviously a liar. In this rush to judgement, French writers do no better than American ones, some of whom already speak of Strauss-Kahn as if he was a convict.

unequal justice

With its adversarial approach that makes defence attorneys especially important, the ability of rich people to 'buy' a good defence does, in fact, make for unequal justice in the US. Ironically, this will play in Mr Strauss-Kahn's favour. After all, he is not short of a euro or two and has hired the best lawyers available. Equally, because, without witnesses, rape is exceedingly difficult to prove, and the odds favour Mr Strauss-Kahn beating the rap even if he did do the crime.

Yet, while the American justice system might not be so blind, the fact is that when the mighty fall, they fall hard in the US. Some French editorialists were outraged that Mr Strauss-Kahn was made to walk before the cameras, handcuffed, "like a common criminal". The American reply was curt and to the point, along the lines of: "Sorry, Gaston, but that is in fact what he stands accused of; we don't distinguish between common criminals and elite ones."

Underlying the contrasting views of Mr Strauss-Kahn's treatment is a deeper divide between the two countries' political cultures. Even if their leaders are gazillionaires, Americans like their politicians to maintain the fiction that they are 'one of us'. That's why they go all Oprah or launch reality shows.

French journalism on the line

The French have a more aristocratic tradition. They like their politicians to stand above the fray. The price for maintaining this nobility is a Fourth Estate that is less inquisitive. The French press prides itself for being above American prurience, treating politicians' private lives as no-go areas. Yet, if it turns out, as the prosecution will allege, that Mr Strauss-Kahn was, in fact, a serial rapist, that French journalists knew but conspired to cover it up to maintain his 'dignity', it will be French journalism that goes into the dock.

Americans are riveted to this case because they take a certain schadenfreude in it. Just as they make movies in which the hero triumphs in the end, seeing a powerful man do the perp walk for an assault on a humble chambermaid reassures them that maybe, after all, justice is for all.

The French are riveted for a different reason. If it emerges that journalistic culture colludes with powerful men - worse, to the point that poor black women are immediately dismissed as liars - there will be a lot of painful soul-searching.

Although if it comes to that, like all French soul-searching, it will probably last only until the country wins its next international football match.

John Rapley is the Bradlow fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and rapley.john@gmail.com.