(9.9.2011) “I cannot bear Netanyahu. He’s a liar,” Nicolas Sarkozy said to President Obama, not realizing the mikes in front of them had been turned on before a news conference at the G-20 summit in Cannes last week.

“You’re fed up with him, what about me?” Obama replied. “I have to deal with him every day.”

The exchange was inadvertently piped into a press room, where assembled journalists agreed not to pass along to the public what they regarded as a private conversation. But the French website Arret Sur Images (“Freeze Frame”) heard tell of the chat, decided it was news, and published the quotes. Neither the White House nor the Elysee Palace issued a denial, to the mortification of nearly all involved.