It’s been a while since I was in Canada, 1999 to be exact, but when I was there I don’t remember our neighbors to the North as being so behind-the-times.  So you might understand my confusion at the CBC’s revelation of O’Reilly’s “Paris Business Review” debacle as if it was somehow a current event.

You see, the “lie” in question stems from a comment from O’Reilly last April. It was widely blogged about and covered extensively by Media Matters back on April 28th. For Moore to credit the CBC with exposing O’ Reilly as a liar is akin to me professing to expose Richard Nixon as a liar and to expect anyone to believe I am telling them something new.

The quote in question, for those of you who understandably don’t care to click on over to Moore’s website, is as follows, from one of the segments on his show.

From the Media Matters ( not especially accurate) transcript:

O’REILLY: Now if the [Canadian] government—if your government harbors these two deserter [sic], doesn’t send them back ... there will be a boycott of your country which will hurt your country enormously. France is now feeling that sting.

MALLICK: I don’t think for a moment such a boycott would take place because we are your biggest trading partners.

O’REILLY: No, it will take place, madam. In France ...

MALLICK: I don’t think that your French boycott has done too well ...

O’REILLY: ...they’ve lost billions of dollars in France according to “The Paris Business Review.”

MALLICK: I think that’s nonsense.

The “nonsense” stems from the fact that there is no specific publication called “The Paris Business Review.” O’Reilly doesn’t say that it’s a publication, but the way he worded it has been the cause of much Al Franken-style “Lying Liars” type of gotcha op-ed pieces and poking of fun at the expense of ol’ Bill.

But that’s where the nonsense actually ends, kinda. The anti-O’Reilly/Conservative/USA/whatever types have also called him on his assesment that the US boycott of French products and it’s effectiveness. They cite an oft-repeated but seldom actually read report from the US Census Bureau which apparently claims that since 2002 French exports to the US have actully gone up to $2.26 billion in French goods and services, up from $2.18 billion in February 2002.

However, a look at thatreport actually shows that imports from France fell from an all-time high in 2001 of 30.4 billion to 28.7 billion in 2004.

The “lie” O’Reilly seems to have been caught in ( or was caught in almost a year ago but is just getting around to Moore and Canada) is simply the mis-statement of the publication which reported this information, which by the way, wasn’t specifically mentioned as a stand alone publication in the first place by O’ reilly.

Perhaps O’ Reilly was referring to something like this report from The National Review ( which I realize came out after the interview, so no, its not specifically this one) which explains how the boycott actually did really hurt the French, especially their wine industry.

In the article, Steven Moore (no relation) explains that:

..... the truth is that France is still suffering from the boycott.

The short-term impact of the boycott against the French was devastating to key French industries. According to a report by the trade publication Wine Spectator, French wine sales fell by 26 percent in the first three months of the boycott and the global share of wine sales by France for the first half of 2003 plummeted by half. A poll by the French Luxury Marketing Council discovered that nearly 4 out of every 10 wealthy Americans were swearing off French goods.

Now the evidence for 2004 indicates continued residual damage to the French business environment resulting from the boycott. Real imports from France to the U.S., which stood at $2.6 billion a year in 2001, are on course to reach barely $2.5 billion in 2004. French wine sales have not recovered, potentially because consumers switched to new brands and never went back. Here is what the evidence shows: The value of French wine exports fell 10 percent in the first five months of 2004, compared with the same period in 2002. Even more embarrassing for the French is that wines from California, Chile, and Australia overtook French wines on global export markets for the first time last year. France exported 1.78 billion bottles; new-world vintners exported 1.93 billion.

So, has Moore and the CBC caught O’ Reilly in a big o’l stinkin’ lie?

I report, you decide.

Be sure to check out part one of this report below, entitled ; “A reluctant defense of Coulter”