Jim Bittermann

Stop me if you've heard this one: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and a biased CNN journalist walk into a bar...

CNN's Jim Bittermann has been admitted into the French Legion of Honor, one of just 13 foreign nationals, including two other Americans, "Howard Mamoian, a World War II paratrooper, and John Morris, a news photographer," CNN.com is reporting.

Bittermann, who also teaches journalism courses at The American University of Paris, marveled in October at the "greatness" of the 2008 election in an op-ed in the French-language Libération newspaper (rough English translation via Google here, L'accent est le mien):

I always thought that the best place, and most reliable to draw conclusions about the United States was to be outside. When you live, it is so beset with misconceptions about what happens that is difficult to relativize. And I always thought that Paris was a privileged observation post because, first, many French know a lot of things about what is happening in America and then, sooner or later, anyone with a little importance to the United States eventually come here, either on an official visit or just to spend a week visiting the museums. Thus, well before the Democratic convention, I knew, from Paris, how the chances of Barack Obama were serious. And I am not a case of Madame Sun.