You Can't Trust a British Accent

It's no secret that Americans are suckers for British accents. There's something mellifluous about the way Brits dutifully pronounce their T's and inflect their vowels. To many Americans, it exudes trust, intelligence, poshness.

Except, that is, to Congressman Anthony Weiner. The New York Democrat is incensed about British Petroleum's disastrous oil spill in the gulf and says he we shouldn't trust BP officials with beguiling old-world elocution. On MSNBC he told viewers that anyone from BP with a "British accent" is lying.

Weiner: Here's a viewer's guide to BP media briefings. Whenever you hear someone with a British accent talking about this on behalf of British Petroleum they are not telling you the truth. That's the bottom-line

Host: Oh, c'mon.

Weiner: And the problem that I have from an administrative standpoint is I think that we as a government have been giving them too much credence for the things they've been saying. Just about everything they've said at some point has turned out to be wrong... So everytime they say they're doing something, your first instinct should be: it just ain't true.