Sacha Baron Cohen: is he wrong to make fools of the unwitting?

“There is no such thing as bad publicity,” as the 19th-century showman and godfather of fake publicity P T Barnum may (or may not) have once said.

But some high-ranking politicos caught up in Sacha Baron Cohen’s new television comedy venture, Who is America?, already appear to be regretting the publicity that their participation has generated.