Toronto Life: Spectator

Spectator

Posts with category ‘Black Watch’


So Long. Farewell. Auf wiedersehen. Goodbye.

This is my last post for Spectator, as I am moving onward and upward, or backward and downward, depending on your point of view. I’ve gotten a real kick out of the past 16 months, first blogging about the Conrad Black trial, then more broadly on whatever it was I’ve spent the past five months mouthing off about.

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Denied: Posner’s wry prose more or less sends Black to jail until 2013

Yesterday, in 16 pages of tightly woven legal reasoning, Richard Posner more or less put paid to whatever faint hope remained that Conrad Black will see a free day anytime before 2013. Moreover, he ensures that, barring a judicial miracle, Black’s co-conspirators Jack Boultbee and Peter Atkinson will join him as guests of the United States on or about July 10. Posner is among the most estimable minds on the American bench, and his decision reflects its author’s eclectic, sometimes eccentric, but always razor sharp intellect. The prose possessed a sniffily dismissive and wry air. In explaining the nub of Black’s fraudulent endeavours Posner writes:

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Fallout continues after Conrad Black’s contentious appeals hearing

The fallout from Lord Black’s contentious appeals hearing included the now-familiar bumptious rebuttal from his Lordship, backed up by the usual ventriloquism offered up by George Jonas of the National Post. In all this, there was the assertion that judges Posner and Sykes were, as Black put it, “essentially part of the prosecution.” Whatever his motivation throughout the hearing, Posner was by turns caustic, sarcastic, incredulous and dismissive. Afterwards, Andrew Frey noted that it’s an appeals judge’s job to be skeptical and that it was unlikely that Posner would come off the bench and give him a hug.

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Two rich white guys face a higher power

Here are a couple of stray observations on a steamy Toronto Monday. Friday night, Peter C. Newman won a National Magazine Award for his magisterial take on the Conrad Black trial in the pages of Toronto Life. From the podium, he thanked the man himself. Mr. Black noted in the pages of Saturday’s Post that, to his mind, this “outpouring of sentimental celebration…is a nostalgic re-enactment of the leftist ritual of self-indulgent historical myth-making.” He was writing about the 40th anniversary of student rioting in France, but as an expression of his likely take on Newman’s triumph, it’ll do just fine.

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Lesson #18,330,424 from the Conrad Black trial: Simplify

For as long as he remains a guest of the United States—and perhaps right to the gates of Paradise—I suspect Conrad Black will hear ringing in his ears the following exchange between Judge Richard Posner and Andrew Frey recorded at Black’s oral appeal to the Seventh Circuit (I’ve edited the exchange for the purposes of clarity):

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Conrad Black’s last kick at the can

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals calendar has it listed for 9:30 a.m. Central Time this morning: Conrad Black’s last kick at the can (short of an appeal to the Supreme Court), “07-4080, 08-1030, 08-1072 & 08-1106; USA v. Black 30 min.”

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Conrad Black looking to teach, rewrite history

He haunts us still. Conrad Black—newly minted instructor of American history at Coleman Federal Correctional Institute—takes his case before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals this Thursday, with the help of his able appeals lawyer, Andrew Frey. Oral arguments are limited to a half-hour on both sides, with yellow and red lights aflashin’ to ensure a timely disposal of the arguments. Steve Skurka has a piece on the National Post’s Web site that neatly summarizes the case on both sides.

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What a difference a year makes for Eddie Greenspan

While Garth Drabinsky struggles mightily to remain among the unconvicted and non-felonious, the man making his case is in something of a battle of his own. Through the course of the Conrad Black trial, Edward Greenspan’s reputation as Canada’s defence attorney nonpareil took a ferocious beating. Leaving aside his client’s conviction, the much-publicized antipathy between himself and the jury, and his often rancorous relations with lawyers for Black’s co-accused, there still remains outstanding, as a matter of public record (courtesy Mark Steyn and Maclean’s), the accusation that he and Ed Genson (Black’s co-counsel) each demanded a substantial extra payment on the eve of closing arguments. So, in seeking to afford Drabinsky the best defence possible, Eddie, like a relief pitcher coming off a particularly severe shelling, is looking to impress on this, his next trip to the mound.

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On the hook for Conrad Black’s legal bills

There’s a thick vein of irony running through the tortuously long odyssey of United States v. Conrad Black, et al. And with the final chapter to be written June 5 (when oral arguments are made before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals), Judge Leo Strine of the Delaware Court of Chancery offers one of the richest paradoxes to date. Strine, you might remember, effectively blocked Black’s efforts to sell the Telegraph out from under Hollinger International shareholders. Regarding that case of corporate litigation, Strine wrote: “It became almost impossible for me to credit his word…. I found Black evasive and unreliable. His explanations of key events and of his own motivations do not have the ring of truth.”

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Livent bosses robbed Show Boat to pay Ragtime

Gordon Eckstein’s version of Livent’s accounting practices reminds me more and more each day of a punchline from the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup: the Minister of Finance says, “Here is the Treasury Department’s report, sir. I hope you’ll find it clear.” To which Rufus T. Firefly replies, “Why, a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child—I can’t make head or tail of it.”

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“Legal problems” may delay Conrad Black’s memoir of his legal problems

There are rumours floating around concerning delays in the publishing date for Conrad Black’s much-ballyhooed trial memoir The Fight of My Life. Until as recently as last week, his Lordship’s publisher, McClelland & Stewart president Douglas Pepper, was saying the doorstopper would be out this October. However, a source close to Black reports that “legal problems” could push it out a year to fall 2009. Black’s busy litigation schedule may have something to do with it.

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Livent trial revelations: Cooked books rooks schnooks

He’s a lot taller, rather more phlegmatic, and considerably more fragrant (having applied substantial splashes of eau de something), but Livent’s former VP finance Gordon Eckstein had about him more than a whiff of David Radler when he walked into court yesterday to testify against his erstwhile bosses Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb. The examination—in chief carried out with brisk efficiency by the Crown’s lead prosecutor, Robert Hubbard—directed Eckstein to tell the court that though he was the one who cooked Livent’s books, he did so at the behest of Drabinsky and Gottlieb (both of whom were sitting not 20 feet away).

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Greenspans initiate Radler redux at Livent trial

For those of us who sat through the trial of Conrad Black, yesterday afternoon at the Livent fraud trial was a trip down memory lane. Eddie Greenspan (acting for Garth Drabinsky) took over the cross-examination of former Livent contractor Peter Kofman from his brother Brian (acting for the co-accused, Myron Gottlieb). In what was clearly a warm-up for the main event, the cross-examination of former Livent senior VP finance Gordon Eckstein (playing, for the purposes of this trial, the role of David Radler), Eddie and Brian led Kofman through a series of questions meant to portray Eckstein—in the words of one press gallery wag—“in horns and a tail.”

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Jonathan Black makes his courthouse appearance

Courtroom 111 at Toronto’s Old City Hall at 9 a.m. on a Monday is a scene straight out of Dickens. The room is jammed to the rafters with criminal lawyers, their clients, various levels of legal bureaucracy, overstuffed file folders and other assorted hangers-on (i.e., me). In the midst of this cattle call was the case of Her Majesty vs. Jonathan Black—one of three heirs to what’s left of Lord Black’s fortune. In a short, sharp exchange between the court and young Black’s representative, the case was held over until May 26.

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Conrad Black’s legal tormentor gets new job, salary bump

The Chicago Tribune notes today that Conrad Black’s tormentor-in-chief, Eric Sussman, has moved on to head up the regulatory enforcement and white-collar litigation practice at Chicago firm Kaye Scholer, a top-tier U.S. litigation shop. Sussman is all atwitter at his new prospects and considerable salary bump:

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Theatre puns running low among journos at Drabinsky-Gottlieb trial

This country’s most famous and fabulous theatre impresario and his long-time partner went on trial for fraud yesterday morning in a large, airy courtroom (under an enormous coat of arms featuring a lion and a unicorn and the words Dieu et mon droit) on the fourth floor at 361 University Avenue—a mere driver and a wedge from the theatres that made Garth Drabinsky famous. The setting was likely a little dull for Garth’s taste. He did look good: tan and fit in a snappy check suit, with that insane shag carpet still growing out the top of his head. There were the usual oyeh, oyeh, oyehs, followed by the introduction of the Crown and its opponents, the Greenspan brothers.

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Cue the madness—Drabinsky and Gottlieb are now on trial

After a mere decade of delays and distractions, former theatre impresario and alleged fraudster Garth Drabinsky will finally see the inside of a Canadian courtroom. He and his Livent Inc. partner Myron Gottlieb are facing criminal charges before Ontario Superior Court Judge Mary Lou Benotto—she of the tainted blood trial. Reporting on CBC Radio this morning, Mike Hornbrook pointed out that it’s considered “Canada’s largest ever prosecution of corporate fraud”—a good thing, too, considering the Americans were ready to prosecute these two as long ago as 1999. Unlike their former board member Conrad Black, Gottlieb and Drabinsky had the good sense to hole up in Canada and wait for the RCMP to conduct its investigation (an indictment took three years). As for the subsequent delay in the case coming to trial, Drabinsky can thank (in part) a certain aforementioned peer of the realm: the Crown was only too happy to accommodate Eddie Greenspan’s crowded calendar as he flew about the continent defending Black.

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Conrad Black’s spirits downgraded from ‘happy’ to ‘healthy’ despite attending prison seminars on American politics

A smattering of news on the Conrad Black front this morning. Last evening, Patrick Fitzgerald et al. responded to Andrew Frey’s pleading that the Hollinger four’s conviction be set aside in a 127-page brief. June 5 has been set as the date for oral arguments before the 7th Circuit with a final decision expected in the fall.

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Push comes to shove for Conrad Black

Conrad Black’s latest misadventure, a lawsuit brought by a Chicago cameraman seeking punitive and compensatory damages issuing from Lord Black’s alleged attempt to remove him from his shoulder, was much reported in the Canadian press recently. Each occasion of its telling included a standard piece of now-hilarious legal bulletproofing: “None of the allegations have been proven in court.”

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Peter C. Newman weighs in on “Robber Baron” and Conrad’s prison publishing

Peter Newman, my colleague and Black scribe extraordinaire, dropped me a line this morning. Always a joy, especially since parts of the message are well worth sharing:

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Times 2, Journal 1: Murdoch takes a page from Conrad Black’s “The Art of Newspaper War”

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Newsweek’s latest has a mammoth take out on New York’s newspaper war. Titled “Murdoch, Ink,” the dek on the article reads, “With a redesigned Wall Street Journal, mogul Rupert Murdoch is launching an old-fashioned newspaper war against The New York Times. Not since William Randolph Hearst took on Joseph Pulitzer have we seen such a fight.” And from there on in, it’s all Rupert all the time, punctuated by a series of delicious quotes straight from the horse’s mouth.

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Conrad Black roundup: A finger, a fiction, a fallacy and a foundation

While things may be workaday at Florida’s FCI Coleman, the last several news cycles have seen an eclectic array of press coverage. It was announced over the weekend that David Chidley’s oft-printed photograph of Conrad Black flipping the bird to a gaggle of preying vermin during the Trial of the Millennial Epoch has won a Canadian award for spot news photograph of the year—trumping, I might add, 2,200 other entries. Dare I say that the photo and its recognition neatly capture the essence of our national press’s love-hate obsession with Prisoner #18330-424? We loathe and mock him. We bait him. And yet we yearn for, if not his affections, at least his attention. And God bless him: he always seems to return the favour in spades.

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Is Martin Newland’s freshly launched paper The Guardian or Pravda? They report, you decide

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Martin Newland, Ken Whyte’s former deputy honcho at the National Post and head honcho at The Daily Telegraph during the reign of Lord Black of Coleman FCI, is starting up the latest thing: a big-time daily newspaper financed by United Arab Emirates petro-dollars. The Times of London reports that:

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Can Rupert Murdoch steal the thunder of Microhoo?

Whatever you might imagine Conrad Black is up to today—washing floors, dishes or laundry, mowing a lawn or teaching a fellow inmate to speak French—spare a moment to empathize with the resentment and envy his Lordship must feel at the prospects of his tormentor and vanquisher Mighty Murdoch. I’ve argued before in this space that it was Rupert who knocked over the first domino leading to the great man’s demise. This morning in The Globe and Mail, Black biographer Richard Siklos (whose sage counsel led my thinking in this regard) writes about the many complex scenarios revolving around the current Internet-based plays that will shape the broader media landscape for the foreseeable future.

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Conrad Black’s Homer Simpson moment

In case you hadn’t heard, timing is everything. Last November, I reported the contents of a long piece from Law.com describing in depth the diminishing enthusiasm at the DOJ for the prosecution of corporate crime. Further evidence appeared this morning by way of a page-one headline in The New York Times: “In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Crimes.” It seems that, rather than seeking criminal indictments, the DOJ is seeking to mete out justice on the cheap.

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The myna bird call of Barbara Amiel

Barbara Amiel’s latest pensée in the pages of Maclean’s—besides perfunctory references to her new dog and the shortcomings of Barack Obama—contains a sentence that reminded me of something I’d read before. Now, usually when my memory is jogged like this, it means Amiel is repeating something penned earlier by her own good self, since doctrinal and rhetorical inconsistency aren’t among Lady Black’s more evident sins. Not this time, however. The recollection bothered me enough that I followed my nose—and voila!

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Conrad Black regains passport, home, jewellery; dignity pending

Not that it’ll do him much good, at least for the moment, but Conrad Black, courtesy of Amy St. Eve, just got his passport back. He also got the liens on his Palm Beach boîte lifted and $1.6 million in jewellery and antiquities returned.

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American election predictions from Conrad Black

The Globe reported on its Web site yesterday that Lord Black of Crossharbour has sent a Dear Paul letter to Paul Waldie (the Globe’s lead Conrad reporter), assuring him that, despite his current condition, he continues to assert his stalwart, undying commitment to being, well, himself.

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The gorier details of the Hollinger Five

For those of you who continue to be interested in the gorier details of the Hollinger Five, last night, a financial Web site called Seekingalpha.com posted the transcript of Sun-Times Media Group’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call with investors and analysts from March 11 of this year. Among the juicier bits: CEO and president Cyrus Freidheim Jr. reports that “During 2007, Mr. Black and his associates were advanced $48 million in legal fees under the company’s indemnification provisions. The company is attempting to recover advancements related to guilty verdicts but must continue to make advancements for their appeals.”

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Conrad Black ignored by the OSC, embraced by the New York Sun

Sure it’s well worn, but to my mind it forever bears repetition: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Karl Marx certainly knew a thing or two about capitalism’s foibles didn’t he? Just ask Conrad Black. There he sits in a tropical hoosegow, and still the poor guy has to fend off the Ontario Securities Commission, which, having deferred to just about every American regulatory body save the Nevada State Gaming Commission, has postponed—yet again—a hearing into the malfeasances of Hollinger Inc et al.

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$20 million later, it’s all over but the crying (and the appeal)

The last fag-ends of the frayed mess left by the Hollinger Five are finally being clipped away. With Black and Radler in the pokey, Atkinson and Boultbee nervously awaiting their appeal and Mark Kipnis relatively free and clear, Hollinger Inc. cut its tattered umbilical cord to Sun-Times Media Group Inc. in one fell swoop. Yesterday, the company relinquished its super-voting shares and replaced them with common stock (consequently, the six board members appointed by Hollinger last July will resign) and settled with the SEC to the tune of $20-odd-million.

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E-mail now among Conrad Black’s luxuries

Conrad Black’s recent missive to the Canadian Press, much bruited upon by this blog over the Easter weekend, reveals the weirdly Janus-faced attitude that the United States adopts toward the free speech of the two million of its own citizens (reportedly the highest rate of incarceration per capita of any nation on earth) it now imprisons.

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Mark Kipnis is competent 99 per cent of the time

The top story on law.com today reprises the strange case of Mark Kipnis, former Hollinger International corporate counsel and, pending appeal, convicted felon. Kipnis—who benefited not at all from the scheme that paid out millions to his bosses—was convicted essentially of negligence. In pleading to stay out of jail (successfully, it turns out), Kipnis admitted that “ninety-nine per cent of my time, Judge, I believe I was competent. I believe I did do a good job. It was that one per cent—the compliance aspect—that should have taken much more of my time. I admit…I did not fully understand the magnitude of those responsibilities.”

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David Frum compliments lefty bloggers—watch for flying pigs

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The January-February issue of National Interest, a mainstay of America’s neo-con commentariat, has two aspects of note. First, it is the last issue listing Conrad Black as a member of its advisory council. The reason for his departure, other than the obvious, may include the fact that his decidedly former pal Henry Kissinger is the publication’s honorary chairman. The second aspect, much as it galls me to say, is an intriguing piece on the influence of the blogosphere on American foreign policy debates written by former White House speech scribbler and big-time Conrad Black apologist David Frum.

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Erosion of the First Amendment, thy name is libel

In a fit of self congratulation, the Globe editorialized this morning on the merits of an appeals court decision that tossed out the contempt charge against Hamilton Spectator’s Kenneth Peters for failing to report his sources to a lower court (a cut-and-dry case of spiteful judicial overreach). Meanwhile, a darker, more consequential, case plays out south of the border. There was a piece in The New York Times yesterday on the ongoing case of Dr. Steven Hatfill. Hatfill, you might remember, is the government scientist wrongly identified as a “person of interest” in connection with the sending of anthrax-laced letters to U.S. senators in the early part of the decade. Hatfill sued the government for violating his privacy by leaking information about him to the press. He also sued The New York Times (among others) for publishing that information and thereby libelling him.

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Jonathan Black rear-ends celebrity status

Well, it’s not exactly Britney Spears shaving her head, but when Jonathan Black allegedly bounced his vehicle—what the Toronto Star characterized as his “luxury” car—off the back of a GMC Safari van last Thursday, he verged, however briefly, into the tawdry world of Lindsay Lohan, celebutantes, the paparazzi and whatever else it is that fuels the 24/7 not-so-beau monde of TMZ, Perez Hilton and X17online. Jonathan hasn’t hit Brangelina status quite yet, but the reach of the story should give the Canadian media pause. The story has made it all the way to The Sydney Morning Herald and the Malaysia Star.

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Hollinger four submits appeal, argues St. Eve gave prosecution “evidentiary shortcuts”

At this hour, there are reports from Bloomberg, AP and the Canadian Press that Conrad Black’s appeal has been submitted to judges Easterbrook, Bauer and Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court. The appeal is a joint submission from the Hollinger four (Mark Kipnis mustn’t be finding house arrest as congenial as he thought it would be).

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The trouble with Eliot Spitzer (and Conrad Black?)

David Brooks, whose twice-weekly column in The New York Times is, along with Frank Rich’s Sunday column, the best thing in that newspaper, hits a towering shot this morning. Without using his name once, Brooks neatly dissects exactly the trouble with Eliot Spitzer. For those of my interlocutors drawing comparisons to his Lordship, there’s plenty here for you, too.

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Conrad Black’s legacy: $200,000,000 in legal fees

If you like numbers—and who doesn’t?—this one’s a beaut. The Chicago Tribune, in reporting on the ongoing catastrophic losses at Conrad Black’s former holding company Sun-Times Media Group Inc. (formerly Hollinger International), reveals that:

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Spitzer coverage hints at war between The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal

If you didn’t spend at least part of day two de l’affaire Spitzer with your nose buried in the pages or, to bend the analogy, the Web sites of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, I have to ask: does your blood run red? This story has it all: intrigue, hubris, venality, corruption, a wife spurned and, yes, hookers. Yet if you read carefully, another story starts to emerge: the Spitzer coverage represents the early days of an all-out newspaper war—the Journal vs. the Times—for the hearts and minds of Americans generally, and New Yorkers specifically.

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Is Rupert Murdoch’s reporter sniffing out Obama pal Tony Rezko?

Filed under “W” for “what a weird coincidence,” a reporter close to the scene at the Tony Rezko trial (overseen by the same judge who handled the Conrad Black matter, Amy St. Eve) told me last week:

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Jean Chrétien on Conrad Black: “Justice is justice”

Demonstrating his trademark canny candour, Jean Chrétien gave a speech at U of T yesterday and shed one (and only one) crocodile tear over his former frenemy, Conrad Black. “It’s sad, but justice is justice,” said the former prime minister. “It’s done and it’s an American problem—it’s very sad.”

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The ongoing irony of Conrad Black

For those among you who are fans of lead-weight irony (and who among us isn’t?), I give you John Willman today on the Financial Times’ Web site, FT.com:

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Toronto Star’s cartoon illustrates much more than just Conrad Black’s prison rapists

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As expected, the hysteria around Conrad Black’s incarceration has died down, but there’s one bit of leftover business that needs to be addressed—mostly for what it says about the fortunes of Canada’s two most prominent newspapers, the Star and the Globe. On Monday of this week, the Star kicked off a kerfuffle when it ran the following cartoon on its editorial page.

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Best of the Black coverage (or, Conrad quaffs America cocktails)

As the Black coverage continues raining down cats and dogs, I can’t help but think that this is the storm before the calm. There’s something all too ephemeral about the endless recitation of grim prison factoids: the mandatory shirt tuck, the khaki trousers, the steel-toed boots, lights out at 11, maximum 15 minutes on the phone, only five books, three magazines and one newspaper at a time, pedophiles for roommates, starchy food, 12 cents an hour…this too shall pass. And then there will be a silence into which everything else will flood—Britney, Obama, Cadman, Schreiber and on and on and on. Amid all the noise, I have found several highlights of today’s coverage (listed below). One item in particular intrigued me. It’s an entry by Michael White on his politics blog at The Guardian. In it he demonstrates the British gift for taking away with the right hand, then taking away more with the left:

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Character assassin–cum–biographer Tom Bower weighs in on Black

Among the more grinding ironies that his Lordship had to endure on that inauspicious yesterday was the appearance at 2:19 p.m. EST of a piece on the Web site of his former flagship, The Daily Telegraph. In it, and without the riposte, Black’s most ferocious tormentor, the character assassin–cum–biographer Tom Bower, puts the boot in without fear of contradiction:

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Mark Steyn defends Black’s breast-cupping gesture

Writing on his Maclean’s blog today, Mark Steyn—playing Cohn to Black’s Joseph McCarthy—enlightened the passing multitudes on the injustice of it all. In doing so he offered the following: “As for the various papers around the world, they’re not in such great shape under their new owners. ‘You have to have a feel for it,’ Conrad said to me a couple of months back, making that little motion he does with his right hand that makes it look either as if he’s re-tuning an ancient radio or cupping the breast of a passing waitress.”

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National Post: gratuitous, cheap, salacious, depraved, malicious and grotesque

Amid the deluge of articles and columns raining down around Conrad Black’s incarceration, I was particularly struck by a weekend piece in the National Post. The authors attempt to examine, through the eyes of inmates at Coleman FCI and similar institutions, what life will be like for Black during his stay in the pen. Published under a double byline—Katie Rook and Mary Vallis—the piece makes use of correspondence between the Post and various inmates, who are, as a result, named in the paper. The information provided confirms what anyone with even a passing acquaintance with prison life would assume. Life inside is full of drudgery and marked by the ugly possibility of exploitation. Given the interest in Black’s situation, this sort of reporting is (if not exactly worthy) entirely justified. And then, out of the clear blue, this bit of nonsense: “The prisoners’ written correspondences to the Post are rife with sexual innuendo and longing.”

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Conrad Black goes to jail, writes book about it

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“Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison.” And with those words from Thoreau, Conrad Black enters that “true place” today accompanied by a cacophony of media hoo-ha, some of it sensible, some sickening, some silly. A photograph of his house in Palm Beach is splashed across the front page of the Globe. A quote from his final address to the troops—published simultaneously in The New York Sun, natch—covers a third of the Post’s front page.

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It’s official: Conrad Black is going to jail

“It’s like back to boarding school, without, one dares to assume, the tedium and indignity of corporal punishment.” So said Lord Black in a recent missive to the Irish Independent, and so it shall be. Last evening, as expected, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Black must report to the Coleman Federal Correctional Institution—located an hour or so northwest of Palm Beach—no later than 2 p.m. on Monday. In a twist, both Jack Boultbee and Peter Atkinson were granted a continuance of their bail, pending appeal.

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Eddie Greenspan: defending Conrad Black “was like a forced march through a swamp”

With the curtain set to come down on Friday (with the almost-certain rejection of his appeal to remain free on bail pending appeal), there’s a surprising amount of Conrad Black–related journalistic flotsam and jetsam today. The Star’s Rick Westhead, for example, provides a backgrounder detailing how life will change for his Lordship inside the pokey:

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Conrad Black’s sense of occasion, if not context

Yesterday, when F. David Radler—inmate number 18189-424—surrendered himself at 11:30 a.m. to the Bureau of Prisons at the Moshannon Valley prison, the wheels of justice continued to grind for Conrad Black, Peter Atkinson and Jack Boultbee. The following quote appears in the 47-page government response to the Hollinger three’s joint application to continue bail pending appeal:

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