No media sympathy for Black in verdict's wake

CTVNEWS

No media sympathy for Black in verdict's wake

Canadian Press Published Saturday, July 14, 2007 11:27PM EDT

Text:

Conrad Black, the former media baron, found himself on the receiving end of some harsh judgments in the world's press on Saturday, including one from a publication that once belonged to his lost media empire.

"Black, the fraudster," read the headline of the Daily Telegraph, the British newspaper that was once the flagship of Black's former media empire, Hollinger International.

The Times headline read "Corrupt media tycoon faces 20 years' jail."

The Financial Times said in an editorial that in his efforts to keep up with New York's wealthiest socialites, Black "lost touch with the basic principles of honesty."

The paper called the jury's decision "a low-key and precise verdict" that brings an end to his crimes "responsibly and correctly."

The treatment of the Black trial in the industry in which he was once a powerful figure has not gone unnoticed.

Mark Steyn, one of Maclean's magazine's bloggers covering the trial, summed up the media's reaction to Black's conviction this way:

". . . Conrad got a better deal from a Chicago jury than he did from the industry in which he worked most of his life."

Black, 62, was found guilty by a federal jury of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice - the same guilty count that sent Martha Stewart to jail.

He was acquitted of nine other counts ranging from tax fraud to the most serious charge - racketeering.

Hollinger International, based in Chicago, was at one time one of the world's largest publishers of community newspapers as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph, the National Post and Israel's Jerusalem Post.

Britain's Guardian praised the jury's decision as "subtle" and "credible."

"If 12 lay people could arrive at such a finely calibrated conclusion, why not those governing Hollinger?" the daily's editorial said.

"The company's directors included Henry Kissinger .. These are men who have framed policies, dealt with world leaders, and even prosecuted wars; yet they did not stop a fraud worth $60 millions."

"The fact that it took shareholders to blow the whistle was a shameful failure of corporate governance," the editorial said.

An editorial published in The Chicago Tribune said Black was accustomed to having his words amplified by his media megaphone.

"His guilt, his disgrace, should be blared just as loud," it said.

The New York Times ran a news analysis titled "Conrad Black's downfall shaped by many battles."

Looking at Black's past, the paper said Black's bullheadedness has worked against him.

"Mr. Black, a military history buff who would compare his business strategies to great battles, made several aggressive moves after being removed from his company that resulted in more lawsuits and investigations into this affairs."

In Canada, the media coverage of the verdict seemed less emotional.

"Black Guilty" read the headline on the front page of The National Post, one of Black's former newspapers.

The Post dedicated more than 12 broadsheet pages to Black's conviction, including one full page of photos of Black with family, friends, business partners and royals, including the Queen.

In the wake of the guilty verdict, some of the Canadian media revisited Black's decision several years ago to renounce his Canadian citizenship in order to become a British peer.

"... the lofty title he traded for his Canadian citizenship looks like even more folly and foolishness today," wrote The Winnipeg Sun.

"Black's life serves as both a grand tragedy and a morality play for us all."

Here's a list of headlines on Conrad Black's conviction published Saturday in some foreign and Canadian newspapers and posted on websites: