The deeds they ascribe to Conrad Black have yet to be heard before a court of law. Still, the sharks surrounding him are tearing at his flesh and tossing leftover nibbles to a ravenous media.
"Your friend Conrad Black is Martha Stewart in a pin-striped suit", someone told me yesterday.
a long time ago, I was asked to help Conrad Black with a speech. In my Toronto Sun years, I worked with Barbara amiel,
Long before hotshot attorneys were adding corporate heads to their belts, the mainstream media despised entrepreneur Conrad Black. Entrepreneurs, who try to build empires in North america, where demonstration placards say, "Eat the rich!" always run against the tide,
among the must-be legions of journalists who got their jobs thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Conrad Black, only Terence Corcoran has noticed that the charges keep shrinking as the costs of the Conrad Black investigation mount.
at first it was all about wife Barbara's birthday party and her jogging togs.
Now it all seems to come down to whether any business was actually conducted on a seven-day jag on the Hollinger International corporate jet to Bora Bora in the summer of 2001.
Financial Post scribe Terence Corcoran poses some interesting details about the Lawsuit of the Century.
"What once reached the hysterical level of US$1.25-billion under a racketeering lawsuit–thrown out of court as a joke–was later reduced to $400-million and then $200-million," Corcoran wrote, "On Thursday, in an actual indictment, the U.S. Justice Department further trimmed the value of allegations against Conrad Black down to about $80-million,"
Then there's Hollinger International, which started the ball rolling. at the latest count, the company has racked up legal costs of $103.7-million in its hot pursuit of the guy who made their company possible. That's more than 20% above the value of the money Black and associates were alleged to have stolen from the company.
Says Corcoran: "Somebody should sue Hollinger for squandering corporate resources. Maybe Lord Black already has."
Isn't corporate responsibility what this foxhunt is all about?
It must be journalistic imagination making me ponder that Patrick Fitzgerald, the same Special Counsel burning the midnight oil on additional indictments against the Bush administration is, chief catalyst behind bringing down Lord Conrad Black.
Hard though to find credibility as a David against Goliath when Goliath hasn't even been given a full and fair opportunity to defend himself in an ongoing gobbling up of the assets.
Like the mainline media, Fitzgerald has to be objective, doesn't he?
Surely, a serious U.S. attorney General like Patrick Fitzgerald wouldn't want to end up on People magazine's "Sexiest" List?
"People magazine just named the gangly, balding, pasty-faced prosecutor to its "Sexiest Man alive List". (NewsMax, Nov.20, 2005).
With that notch on his belt, Fitzgerald is bound to be portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt in the Hollywood blockbuster about the lawyer who proved you could make a career out of bringing down business heavies.
The media is having a field day pointing out that if the 61-year-old-Black is found guilty, he could go to prison for up to 40 years,
Sidebar stories stress that the Blacks are living in self-imposed exile in their Toronto Bridle Path home, that nobody telephones the couple anymore and that invitations to social outings have dried up.
Conrad Black has some things going for him. as he watches the sharks tearing at his flesh, he retains dignity. The brainy and beautiful, Barbara amiel, under media-attack all for being his wife, remains steadfast at her husband's side. Last but not least is that Conrad Black's faith has been his inspiration ever since he converted to Catholicism.
While the 2003 death of Emmett Cardinal Carter, the man who led him to Catholicism, was leaving him feel lost and desolate, Black turned to the inspiration of Cardinal Newman's Second Spring.
"We mourn for the blossoms of May because they are to wither, but we know withal that May shall have its revenge upon November, in the revolution of that solemn circle that never stops and that teaches us, in our height of hope to be sober, and in our depth of desolation, never to despair."
It was the words of a close friend that carried Black through the funeral of the Cardinal: "On the day Emmet Carter died, another close friend, who sometimes acted as legal counsel to the Cardinal, sent me a message ending: `May his spirit soar and may you meet again.' Those prayerful hopes were much in my thoughts at his funeral on Thursday,"
as the gaggle of sharks gain numbers, Conrad Black retains his dignity, the loyalty of his wife in the most trying of circumstances, and his unshakeable faith.
as the old song says, they'll never take that away from him.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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