by Paul Francisque
October 19, 2004
Conrad Black has been on the receiving end of some undeserved harsh media coverage. National newspapers dubbing the Hollinger Inc. saga as “The Fall of Black’s Empire” as early as November 2003 was piled a little too high and a little too thick. Conrad might be surprised to know that it smelt all the way across Canada. This whole affair is after all pillared on mere allegations. None of the allegations have been proven in court and many of the accusations involve absolutely no wrongdoing.
It seems that all media coverage regarding Conrad Black is negative. There are highly visible people of overweening greed and ambition far surpassing anything he has been accused of, feeding the media all the information they publish. These people presently attacking and trying to make off with Black’s reputation, his company’s shareholders’ assets and destroy both the perceived value of the company and the protection of its assets itself, are those same vulture investors currently in control of company management and behind all of Black’s and Hollinger’s current problems.
It seems that these vulture investors and their representatives within Hollinger are experienced take-over artists with long records who are just doing their regular business of dismembering productive companies and selling their assets at enormous profit to the minority interest of a small group of investors dedicated to this raider activity. They are achieving their pirate aims by exploiting the ignorance and greed of the media to print sensational stories and scandals. If the propaganda fed to the media by these corporate raiders and disseminated by the self-serving media to the public later prove to be nothing more than baseless defamation and overt manipulation of the financial markets, judicial process, and the SEC’s publicly stated objectives, and for the sole benefit of a few rich and greedy infiltrators (disguised as shareholders) then we would fully expect what any observant citizen knows will never happen. The SEC should charge and arrest the perpetuators of these lawsuits and disinformation campaigns and make them criminally responsible for public market manipulation and launch an investigation into the profits associated with this alleged dishonest business activity.
The Daily Telegraph properties were sold while Lord Black and other shareholders were forced to watch defenceless because of the outrageous confiscation of the legal right of Lord Black to veto such a sale by the american Judiciary who seemed to be as well informed and as competent to judge legitimate business activity as the press. What happens when the dust settles and the truth comes out? It will take both Black’s prolonged life and all his guts, determination, perseverance, and pig-headedness to make the truth come out. It will be a much less nave Conrad black who writes his next memoirs. and all the intelligent savvy observers who remained on the sidelines with their mouths shut in discouragement, watching this disaster unroll, will cheer. Black says “when everyone is finished dancing on my grave, they may be disconcerted to find I am not in it.” May Black live long with all his faculties and energy intact.
Paul Francisqueis a young entrepreneur and student in his first year of university in Montreal..
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