By Nathaniel Moher If you were to keep a list of the top three media barons who have gone to jail, it’d look a little something like this: Martha Stewart, John Rigas, and Conrad Black (and if you haven’t kept a list of the top three media barons who have gone to jail, then you […]
Put to bed: The strike that broke the news at The Calgary Herald
The Calgary Herald told its striking workers they were about to “jump off a cliff.” By the end, the Herald had gone over the edge, too ~~ Excerpted from Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way From Dublin to Canada, by kind permission of Rocky Mountain Books By Brian Brennan I never envisaged it would end the […]
CanWest Idol
By Frank Moher Let’s play CanWest Idol! — in which we decide who should get to buy the bankrupt media company’s assets. The finalists for the TV operation appear to be just two: Shaw Communications and Catalyst Capital. The former is the Alberta-based cable company; the latter is the front-organization for Leonard Asper and New […]
Hollinger’s lump of coal
By Brian Brennan Why is the mainstream media not covering this story? Why have The Globe and Mail, CBC, The National Post, Maclean’s et al. seemingly missed out on the fact that Hollinger Publishing — Conrad Black’s former newspaper holdings company — has been forced into bankruptcy protection? Why have these national news organizations not […]
We’re doing Prisoner #18330-424 a disservice
By Frank Moher It takes a village to rehabilitate a criminal, and I’m afraid we’ve all been failing Conrad Black. His chief enabler is The National Post, for which I have been known to write myself. The Post has given Prisoner #18330-424 a column, thus allowing him to maintain the delusion that he remains a […]
Not all Black
By Frank Moher Naomi Klein characterized the trial of Conrad Black as class war. Elsewhere it was posited as a case of dueling tax systems (Canadian v. U.S.) or legal systems (ibid.) I’d say, though, it was a broader culture clash than that, between the populist traditions of the United States (of whom prosecutor Patrick […]
About that $100,000, Ken . . .
By Frank Moher Monday’s New York Times contained an article with the hed Trial of Black Raises Conflict Issue, about the game of Twister that Maclean’s has gotten itself into trying to cover the proceedings. It noted that Lady Black is the magazine’s star columnist, and both main trial correspondent Mark Steyn and publisher and […]
Send the Conservatives to their room
There is an interesting comparison to be made between the last minority government (Liberal) and this one (Conservative). Under the Liberal minority, the New Democrats got a lot of governing done. Work that benefitted the public, including the least lucky among us, was passed more promptly than usual because if the Liberals did not play […]
Nice!
By Frank Moher Maclean’s gaily partisan coverage of the Conrad Black trial has now spread from Mark Steyn’s blog to what we thought was its straight news reporting (if there’s such a thing in Maclean’s anymore). “In a piece that cries out for a copy editor like a wounded seal pup for its mother,” writes […]
Blogging the bloggers at the Black trial, II
By Frank Moher Now that the Conrad Black trial has entered its Radlerian phase, with Black’s former capo taking the stand against him, it’s time once again to blog the poor bloggers (and columnists) consigned to Chicago’s federal courthouse. Question: what is Mark Steyn without his trademark wit? Answer: the rather dull fellow we find […]
