Lord Black: Something of a saviour
Brigades of stories yesterday recounting the sentencing of David Radler. Most say more or less the same thing. In cutting his deal, Radler ends up somewhere between lucky and smart—lucky in that had the judge had her druthers, Radler would be serving rather a lot more time. And, irony of ironies, by setting the bar so low in his deal with the government, “fundamental fairness” dictates that the rest of the Hollinger four do proportionally less time than they might have otherwise. Radler ends up, perhaps inadvertently, as something of a saviour for his former partner. Maybe that’s why in yesterday morning’s Star, Black, for the first time since Radler pleaded out, looked back on their 30-year partnership more with disappointed nostalgia than vitriol: “He was a good partner for a long time. I don’t know what went wrong with him. I was happy to work with him for almost 30 years but should have parted company with him then.”
The other piece of note is a column from The Jerusalem Post by a left-leaning staffer pointing out that, despite Black’s efforts to balance that paper’s coverage more toward his own neo-con disposition, he did so with considerable thought and made an effort to explain himself to those who disagreed. “From the narrow perspective of an underling who happened once to cross this tycoon’s path, my image of Conrad Black is of a man who, whatever his legal transgressions, knows how to give respect and therefore deserves respect. In short, a mensch.” A neat reminder to those who would hate him—you must first make an effort to understand him.
Conrad Black, the mensch: Source [The Jerusalem Post]
Hoping for private prison: Source [The Globe and Mail]
Radler gets 29 months: Souce [The National Post]
‘I’m sorry for what I’ve done’: Source [Chicago Sun-Times]
Black has kind words as Radler jailed: Source [The Toronto Star]
Conrad Black hits ‘friends’ Buckley & Kissinger in ‘Sun’ column: Source [Editor & Publisher]
Black blasts big ex-‘friends’: Source [New York Post]
Ex-Hollinger chief Radler gets jail term: Source [Telegraph]
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