Black Watch: Today’s Top Stories
Non-competes are at the heart of today’s reporting. Michael Reed, an executive from Alabama-based media company Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (or CNHI), testified that in the course of buying half a billion dollars’ worth of Hollinger International newspapers through the late ’90s, he had actually balked at siphoning $9.5 million in cash from those deals directly to Black and his associates. And, while the defence, on cross-examination, did a good job of confirming that the myriad contracts between CNHI and Hollinger contained non-competes that were entirely legal, one gets the sense that the prosecution is setting out to create a picture in jurors’ minds that will come into focus with the testimony of bigger fish like James Thompson and David Radler. An interesting sidebar appears on Chicago Reader media critic Mike Miner’s blog. Miner suggests that the Canadian press is dumbing down its coverage to meet the demands of daily deadlines at or near the front page:
“When a case is simplified its finer points don’t get understood—they get lost. But no matter. The point Canadian reporters keep making is that the financial matters this trial is about are incomprehensible, so the lawyers are dumbing down the issues for the jury. But maybe the Canadian press is doing its own dumbing down, for its readers. American papers can get away with covering the trial on their business pages, but in Canada it’s page one. An on-going page one courtroom drama has got to be easy to follow and teem with vivid personalities.”
Witness balked at paying fees to Black, trial told [ Globe and Mail]Black trial hears non-compete fee details [Toronto Star]Publisher tells jury of being asked to pay Black $4.5m [Guardian]The Canadian press on their man Black [Chicago Reader]Paying fees to Black didn’t seem right: witness [National Post]
