Character assassin–cum–biographer Tom Bower weighs in on Black

Among the more grinding ironies that his Lordship had to endure on that inauspicious yesterday was the appearance at 2:19 p.m. EST of a piece on the Web site of his former flagship, The Daily Telegraph. In it, and without the riposte, Black’s most ferocious tormentor, the character assassin–cum–biographer Tom Bower, puts the boot in without fear of contradiction:

He did not have much of a defence. What he did succeed in doing was confuse and divide the jury… The key fact is that Conrad Black owned only 16 per cent of Hollinger yet took over 90 per cent of its net income and spent it on his own lifestyle. That is what provoked the shareholders revolt and this prosecution. The Americans are brilliant. They bring these white collar criminals to book whereas in England he would have got away with it. Conrad Black chose the wrong place to perpetrate his crimes.

This from the same guy who, when barred from entering the courtroom in Chicago, yelled at a federal marshall, “In the name of common decency, I demand that you desist. We’ve been covering these proceedings for months and on a fascistic whim you would bar us our rights. No wonder Americans so loathe their own government.”

Brilliant, indeed.

• Conrad Black enters jail in Florida [Daily Telegraph]