Media ‘gaga’ over Conrad Black trial
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 13 March 2007 at 14:01
Tags: Conrad Black, Journalism
Photo: REUTERS/Pool (UNITED STATES)
No, this is not a promo shot for some new legal drama on US television. It’s the prosecution team in the Conrad Black case, which starts tomorrow in Chicago.
The fraud trial of the former Telegraph proprietor is attracting a fair bit of attention, and Federal prosecutors (left to right) Edward Siskel, Julie Ruder, Jeffrey Cramer and Eric Sussman are so eager to avoid endless press demands for photographs over the course of the next three months, that they submitted to a pool photoshoot — resulting in the glamourous portrait above.
They have good reason for concern. The New York Times reports that in Black’s native Canada, the “media attention on the trial is nothing short of gaga“:
The Globe and Mail of Toronto, considered Canada’s most serious newspaper, recently ran a front-page article about eating lobster dinner with Mr. Black in a restaurant; the Canadian newsmagazine Macleans published a special edition last week devoted to the “trial of the century.”
One Toronto magazine is even planning to dedicate a special web site to the trail:
Toronto Life, a monthly magazine in the city where Mr. Black has been holed up in his mansion since his troubles began, is preparing the Web site conradblacktrial.com to follow every twist.
Jury selection begins tomorrow and the trial proper will follow soon thereafter. The Chicago Tribune reports that the first on the witness stand is likely to be the man who replaced Black at Hollinger, Gordon Paris.
Tags: Conrad Black, Journalism
