Black Watch: Gossip and hoaxes as the trial begins in earnest

Posted by Martin Stabe on 19 March 2007 at 15:50
Tags: Conrad Black

With opening arguments scheduled for today in Conrad Black’s fraud trial in Chicago, the already wall-to-wall coverage can really only increase.

Although the trial was only in the jury selection phase until now and there’s little of great consequence to report, that hasn’t stopped the 300 reporters covering the trial from filing endless copy. In an effort to keep track of it all, Toronto Life magazine has launched its dedicated blog for the Conrad Black trial.
In the Toronto Star Rosie DiManno viciously wonders how Black’s wife, Barbara Amiel, appears “astonishingly resilient to the ravages of time”.

Elsewhere in the same paper, David Olive waxes poetic about the trial in the style of Jim Croce. Olive also mocks the Chicagoans interviewed as prospective jurors for some of the stranger beliefs they expressed about Black. These included that he has “something to do with Britain’s Royal Family”, that “his wife was very beautiful and smart”, and that his native Canada is “a socialist country”.

Canada’s National Post is fascinated that Black will be sharing Chicago’s opulent Ritz Hotel with mega-chat show host Oprah Winfrey for the duration of the trial.

The Ryerson Review of Journalism, meanwhile, says much of the world’s media, including the Evening Standard here in London, are “chumps” for falling for a hoax web site, SupportLordBlack.com, which purported to be a meeting point for Black’s legions of online supporters.

Tags: Conrad Black