Conrad Black: a personal encounter

I had a brief and bruising encounter with Conrad Black o, I don't know, maybe 15 years ago.  Or so. I can't remember exactly. I had been assigned to cover a speech he was giving at the Canadian Club (the very exclusive forum in Toronto, not the rye whiskey).

My secret goal was to embarrass him by provoking him into an outburst, and I figured that given his well-known hostility to journalists, the best way was to get in his face and document what happened.

When he came into this very lavish ballroom (I can't remember which one), I pounced on him with my microphone aimed like a howitzer:

"Why do you hate journalists?" I asked. 

"Who says I hate journalists?" he parried.  "Give me some names."   I didn't have a name so I tried to change the subject.  "You've complained that reporters are lazy, right?"

"Well, I know you are lazy. Provocation is the favorite tool of a lazy journalist and that's what you're doing now."

Er, ahem. Shuffle, shuffle. When I looked up from my feet he was halfway down the aisle between the ballroom dinner tables, shiny with silverware and gleaming  glassware.

I was a lazy reporter. I had not prepared well and my mission was largely contemptible. The video of the encounter never made it on TV.

But doggone it, Conrad Black did so hate reporters. This is a quote David Olive dredged up from a speech Lord Black had given at Carleton University:

"My experience with journalists authorizes me to record that a very large number of them are ignorant, lazy, opinionated, intellectually dishonest, and inadequately supervised. The ‘profession' is heavily cluttered with abrasive youngsters who substitute ‘commitment' for insight, and to a lesser extent, with aged hacks toiling through a miasma of mounting decrepitude. Alcoholism is endemic in both groups." 

Since then I have learned how to be more diligent, by the way. For example, I looked up the event on the Canadian Club website just now and learned that he gave a speech on November 2, 1993 12:00 PM and was introduced as "The Hon. Conrad Black, P.C.Chairman and CEO, Hollinger Inc."

I am not sure about the honorific (probably because former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had appointed him to the Privy Council; you can look below to see the citation in Marquis Who's Who. The thing is, at that moment when in my brazen efforts to boost my career by exposing him to public ridicule, he clearly had more honor than I did.

Anyway, the guy is now a convicted crook. Reporters have begun to speculate whether he will be stripped of his peerage in
the British House of Lords

On one Canadian listserv for journalists I subscribe to,  Black's ultimate humiliation had brought some celebrants out of the woodwork:

"Pour a sip for Lord Black of Dork's Harbour, and his fragrent  (sic) wife Babs. How are the mighty fallen...Still, it does the heart good to imagine him in his ill-fitting prison clothes, raving to anyone who will listen."

Well, yeah.  But for some strange reason, today I am not among those who are gloating, having proven to Mr. Black's satisfaction that back on November 2, 1993, I was among those who deserved his contempt. 

 

 

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Lord Conrad Moffat Black

Occupation: former publishing corporate executive

Born: Montreal, August 25, 1944

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Education BA, Carleton University, 1965LLL, Laval University, 1970MA in History, McGill University, 1973LLD (hon.), St. Francis Xavier University, 1979LLD (hon.), McMaster University, 1979LittD (hon.), University Windsor, 1979LLD (hon.), Carleton University, 1989

 

Career
Chairman, co-owner Eastern Twps. Pub. Co., Ltd., Knowlton, Quebec,
1966—; president, chairman executive committee Argus Corp. Ltd.,
1978-79, chairman board, chairman executive committee Toronto,
1979—, CEO, 1985; chairman The Ravelston Corp. Ltd., 1978,
Hollinger, Inc., 1985, CEO, 1987; chairman, CEO Telegraph Group Ltd.,
1987—2004; chairman Hollinger International Inc.,
1987—2003, non-exec. chairman, 2003—2004

Career Related
Chairman board National Interest, Washington, Council Foreign
Relations; indictments, alleging mail and wire fraud; accused of
siphoning off money from former newspaper empire through a scheme that
impacted both his publishing company, U.S.-based Hollinger
International Inc., and Toronto-based holding company, Hollinger Inc.,
2005; found guilty of multiple charges of criminal fraud and a single
count of obstruction of justice but acquitted of a racketeering charge,
2007.

Creative Works
Author: Duplessis, 1977, reprinted as Render Unto Caesar, 1998, A Life
in Progress, 1993, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, 2003.

Awards Decorated officer Order of Can.; appointed to Privy Council of Can., 1992, House of Lords, U.K., 2001.Civic Patron Malcolm Muggeridge Foun.

Memberships
Member Hudson Institute, Center Policy Studies (U.K.), Trilateral
Commission (UK), Americas Society (chmn.'s council), International
Institute for Strategic Studies, Toronto Club, York Club, Toronto Golf
Club, Granite Club, Univ. Club (Montreal), Mount Royal Club (Montreal),
Century Club (New York City), Everglades Club, Beach Club (Palm Beach),
Athenaeum, Beefsteak, Whites (London), Garrick (London).

Family Son of George Montegu and Jean Elizabeth (Riley) B.; Married Barbara J.E. Amiel.

Address
Office: Hollinger Inc 10 Toronto St Toronto ON Canada M5C 2B7 also:
Telegraph Group Ltd Canary Wharf, 1 Canada Sq London E14 5DT England
also: Hollinger Internat 712 5th Ave New York New York 10019-4108

Address
Office: Hollinger Inc 10 Toronto St Toronto ON Canada M5C 2B7

also:
Telegraph Group Ltd Canary Wharf, 1 Canada Sq London E14 5DT England

also: Hollinger Internat 712 5th Ave New York New York 10019-4108