Conrad Black
From Wikiquote
Despite Black's involvement in press ownership, he heaped scorn on journalism, "We must express the view, based on our empirical observations, that a substantial number of journalists are ignorant, lazy, opinionated, and intellectually dishonest. The profession is heavily cluttered with aged hacks toiling through a miasma of mounting decrepitude and often alcoholism, and even more so with arrogant and abrasive youngsters who substitute 'commitment' for insight." [1]
Upon arriving at court in Chicago in 2007, Black gave the finger to the gathered media covering his trial.[2]
On investigative journalists: The "swarming, grunting masses of jackals..." [3]
On journalist Norman Mailer: "The bedraggled warhorse of American blowhardism." [3]
On a Canadian author, "Those who would retain his services should confine him to subjects better suited…to his sniggering, puerile, defamatory and cruelly limited talents." [3]
He denounced Canada's social welfare system as "an overgenerous reinsurance policy for an underachieving people."[4]
Black called the Bishop of Calgary a "jumped-up little twerp" and a "prime candidate for exorcism" for backing a strike at Black's Calgary Herald newspaper. [4]
On corporate governance, in May 2003: "Like all fads, corporate governance has its zealots." [3]
On avarice, "Greed has been severely underestimated and denigrated – unfairly so, in my opinion." [3]
At the time of his fraud trial in 2007, Black was aware of the disdain much of the public held towards him because of his wealth, stating: "Since biblical times, and probably before, the wealthy have been envied and condemned."[5]
On U.S. Democratic senators opposed to the appointment of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1988: "It is galling to see such mendacious hypocrites as Kennedy and Biden at the Senate Judiciary Committee sitting in judgment on distinguished jurists." [3]
[edit] Notes and references
- ↑ Black, Conrad et al, "A Brief to the Special Senate Committee on the Mass Media from the Sherbrooke Record...", 1969
- ↑ Berton, Paul; London Free Press: One-finger salute sums it up; July 23, 2007
- ↑ a b c d e f Olive, David (compiled by) "The world according to Conrad Black" Toronto Star, March 11, 2007
- ↑ a b Plotz, David "Conrad Black", Slate, August 31, 2001
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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