Conrad Black

Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, PC, OC, KCSG (born 25 August 1944) is a historian, columnist and publisher who was for a time the third biggest newspaper magnate in the world. Black was convicted of criminal fraud and obstruction of justice. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal and is expected to render a decision in June 2010. Black is known for his scathing wit, outspoken opinions and verbose style of writing.

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."

On investigative journalists: The "swarming, grunting masses of jackals..."

On journalist Norman Mailer: "The bedraggled warhorse of American blowhardism."

On Canadian author John Ralston Saul: "Those who would retain his services should confine him to subjects better suited…to his sniggering, puerile, defamatory and cruelly limited talents."

He denounced Canada's social welfare system as "an overgenerous reinsurance policy for an underachieving people."

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.

On corporate governance, in May 2003: "Like all fads, corporate governance has its zealots."

On avarice, "Greed has been severely underestimated and denigrated – unfairly so, in my opinion."

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."

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."