Conrad Black on Metro Morning
When Conrad Black's new book, A Matter of Principle, is released Sept. 15, the former media magnate will already be back in prison. But that doesn't mean he'll keep mum: Black recently spoke to Metro Morning's Matt Galloway about the book, his time in prison, his innocence, and the state of newspapers today. The interview runs 45-minutes long, but is fascinating and worth listening to — whether you love Black or hate him.
When Conrad Black's new book, A Matter of Principle, is released Sept. 15, the former media magnate will already be back in prison. But that doesn't mean he'll keep mum: Black recently spoke to Metro Morning's Matt Galloway about the book, his time in prison, his innocence, and the state of newspapers today. The interview runs 45-minutes long, but is fascinating and worth listening to — whether you love Black or hate him.
You can check out the full audio at Metro Morning. Here are some snippets in the meantime.
On returning to jail:
"It is much less difficult to contemplate than before when I didn't know exactly what I was getting into. As in so many other things the imagination is more torturing than reality; now I have a good idea of what it is. It is a finite time, it's not a long time. I can see quite clearly and looming larger every day the end of this horrible sequence of events."
On what it's like for him in jail:
"No one is going to bother me there and it's not physically dangerous … I wouldn't want to overstate it: it's not country club. It's quite spartan and you are subject to the authority of unskilled labour frequently masquerading as figures of much more natural or earned authority than they may actually possess. But as long as you don't aggravate the system they don't bother you very much. And, as I said, seven months can go quickly if you've got things to do."
On why he wrote the book:
"Well, it's been a great controversy … If you don't go through it, you don't know the whole process of being attacked. [Being] legally attacked and quasi ostracized and defamed for years and years and years as I was is an experience that is sufficiently novel that I thought it was worthwhile putting it out there, irrespective of the subjective aspect of it."
On whether he wishes he could have a do-over of the day he was filmed taking boxes from his Toronto Street offices:
"Yes. Not because there's anything I did or contemplated that was illegal, but I would have had no idea that the film to which you refer could have been so misused. I pointed to the camera on the stairway to say I want to make sure this is all filmed because I don't want any suggestion or removing these thing surreptitiously.
If I had wanted to take something out of those boxes — when they came back they were very full, so if I had wanted to take something out it would have been not very much — I could have taken them out in a briefcase, or in my pocket any time for months on end. I mean I would have had to have been stark raving mad to do this.
I thought it was an absolute disgrace the way the Canadian court had this movie played, had it all over the press of the world, presented me to the entire world as a thief sneaking out of my own building. I thought it was disgusting."
On not living in luxury:
"Yes, I've certainly been accustomed to luxury for many decades… even in that period from time to time there have been odd rustic moments. The physical surroundings were much more bearable than the constant overbearing authority. That part was harder to deal with, the public address system going all day from 7 a.m. … all the way through to nine or nine-thirty at night; it's just extremely irritating acoustically."
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