Didja hear didja hear? Verdict in the Conrad Black case, coming any second! The defendants have been called back to court for the verdicts, which were meant to be read at 10:15 a.m. Chicago time (11:15 a.m. ET) but Black is still en route to the courthouse — I know this because Canada's CTV.ca is streaming the coverage, and they are breathlessly counting down the seconds, complete with a special logo featuring Black's face before a golden scales of justice. It was after 11:15 when I got this news from a Canadian friend, and checked CNN, MSNBC and Fox — nothing, nothing, nothing. Meanwhile, it's the most-searched term on CBC.ca. Oh look, on Fox, someone stole a puppy! That's sad.
Update: Okay, the verdicts are rolling in and now, yes, CNN is covering it - or, covered it briefly with a report from Jeff Toobin. But really, despite Gawker's ongoing vigil (and really that's just Alex Balk, who is practically Canadian by this point), it seems that the guilt or innocence of Conrad Black could well be characterized as an issue of American curiosity and Canadian obsession.
Update to Update: Okay, looking like at least a few counts of guilty — stay tuned.
Update to the Update's Update: Guilty of 4 of 13 counts — obstruction of justice and three counts of mail fraud, and acquitted of racketeering. "Sort of a mixed verdict, if you will" said the CNN anchoress. Really? How? What does Jeff Toobin say? Oh, no, they moved on. Never mind. Details at the Globe & Mail for me! BTW, obstruction of justice? That's AWESOME! That means Bush will TOTALLY commute his sentence.
Update Redux: All right, CNN officially wins as "Official Network of the Conrad Black Verdict" where "Official Network" means "actually covering it, as far as I can tell." ETP scientifically assessed the coverage on the three cable nets (read: switched the channel and then got distracted online), and here is our report: Both MSNBC and Fox News spent most of the time in our random channel-surf covering the sad case of Zinna Linnick, the Tacoma girl snatched on July 4th and killed by an illegal immigrant sex offender (oy, Lou Dobbs is going to go berserk), with additional coverage of another missing woman, plus coverage of Terror! Terror! Terror! on Fox and two weather reports from MSNBC, one talking about the hurricanes that haven't happened this hurricane season. CNN, meanwhile, has piped in CNN International for some analysis of the verdicts (though by now they are talking about the buildup to David Beckham). Upshot: In my morning of sporadic flipping, I have not seen Conrad Black covered on either MSNBC or Fox.
Related:
Timeline - Black Trial [CTV.ca]
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