Business News Network's Take On The Trial

This March 14th, there were four BNN news clips on the trial. (They're no longer available on BNN's Website, as only the shows for the day are webbed.) The first, the 11:11 AM "Market Morning with Lisa Oake and Marty Cej" segment, featured an interview in which Darryl Goldberg, a criminal defense attorney, gave his view that the jurors' sympathy would roughly track class lines, a consensus view. The second, a brief segment of the show "Lunch Money" (12 pm) contained a brief mention of the start of the trial, with an excerpt of Csr. Goldberg's interview featured in it. The next two clips were the 1:40 and 2:45 PM segments of "Trading Day with Patrick Bolland." The first was a progress report on the jury selection, and noted that Lord Black looked somewhat bored, except when his wife was complimented by a potential juror.

The second was more commentary-driven, with one of the commentators, Michael Miller, venturing that the prosecution will turn their case into "The Son of Enron" for the benefit of the likely-to-be blue-collar jury. The other, Al Foerster, noted that the knowledge level of the board of directors will likely be decisive. Despite pressure put on directors thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley, none of the board members scheduled to testify for the defense have "rolled," but they are likely to be cautious given the overhang of that law. I suspect that they would rather not "feel Conrad's pain" in that way. Mr. Bolland, I should note, is a veteran business reporter, an alum of both CBC News and CNN; he also has experience, prior to his move to journalism, in a Canadian brokerage house.

The most involved BNN coverage was the show "Squeeze Play with Amanda Lang and Kevin O'Leary," its 5 PM offering. (Ms. Lang was the BNN correspondent assigned to the case; a lengthy report by her, the first of two in the episode, took up close to ten minutes of the early part of it.) Four expert commentators appeared, the last one being more Canada-centric, and the consensus view was largely concurred with. Two interesting items were disclosed. One: Judge St. Eve is running the courtroom with a tight hand, and this is evident even in the jury selection and in the treatment of the media. Two, the case has received little publicity in the Chicago area, and few people in the neighbourhood seem to know who Lord Black really is. Interestingly enough, the view attached was that this lack of local attention should help the defense.

One minor quibble with BNN. Two of the anchorstaff said that the number of charges Lord Black faced was fourteen; it's actually seventeen. Despite that slip (and one other), the coverage is quite depthful, and it's evident that there is some sympathy for Lord Black in that network. Bottom line: if you're the Vindication sort, you'll like BNN's coverage.