Media Roundup: The Importance Of Being Prolific

The overnight reports on the Conrad Black trial concentrate on Richard Burt's testimony from memory, but include Mr. Black's E-mails as a side item:

1. Rudolph Bush of the Chicago Tribune reports on Mr. Burt testifying, under direct examination, that the audit committee didn't sign off on the deals at the heart of the allegations but instead okayed them.

2. The Associated Press report on Mr. Burt's testimony under direct has been webbed by Business Week.

3. The Hamilton Spectator has webbed a quick summary of Mr. Burt's testimony, by Broadcast News.

4. Canadian Press' summary has been webbed by the Ottawa Sun.

5. A CP guide to today's testimony, webbed by 680 News, mentions that the cross-examination of Mr. Burt has already begun, and will continue today.

6. A different CP summary has been webbed by the Winnipeg Sun. It mentions Conrad Black's attempts to stauch complaints by Tweedy, Browne.

7. Theresa Tedesco of the National Post points out, in her write-up, that this is the first time in the trial that Mr. Black's notorious nocturnal E-mails have been introduced in court through testimony. She then quotes extensively from them.

8. The Toronto Star's Jennifer Wells has a report on a presence that has hardly been mentioned in the last few weeks: Barbara Amiel Black, dressed yesterday in all black, according to Ms. Wells. She arrived in time to hear the beginning of the cross-examination by Benito Romano, Peter Atkinson's defense lawyer. "Yesterday Romano elicited a string of memory failings from Burt about documents that bore his signature....But Burt did not buckle. About the crucial sale of a host of U.S. community papers, noted in the company's annual filings for 2001, Burt snapped, 'It says they were brought to the audit committee as related-party transactions and they weren't.'" (The report didn't mention Mr. Burt's subsequent memory troubles, resulting from a brain operation he had undergone, shortly before November 2003.)

9. The latest from Paul Waldie of the Globe and Mail begins with a forecast of what David Radler will bring to the prosecution's case once he takes the stand: "David Radler is expected to tell the jury hearing Conrad Black's criminal trial that he and Lord Black misused non-competition agreements because their usual supply of money from Hollinger International Inc. was drying up." The rest of the first half elaborates how Mr. Radler's testimony is supposed to establish motive. The second half recounts Mr. Burt's testimony, and includes his explanation of why he signed a document that contained an itemization of the non-compete payments at the heart of the charges: "'I signed because I missed this paragraph,'" he said referring to one document."

10. Mary Wisniewski's latest, webbed by the Chicago Sun-Times, reviews Mr. Burts testimony, including the start of the cross-examination of him. She relates that Mr. Burt "described as 'nonsensical' $5.5 million in non-compete payments made to former press baron Conrad Black and other former executives." Also from it: "'I obviously didn't review all of the footnotes where it says individual directors approved these payments, because we didn't approve these payments,' said Burt, who had nevertheless signed the statement." He did so because "he 'heavily' relied on management to point out relevant issues in disclosure filings."

11. Janet Whitman of the New York Post is back on the Black beat: her report points out that Donald Trump will be called as a rebuttal witness for Mr. Burt's testimony about Mrs. Black's 60th birthday party.

12. The Edmonton Journal has webbed the latest report by Peter Brieger, also of the National Post. He also reported on Mr. Black's E-mails introduced through Mr. Burt's testimony, by supplying context to them.

13. The second article of the day from the Globe's Paul Waldie reports that Marie-Josée Kravis is expected to start testifying today.

An updated version of the same article also mentions that the trial was delayed because of meetings between the defendants and their lawyers; a meeting of prosecution lawyers took place contemporaneously. "Prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer declined to comment after the meetings broke up." It also related that Mr. Burt stuck to his story - "'We relied on management for full and complete disclosure'" - when questioned by Gus Newman, defense counsel for Jack Boultbee.

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On the "Black Board," Peter Brieger recounts Judge St. Eve falling into an inconsistency, and then wittily extricating herself out of it.