The CBC Evening News' David Radler Special

David Radler's testimony at the Conrad Black trial was the top story on the broadcast of CBC's The National. Correspondent Neil Macdonald reported that Mr. Radler "delivered a lot of his testimony with a little grin,” as if he was thumbing his nose at Mr. Black. Mr. Radler recounted the Sterling/Hollinger acquisitions right up to the U.S. ones. He also testified that he discussed the drying up of the management fees with Mr. Black, and Mr. Black said he was “concerned” about them. Mr. Macdonald also noted that jurors are more likely to remember concrete details of luxuries, such as the ones that were testified about this morning by Janice Akerhielm, before Mr. Radler started.

There was also a brief interview with Richard Siklos, author of Shades of Black. He said that Mr. Radler was uncharacteristically “at ease,” and had seemed to have put his earlier life behind him. The crucial statement in his testimony was: he “never made any financial decisions without consulting Mr. Black.” The crucial question is, will the jury believe it? Mr. Siklos expects “attempted evisceration” from the defense team. They will try to show Mr. Radler has been a liar on the stand.

The feature segment, by CBC correspondent Havard Gould, was also devoted to the David Radler story. Before they met, both Mr. Radler and Mr. Black were impressed by newspapers’ profit potential. Mr. Radler was an unapologetic cost-cutter; he was even unapologetic when he printed the Sherbrooke Record in the U.S. to save on printing costs.

Peter C. Newman distinguished the two as follows: Conrad Black was the great thinker and the “great presence,” but David Radler was the numbers and details man. He even knew how many people to fire in order to to maximize the profitability of a newspaper without crimping it. A former employee also interviewed for this feature, Jeremy Hainsworth, noted that Mr. Radler even charged employees for pencils. Mr. Black, the report continued, was the publicity hound, and Mr. Radler made it possible. He had an encyclopedic memory for the numbers. His home was “expensive, but not ostentatious.” His business lunches were even eaten standing up, according to what Mr. Newman saw when lunching with him.

Mr. Radler “ruled” in Chicago. Neil Steinberg, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist also interviewed for the feature, repeated the story about Mr. Radler shutting down the escalators in the Sun-Times building, which turned out to be a “false economy” because it raised elevator costs. He described Radler as “ethically corrosive.” The Sun-Times employees have few fond memories of their former publisher.

When trouble hit them, Mr. Black and Mr. Radler stuck together at first, but Mr. Radler rolled when confronted by prosecutors. Mr. Hainsworth thought it was a pragmatic decision, a “simple calculation” in Mr. Gould’s words.

Mr. Newman pegged Mr. Radler as a loner, but someone who has to be “engaged" in activity. Mr. Sternberg described him as having a cutthroat demeanor and a humorless man when the boss, but he doesn’t know how the jury will take to him.

After the feature report, there was more from Richard Siklos. When asked by anchor Mark Kelley if he'll be believable, based on testimony so far, Mr. Siklos answered, “largely believable,” but the cross-examination will decide. Mr. Siklos related that, at one point in the direct examination when Mr. Radler was asked about selling American papers at the time Hollinger Int'l was in difficulty (in the late 1990s,) he testified that it was Conrad Black’s decision, and also testified that he “didn’t disagree” with that decision. Mr. Siklos found this “disingenuous.” It was David Radler, after all, who was the main force behind buying some of those papers up as Hollinger Int'l sold them. Mr. Siklos then noted that, after both were kicked out, Mr. Radler “pre-rolled” with respect to the payback to the company, and it was Mr. Black who stuck to his guns. When asked why the fall-out between them occurred, he answered that Mr. Radler was the most senior associate, but there were others, such as co-defendants Peter Atkinson and Jack Boultbee. They all were somewhat like children vying for the attentions of a neglectful father. The falling-out between the two was telegraphed in advance by Mr. Radler’s complaints about Conrad Black whiile they were still at Hollinger Int'l; those complaints started about the time that Conrad Black had been awarded a life peerage.

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The last word tonight might as well be Mark Steyn's. As you might expect, he was unimpressed by Mr. Radler's testimony so far. He described the testimony as "garrulous" but smokeless, gun-wise.