Media Roundup: More Decisions

The media reports, webbed overnight and today, on the Conrad Black trial veer in on three areas: a possible forfeiture of defendants' assets, primarily Conrad Black's; more jury-watching; and, the July 4th Independence Day holiday.

1. The Hamilton Spectator has webbed an abridged report by Romina Maurino that starts off discussing the forfeiture decision the jury may have to make. [A slightly expanded version, webbed by the Chronicle Herald, notes that the decision has not been formally made yet.]

2. A column by Joe Warmington, as webbed by the Toronto Sun, uses Independence Day as a takeoff point for discussing the possible end of Conrad Black's. He mentions that the waiting isn't all that bad for the journalists that have to do so, and also notes that Canadian journalists believe, far more than those from other countries, that Conrad Black will be acquitted.

3. 570 News has webbed a brief Canadian Press reminder that the jury will not sit today because of the Independence Day holiday.

4. Fortune-bound Conrad Black biographer Richard Siklos gets a mention in the Globe and Mail's "Nobody's Business" column, written by Patricia Best.

5. The latest report by Paul Waldie, also webbed by the Globe, relates that the forefeiture issue will be decided in a courthouse meeting tomorrow. It also indicates that the only defendant to have made the choice between the judge and jury deciding on any forfeiture is Conrad Black, who chose to go with the jury.

6. Rosie DiManno's latest column on the trial, webbed by the Toronto Star, discusses the possibility of a hung jury.

----------

Mark Steyn, in his Maclean's Conrad Black trial blog, has started a run-down of the charges, in reverse order, with reasons why the defendants should be acquitted of all of them. The first entry to this effect deals with charges 16 and 17, alleging tax fraud.

The Globe and Mail's Sarah Hampson uses the trial as a takeoff for a Canada-centric article about class bias. Unsurprisingly for the Globe, it ends with an anecdote illustrating one old Toronto establishment being eased out by the new.

Also, from the Telegraph, book reviewer Dominic Sandbrook has written an unqualified approval of Conrad Black's latest book, Invincible Quest: the Life of Richard Milhous Nixon. In the review, Mr. Sandhurst makes the point that Mr. Nixon, although of checkered character, is easy to identify with nowadays because he really was a little man at heart, and was someone whose success was hard-won - even if his tenaciousness proved to be his tragic flaw.