Convicted felon and former Hollinger Inc. head Conrad Black took the airwaves of CBC Radio this evening to defend the softball-laden interview he conducted with Rob Ford in which Ford insinuates Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale is a pedophile.
Speaking with CBC Radio host Carol Off of As It Happens, Black quickly expressed his disapproval with the way the media has handled the Ford saga. When asked in which ways he related to Ford’s struggle, Black said, “Only a limited one. I identify with anyone who is being crucified by the media or being subjected to a sort of lynching, because I’ve gone through that myself. It’s not fun.”
(You can examine the similarities between Ford’s media troubles and lynching for yourself here.)
Later in the interview, Black continued to express sympathy for Ford’s plight. “I think a very large number of your listeners would identify in the abstract with an underdog and a person going through a difficult time,” he said.
When Off asked Black why he didn’t object to Ford’s insinuation that Dale was there to photograph his children and may be interested in pedophilia, Black deflected. “[He could have also meant] Peeping Tom. I think there’s room for a greater variety of interpretations other than [the word pedophile]. There are levels of perversion–if you insist on using that word. But I took it as the lower end, where it was trespassing, snooping, and excessive but not necessarily a maladjusted or psychiatrically unbalanced curiosity. Now perhaps I’m being a benign optimist.”
To listen to the full interview, visit: CBC Radio: As It Happens
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Jordan Sowunmi is a writer and editor at the Toronto Standard. He is on Twitter: @jordanisjoso
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