Lord Black holds forth at U of T

Conrad Black took a tutorial with the Culture and the Media in Canada class at University College at the University of Toronto yesterday, according to an article by Matthew Katz in The Varsity, the student paper.

Despite the demands on his time what with all the legal matters occupying him, Lord Black of Crossharbour spoke and submitted himself to the questions of the members of the class (which is led by Globe and Mail columnist Rick Salutin).

He began his address by lamenting the "certain incongruity" between the tendency of journalists to hold themselves up as members of the learned class, yet at the same presenting themselves as belonging to the working class.

He added soon afterward that he "finds the affectation of journalism amounting to a learned profession to be tiresome. Journalism still is more or less a craft -- with variable judgment criteria. There is no yardstick to measure them against others."

He mentioned, however, that most journalists are pleasant, even interesting, people and that he is "not trying to demonize them, rather [he is] pointing out anomalies."

On the distinction between comment and reporting, the story went on:

"There is a much-discussed bugbear in the distinction between comment and reporting. We have a natural instinct to include our commentary -- a gratuitous opinion in anything we write. But it can be very much a distortion." He said that competent editors must safeguard this distinction.

Black said this task must also be taken up by publishers, who are at the "apex of editorial and commercial interests."

"The best course is to try and have commercial management encourage good, professional standards. Otherwise, it's like the CEO of an auto company not caring about the quality of his products." Black said. He said the role of management in the editorial office should be "protecting the integrity of the product."

At the same time, Black said that newspapers should have an ideology, "but you need to try to keep it out of the reporting."