Wednesday 14 March 2007

The Conrad Trial

After assigning no-name junior reporters to cover the sensational Robert Pickton pig farm murders trial in Vancouver, we have to say congrats to Sun Media for its Conrad Black trial team in Chicago.

It is only a two-man delegation, but that is all you need when it is veteran reporter/columnist and Toronto Sun co-founder Peter Worthington with pen in hand and Sun photographer Dave Lucas.

Sun Media fumbled the ball big time when it refused to send a high-profile Toronto Sun reporter or columnist to Vancouver in January for the start of Pickton's trial. It called for a Michelle Mandell, a Mark Bonokoski, an Al Cairns, not unknowns.

The world was watching the high-profile Pickton murder trial in the deaths of 26 Vancouver-area women between 1997 and 2001 and Sun Media played it poorly. (The online CBC coverage has been far more enlightening.)

But the Sun did it right this time around, sending Peter to Chicago early to set the stage with columns about the fallen media mogul, his wife, Barbara Amiel, a former Toronto Sun editor, the legal team etc.

Mark Bonokoski added to the coverage with an amusing column Tuesday about rubbing shoulders and kibitzing with Barbara the newspaperwoman in the Sun newsroom and in Europe during his London bureau chief days.

And there was Mark being quoted Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune by media columnist Phil Rosenthal. Mark will also be interviewed on CTV during a repeat of the Conrad Black TV movie this Monday night at 9.

Peter and the Toronto Sun also got a mention in David Frum's Diary on National Review Online in the U.S., David Frum being a big booster of his father-in-law.

At a time when most of the news coming out of 333 King Street East is negative, it is refreshing to see the Toronto Sun in a more positive spotlight.

Leave the pros to what they do best - and the resources to do it properly - and you won't have to worry about losing the interest of readers.

1 comment:

  1. Typical baby boomer arrogance.

    1) "No-name junior reporter." Well, everyone had to start somewhere.

    2) No one under Peter Worthington's age gives a damn about the Conrad Black story. A billionaire accused of misleading millionaires -- yawn.

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