Poor Little Rich Criminal

I haven't been following the Conrad Black trial very closely (as long as he gets strung up by his thumbs, like he deserves, that's all I need to know), but I was struck by Naomi Klein's excellent column in The Nation which relates the trial's jury selection proceedings. Klein passes along a chorus of discontent from potential jurors (all common folk, to Black's considerable chagrin) about this latest example of corporate executive malfeasance. This paragraph is particularly telling:

Regardless of what else happens in the Black saga, the jury-selection process has already provided an extraordinary window onto the way regular Americans, randomly selected, view their elites--not as heroes but as thieves. As far as Black is concerned, this is all terribly unfair--he is being "thrown to the mobs" because of rage at the system and, unlike American billionaires, he doesn't "dress in corduroy trousers" or donate his fortune to AIDS charities. Black's lawyers even argued (unsuccessfully) that their client could not get a fair trial because the average Chicagoan "does not reside in more than one residence, employ servants or a chauffeur, enjoy lavish furniture, or host expensive parties."

Sorry, Lord Black, but I doubt you'll ever truly find a jury of your peers because there are, mercifully, very few people like you. And what few of you there are either buy or finagle their way out of jury duty, lest they sully themselves by associating with the unwashed, corduroy-wearing hordes.

I guess you'll just have to settle for being judged by twelve everyday people -- the kind of people you've built your fortune on the backs of, either as the rank-and-file of your companies or the readers of your crappy papers.