Kevin Michael Grace begins his profile of Conrad Black (“The Fall of Lord Blackadder and Lady Manolo (of Blahnik),” News, June) with a piece of hearsay—an observation that “Canada isn’t worth saving,” supposedly uttered by David Frum to me and by me to Mr. Grace.

David has never said such a thing to me, and I have never said such a thing to Mr. Grace.

        —Mark Steyn
Montreal, Quebec

Mr. Grace Replies:

Mr. Steyn repeated to me Mr. Frum’s assessment of the Post in a long conversation I had with him after Lord Black sold the Southam chain to the Asper family.  As is my habit, I recorded the interview on tape and then transcribed it.  Mr. Steyn instructed me that several of his comments were “off the record,” but he did not privilege the Frum anecdote in this manner.

On Citizen Hannity

I was much amused by the cover of your June issue, showing what appears to be one of Fox News’ resident warmongers, Sean Hannity, pointing to Citizen Kane.  Citizen Kane, of course, was based on William Randolph Hearst, who sold a lot of papers promoting the Spanish American War.

Just before I received the magazine, I saw Hannity on T.V. hectoring General Anthony Zinni for his statements about the stupidity of the war policy of President Bush.

Hannity then turned to Tom Clancy, who coauthored a book with Zinni, to ask why Clancy, a conservative, opposed the war.  Clancy replied, “There was no casus belli.”  A befuddled Hannity repeated the question and got the same reply.  For once, he seemed tongue-tied.  Hey, Sean, Hearst not only knew what “casus belli” meant, he even made one up!

The article by Thomas Fleming (“Honest Journalist,” Perspective) was excellent.  Keep up the good work.

        —Eugene F. Horan
Monroe Township, NJ