Disgraced former media baron Conrad Black has lost his cool in a television interview with one of Britain’s best-known television journalists.

The interview with BBC Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman was filled with testy exchanges.

It hit a boiling point when Paxman called Black a convicted criminal.

“I’ve been persecuted half to death. I don’t have any shame. I don’t have any shame. I am proud of what happened. I am proud of having been in a U.S. federal prison and having survived as well as I did. And ultimately almost completely vindicated, without losing my mind, becoming irrational, ceasing to be a reasonable person and actually being able to endure discussions like this one without getting up and smashing your face in, which would be what most people would do if they had been through what I had been,” Black said.

“You are just a gullible British fool… that takes seriously this ghastly American justice system that any sane English person knows is an outrage.”

Black returned to his Bridle Path home in Toronto this year after spending almost three years in an American prison.

He insists he was unfairly targeted by the U.S. justice system and said he sees no reason why he can’t reclaim his seat in the British House of Lords.

He said a British court would not have treated him like the Americans did.

The BBC has posted a video of the entire interview.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20036674
 
In another interview, Black also called a SkyNews host a “jackass.”