News Corp (NYSE:NWS) today announced that it will revamp its Fox Business Network lineup in response to recent viewership reports showing that Americans would rather undergo a cavity search than watch the shows.

Drawing upon inspiration from its successful Fox Entertainment division, we hear that a number of new programs are under consideration:

• Homer Nose Business -- a "Simpsons" take on making 'd'oh' in the food and beverage industries, with field reporters Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Jr. and Moe Szyslak.
• 24:00 Stocks -- Kiefer Sutherland hosts a new studio show in which CEOs of tanking corporations are subjected to waterboarding and other amusing non-torture interview techniques in order to extract crucial investor information.
• American Idle --The 'idle rich' report by Paris Hilton, featuring the latest exposés directly from the wellspring of the trickle-down economy.
• Prison Break-- Five-minute updates hosted by Andrew Fastow, Conrad Black and Lou Pearlman, live from their offices in U.S. Federal government facilities.

Conrad Black was CEO of Hollinger International, a media company. Black stacked his board with influential neo-conservatives like Henry Kissinger and used its cash to finance his personal life.

He is one of the most arrogant people I've never met. I heard a radio interview he did a few weeks ago in which he dismissed all the charges against him as completely unfounded and trivial. But the judge in his case did not agree -- sending Black to jail for six-and-a-half years and making him pay $6.1 million -- the amount he stole from Hollinger.

Interestingly, Black could have saved himself from jail. According to Sunday Herald, in 2003, he signed an agreement to pay $7.2 million to settle charges that he defrauded Hollinger. Without Hollinger board approval Black took non-compete payments then sold off newspapers to Horizon, his private company, using phoney valuations to pay off the $1.9 billion Hollinger owed in 1998.

It would not have surprised me if he had tried to use his ties to neoconservatives to get the government to back off from its prosecution. But given that government's unpopularity, it could not afford to be seen helping this pompous kleptocrat.

Be sure to check out other Money Losers of 2007.

Conrad Black, the former head of Hollinger Inc. (OTC: HLGAF), was sentenced today. Hollinger is the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times and numerous other newspapers.

The crime: Black was convicted (along with three other former executives of the company) of 3 counts of financial fraud for illegally receiving money from newspaper sales. He and two other executives got at least $32.2 million via their scheme, although the jury determined that Black had illegally received $2.9 million.

The prosecution: Prosecutors wanted Black to go to prison for 19 to 25 years, presumably to both protect the public from him and to deter other executives from committing similar crimes.

The defense: Defense attorneys said Black should get a very lenient prison term, and maybe spend no time in prison. In any event, they said Black shouldn't get any more than the 29-month prison term than his former business partner F. David Radler agreed to when he pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors.

The sentence: 78 months in prison, a $6.1 million forfeiture of ill-gotten gains, and a $125,000 fine. Judge Amy St. Eve handed down this sentence, which included the minimum amount of prison time Black could have gotten.

No one except Clint Eastwood has ever escaped from Alcatraz. Of course, he did it in a movie. No one ever managed this feat in real life.

Alcatraz closed years ago. But Conrad Black may want to watch a few prison flicks before he's sent up the same river.

Black, the former head of newspaper company Hollinger Inc. (TSE: HLG), was charged with racketeering and misuse of corporate funds. He was found "not guilty" on those charges.

He was convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said that Black and three associates funneled money from the sales of Hollinger newspapers into accounts which they controlled. The money, as much as $60 million, was to pay for Hollinger not to compete with the firms that bought its newspaper properties. Nice work, if you can find it.

Black now faces up to 35 years in prison, as much as $1 million in fines, and a lot of legal fees. At age 62, the member of the House of Lords may not make it out alive.

Sixty million is a lot to make disappear without people noticing. Black can think of better ways to do it next time while he is on his break from making license plates.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

And you thought that the 2006 Home Depot (NYSE: HD) annual meeting showed a lack of respect and contempt for shareholders. Jurors in the trial of disgraced former Hollinger International CEO Conrad Black heard some choice comments from that company's 2002 and 2003 annual meetings. He told one disgruntled shareholder that "We haven't been sitting here and feathering our nests." Well, that turned out to be true. They were extremely busy... looting the company and committing fraud.

In emails that Black wrote during 2002, he referred to the shareholder revolt as an "epidemic of shareholder idiocy" and said that he wanted to "blow their asses off."

It's interesting that one of the common threads among so many of the embattled former titans of industry is arrogance and a disdain for shareholders and critics -- Jeff Skilling called a hedge fund manager on a conference call an "a-hole" after the man raised eerily prescient questions about the company's balance sheet.

I think there's a reason for this pattern of behavior. When faced with tough questions, reasonable people who are right can simply explain the situation to investors and hopefully win them over with a logical argument. Of course, when your critics are right, you can't do that. You have no choice but to launch into personal attacks and other diversionary tactics.

The lesson here for shareholders is this: When a CEO is testy with shareholders who raise questions about the company or, even worse, blames short-sellers or hedge funds for their lagging performance, you may want to sell the stock.