May 25, 2015
SHARE
CANADALAND
#34 The Linden MacIntyre Interview
"I don't have to be nice to them anymore."

Linden MacIntyre’s early exit from the CBC is a giant Fuck You. To who?

Episode Rundown

0:30 Here’s Linden MacIntyre’s Wikipedia entry. (link)  Here’s the Supreme Court decision granting journalists more access to information, based on a case launched by MacIntyre (link).

2:50 MacIntyre is leaving the CBC to send a message. But who’s the message for?

6:20I want to do one small thing really.  I can do it, I won’t starve to death, I’m going to do it.  Because (young journalists) got something I don’t have. I got all these years of experience, I’ve learned how to do stuff, but you got something I don’t: potential.  My potential is fully used

6:56 MacIntyre’s career: 38 years of CBC, 24 years of The Fifth Estate. 50 years in journalism.

8:20 Mulroney was kind of right to cut the CBC, says MacIntyre

8:45Avant Garde, vulgar, obscene programming and waste”: What CBC bashing in Parliament sounded like in the 60s.

10:00 The press’ relationship to power is adversarial by nature.

10:20You guys gotta do something like this“: MacIntyre to the CBC Brass.  How can Hubert Lacroix keep his job? “That’s a good question“.

13:30 Does the CBC’s mandate really prevent them from getting out of TV? Or Sports? Or scripted shows?

15:17 “When I sit down and watch the news at 10, I’m not sitting down to find out what’s happening because I already know what happened“: what Lacroix once told MacIntyre. These words should have guided him.

16:05 Why don’t we bring back The Journal, or something like it? Analysis and long-form journalism are what’s needed and what the CBC can uniquely provide.

18:14 If people only knew how meager the resources are at CBC Radio. Tapestry is down to a host and a part-timer.

18:48 Jesse plugs this National Post piece on the two CBCs. (link)

19:36 MacIntrye talks about this interview on CJAD (link).

20:22 Why Linden MacIntyre wants to punch someone at SUN News TV

23:20 Max Ferguson (link).

25:17 Do ratings = success? “The legitimacy is the production and the delivery of it, and the quality of the product. Instead of the bizarre and unreliable approval of a number that comes out of a place I don’t understand”.

26:49 Was it Being Erica? Lasted 4 seasons. (link)

27:16 The Fifth Estate is “limping along” ratings-wise, but attracts a lot of second screen viewers.

28:30 The Globe and Mail on CBC English boss Heather Conway. Did Simon Houpt misquote/misinterpret her? (link)

CORRECTION: Linden MacIntyre and I both miss Heather Conway’s distinction between “shiny-floor” (read:expensive) reality shows and “low-cost” reality shows. The mistake was ours, not Simon Houpt’s. 

29:13 MacIntrye talks about meeting Richard Stursberg’s father in Ottawa, a recipient of the Order of Canada and a war reporter.

31:26 Jesse mentions Frank Magid and Associates, hustlers of “If it bleeds it leads” news. Heres a obituary of founder Frank Magid (link).

34:40 Why is it news that a 70-year old retired? Aren’t 70-year old dudes supposed to? “Depends on the dude

36:30 If “poor Peter Mansbridge” only makes 80K a year, you can have three Mansbridges for one MacIntyre.

More from this series
A radical form of reconciliation is emerging in Saskatchewan.
October 2, 2023
What connects Fidel Castro and a stocky Belgian named Georges to the worst campaign of political violence in modern Canadian history?
September 25, 2023
Have the business practices of one of the world's biggest liquor monopolies damaged wine writing? And, is the environment created by this vacuum in the world of journalism being abused by some high profile writers?
September 18, 2023
When some Canadians look south of the border, sometimes all they can think is: thank god I’m Canadian. But can a Coffee Crisp, or the pronunciation of the letter Z, really save us from the rise of fascism?
September 11, 2023
It’s possible that Chantal Hébert’s journalism once held Canada together. She joins Jesse for a discussion about what’s appropriate in political news coverage, and what (if anything) needs to change.
September 4, 2023
Canada’s biggest grocery chains spent nearly 2 billion last year buying up their own stocks.
August 28, 2023
Foreign Interference by the Chinese government into Canadian politics is probably the biggest news story of the year, and yet we know so little about it. What was the interference? Why did it occur? Did it work? Who was involved?
August 21, 2023
What’s it like to podcast in a country where freedom of expression can land you in jail?
August 14, 2023
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND