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?

6:20 “I 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

8:45 “Avant 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.

10:20 “You 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.