John Cruickshank Resigns
John Cruickshank, the publisher of CBC News resigned today. Cruickshank had been at the corporation for only 14 months, having joined in September 2007. Cruickshank will continue on at the CBC until January 1st.
He is leaving for the post of publisher at The Toronto Star. At the Star he will replace Jagoda Pike, who left the paper to join Ontario’s bid for the Pan-American games.
During his time at the CBC Cruickshank was responsible for splitting the news organization into two areas: programming and newsgathering. He appointed Jennifer McGuire to head up the programming arm. He was also involved in starting to integrate the television, radio and internet operations.
McGuire will now also serve as interim publisher, and will work on a transition plan.
At the newsroom in Toronto there’s a general sense of disappointment and worry. Some staffers wonder what the move says about the state of CBC News. Cruickshank is leaving for a newspaper, an industry which many feel is in peril. A comment on this blog reads “this resignation waves many, many flags.” Others also worry about a change in course before many of Cruickshank’s initiatives have been fully implemented.
So what do you think? Will Cruickshank’s resignation imperil some of the initiatives he launched? And what does the move say about CBC News?
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[...] Breaking news from CBC, with the head of the news operation John Cruickshank resigning after just 15 months in the job. [...]
Clearly this guy got a better offer in an organization where there seems to be a better future. Says a lot?
Never met the man.
But someone who DID, said tonight he was one of
the few who seemed to
“get” it, and was saddened by the
news.
Me, I think we can speculate and shoot at whatever
targets we want right now, and with stories breaking about questionable expense accounts, there’s no shortage of big targets and if you read
Tea Makers, no shortage of ammo either.
For those of us who remember the lock-out,
who’ve struggled with questionable programming,
Frankensteinian (I made it up, ok?) revisioning projects ever since, it would be easy
to sit back and collect right now..payback.
But where does that leave the kids who only ever
wanted to be a journalist or a technician with CBC.
Where does it leave our audience, who only ever
wanted to hear and see meaningful stories?
What we need right now is an honest discussion of what
is happening. How public broadcasting is going
to weather this. How we are going to go about our daily jobs, look people straight in the eye, and assure them we ARE credible and that we care about them,
our listeners, viewers, and readers.
I’m not sure they have felt that for a very long time..
Obviously something happened upstairs .Decisions have been made that have seriously damaged the trust had by many many canadians in getting relaxing non intrusive background programming while going about their daily routines.The myriad schlock is unhealthy.The old menu was perfect.It wasn’t broke and did not require fixing.In the key of charles promotes rage.It makes no sense to yell at the radio telling the host to Shut the —- up!!,but that I suspect is now the norm.Sad,very sad.
Revealing.
Leaving the CBC with its numerous platforms, with a view to the future in order to return to the slowly fading away daily newspaper.
This resignation waves many, many flags.
An “honest discussion about what is happening”, as stated by Terry, is a must. Unless, Mr Cruickshank knows something we must not know.
We must understand the rationale for his leaving –so soon.
As a long-time CBC viewer/listener, I find the current version of CBC-TV News almost unwatchable. The aggressive graphics and rackety sound associated with them are unsettling and unpleasant and not something I like to allow into my living space. The general effect is that they fit right in with the military mindset Canadians are being trained to adopt under the present federal government . Ugh!
This leaves me suspicious, on occasion, of the news content itself. An example from yesterday: coincident with the results of the poll showing a large lead for approval of the Harper gov’t. over public confidence in the coalition initiative, we were informed that 3 more soldiers have died in Afghanistan. The iconic number of 100 dead has been surpassed. It would have been highly inconvenient for such news to be reported during the election or the recent political crisis, so one is left wondering if the true facts were withheld until they could be released along with a strongly pro-gov’t. poll!
Such thoughts were unthinkable in the past but now, anything seems possible at CBC. I have always had great respect for it as a public institution and for the women and men who staff it in good faith, but the worm of doubt began to creep in about the time “the crawler” began appearing at the bottom of our screens.
I still watch CBC news quite often, sometimes with the sound muted and simply reading the crawler, (which I loathed at first but now find useful), but I take care to supplement my news intake with the internet. I grew up in the era of objectivity, and much prefer it to opinioneering. So, for people like me, assembling what appears to be reliable information is damn hard work!
One last point: the quality of the advertising on CBC-TV is now often puerile. Thank goodness for the mute button and the ease of channel changing!
Aside from all this grumbling, best wishes and my sympathy to all who soldier on in the present political climate; believe me, you are not alone
.