[LINK] "Alison Smith and Linden MacIntyre leaving CBC"

[rfmcdonald]

This distressing news underlines the extent to which the CBC is being gutted by cuts. I'm personally fond of Linden MacIntyre's writing and investigative journalism, but Alison Smith has also been a feature.

We need funding for public broadcasting to work. What else can be said?

Alison Smith, a senior correspondent for CBC News and host of CBC Radio's flagship news show The World at Six, has announced she is leaving the public broadcaster at the end of June.

Smith's revelation comes just after CBC colleague Linden MacIntyre announced he would be leaving CBC at the end of the summer.

"It's time. I've been thinking about this for quite a long time and I've had a terrific run. I've been very privileged to have purpose in my life at the CBC, which has been challenging and creative and fulfilling. But it's time now," she told CBC News on Thursday.

[. . .]

Veteran investigative journalist and award-winning author MacIntyre, who has spent nearly four decades at the public broadcaster and 24 years as co-host of the fifth estate, is to leave CBC at the end of August.

The prominent journalist said he made the difficult decision, in part, to take a stand against CBC's recently announced budget cuts, which he believes are having the strongest impact on young reporters and producers.

"I listened to all the bosses talking about the fact that these are cuts that people are going to notice. And then I realized: Probably not, because these are people cuts and these people are anonymous to the public. Their work is not," MacIntyre, 70, told CBC News.

In April, CBC president Hubert Lacroix announced that funding shortfalls and revenue losses had forced CBC/Radio-Canada to cut $130 million from its budget this year. The move necessitated the elimination of 657 jobs over the next two years, a substantial reduction of CBC Sports and affected all sectors of the CBC, from regional news to radio to digital programming.

Among those losing their jobs, "most of them people have never heard of, [but] everybody knows their work," MacIntyre said.