Onward for Tony

Sent to all CBC staff today.
What 6 year old dreams of working at the CBC? Strange advice from mom.
Whatever.
Good luck, Tony.

~O

To all CBC news and current affairs staff, and contributors-

A little drum roll please – although this time I’ll provide my own drums.

I have some personal news to pass on: After seven and a half years in my current role – and nearly 35 years with the CBC – I have decided that I will be leaving the CBC next month.

Since so much of my life has been connected with the CBC, I obviously have mixed emotions about this, but mostly I have feelings of elation. And – can I say it? – liberation.

It has been a privilege for me to oversee such a wonderful operation during this crucial and dynamic period. And, equally important, it has been precious for me to develop enduring friendships over the years with so many dedicated people working at Canada’s public broadcaster. Canadians are very lucky. You can sometimes be a tough crowd but I have always known you’re lovable deep down!

Although I have been with CBC News in Canada and abroad for more than 30 years, I have actually had eight or nine different jobs in all corners of the CBC. So my own work pattern has been to seek change every three-to-five years. And I have – as many of you know – worked hard to ensure this approach is common in different parts of our operation. I have always felt that an openness to change and renewal is at the core of the best journalism. In the end, I have to listen to my own words.

As CBC’s editor in chief, I have done this job longer than I had planned, longer than anyone else at the CBC in decades and as long as any single individual should. It’s time for a change – for you, and for me – and I really look forward to directing my energy, my enthusiasm and my ideas to new projects.

On radio, television, Newsworld, online and in new media, CBC News is a leading and vital part of Canadian life reflecting the heartbeat of our democracy. That is becoming even more evident in this 21st century, and it’s because of you. I have been honoured to have been there – with you – during so many of these important times.

When I was six years old and told my mother that I wanted to spend my life as a CBC journalist, I remember her reply: “That’s all fine and good, Tony. But remember when you decide to leave the CBC, don’t leave in the middle of winter. Promise me you’ll leave at the beginning of summer.”

I did it, Mom.

There will be a note shortly from Jane Chalmers and Richard Stursberg outlining the process ahead.

In the meantime, I’m on the job for another four weeks, until July 13, and after that, you will always have me as your ally.

Tony

11 Comments

  • Anonymous says:

    Ding Dong the tyrant is dead! He won’t be missed. He might have been a good journalist once, but at the end he was just a power hungry control freak.
    Was he whacked? Of course he was. Maybe they didn’t need to pull the trigger, but he saw the writing on the wall.
    Doesn’t anyone know what’s going on at the CBC anymore? It’s The Maggot stupids. He wasn’t brought in to polish Burman’s ass like everybody else at the CBC. He’s come to change the whole direction of CBC News.
    What does it mean for the CBC?
    As you said in your post about The Maggot:The End.
    Thank you Tony. Great job. Fade to black. Gone.

  • Allan says:

    Look, Ma! No job!
    At six years old. That’s nothing less than astounding.
    At that age to realize that you could do a job you can’t even spell yet.
    What was it you saw, Tony, that was so attractive?
    Getting out of the house?
    No wonder you made it to the bureaucratic top, with a mother that had so much confidence in you.
    And 53 years later, you’re still taking her advice.
    Let that be a lesson to all of us.

    A belated Happy Birthday from last week.
    Time to update your Wiki.

  • Allan says:

    Sooner than I had expected, why not the fall, less inconspicuous, now everyone will blame me.
    But goodbye please to a guy who screwed up big time.
    Welcome to the club Tony.
    We’re all prone to doing those things that lesser mortals don’t understand.
    It certainly explains why you had neither the heart nor the stomach to answer my questions, and so publicly.
    A great, veteran journalist (I assume) retires.
    About time.
    Having made such stupid remarks during and after the … I don’t even remember the name of the mass shooting … it was clear that senility and stress had set in.
    I told him more than a month ago that he was fired, at least from my team.
    Odd that he didn’t print my free expression at that time.

  • Johnny Happypants says:

    “he’ll have a good chance of helping to pick his successor”

    Doubt it. If Stursberg’s involved it’ll be one of his buddies from Cable 10.

  • Johnny Happypants says:

    Life imitates art.

    Like the Sopranos finale.

    We’re left wondering:

    Was Tony whacked?

  • Dwight Williams says:

    I think some of us are just getting over the initial shock of the announcement.

    Better, one supposes, to make this exit under his own steam than be given the John Muckler treatment…and I’m guessing that given that aspect of things, he’ll have a good chance of helping to pick his successor…?

    Dare I suggest Mr. Mansbridge?

  • Allan says:

    oh, and …

    LOL

  • Allan says:

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Anonymous says:

    Maybe Allan finally got to him?

  • Anonymous says:

    Does this mean that CBC News is going to become homogenized as well, or is this a good thing? Someone say something!

  • Antonia Z says:

    The silence is ominous.

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