An open letter to the President from concerned CBC staff

From: Concerned Staff
Subject: CBC English Services Is In Crisis
To: Hubert.Lacroix@cbc.ca
Received: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 7:00 PM

Dear Mr. President,

A concerned group of staff are writing to inform you that CBC English Radio and Television are in a state of crisis and desperately require intervention.

Our current managerial structure seems to have been inspired by the mythical hydra whose many heads frequently consumed one another. Former executive vice president Harold Redekopp’s notorious “pylons” have now been replaced by “the Stursberg Labyrinth,” where daily management decisions have to be run up multiple reporting lines. While it was certainly a challenge to work efficiently and effectively in the previous management structure, the current system is an unmitigated disaster where everyone is forced to serve not two but ten masters.

Mr. Stursberg’s leadership choices have also strongly impacted daily News operations. When John Crookshank, the best thing to happen to CBC News in a decade, suddenly resigned a scant few months into his tenure, Jennifer McGuire was made head of News despite the availability of candidates with superior news-gathering credentials. That decision continues to have repercussions.

In a similar vein, Jill Troyer was made Director of Regional Programming, where she has utterly failed to gain the trust or confidence of those she was intended to represent. Ms Troyer is directly implicated in the sudden departure of Mike Linder from the CBC this week. We understand that Mr. Linder was an award winning journalist in his own right. He was, by all accounts, one of the most creative, charismatic, effective and popular managers in the entire English service. The Edmonton News show he re-built from the ground up is now universally regarded as one of the best in the country. While the specific reason for Mr. Linder’s departure is not known, we’ve learned that CBC Edmonton staff were so outraged they nearly rioted when the announcement was made, and would likely have “stormed the Bastille” if their jobs were not at risk. With his outstanding journalistic and managerial track-record, Mr. Linder will no doubt be scooped by the competition and CBC News will be exponentially poorer for his loss.

Even more disturbing than the above is the fact that Mr. Stursberg was overheard by CBC employees making highly disparaging remarks about you and your attempt to build strong, collaborative bonds between CBC management and the unions. We would like to state for the record that we greatly admire you collaborative management style, in particular, your willingness to listen openly and fairly to concerns staff have raised. Genuine honour and integrity are not qualities commonly associated with CBC’s senior management and your unique approach is deeply appreciated. We think it is very unfortunate that some who claim to represent you do not also share your ethical code.

Sadly, these are ugly times and we recognize that were the authors of this letter ever to be identified, our careers, incomes and pensions would all be jeopardized. As such, we regret to inform you that this email account will be deactivated as soon as this letter has been sent.

Mr. President, morale at every conceivable level of CBC English Services is at an all-time low. As such, it has become necessary to publicly declare that “Rome is officially burning.” What is desperately needed now are more fire fighters and less fiddlers throughout CBC’s management system.

Yours in dismay,
Concerned CBC staff

30 Comments

  • The real Mike Linder says:

    For the record ’“ I did not write the open letter and I do not endorse it. I wasn’™t aware of this posting until several weeks after it went up. It really is not my style and I wish the CBC nothing but success going forward. The site administrator has my contact information. Best of luck everyone.
    m

  • Lenny says:

    Please don’t compare me to that wacko. Are you offering me a paid position on your blog? ;) I’m all ears.

  • Lenny says:

    Certain people keep themselves in positions of control. You have a few people who have formed symbiotic relationships to keep the door revolving.

  • Lenny says:

    Hi there,

    Has anybody looked at the revolving door that’s connected to Mansbridge’s domain?

  • Anonymous says:

    Globe and Mail joins the fray. How embarrassing for everyone at CBC. Anyone who writes as poorly as the writer of ‘An Open Letter to the President from concerned CBC staff’ deserves to get fired from CBC.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/brace-yourself-sometimes-i-feel-sorry-for-the-cbc/article1331127/

  • Mike Linder says:

    Damn idiots all of yooos! Can;t a man have pop before he comes into work anymore?? can;t man have a round before he hits the road?? you’re all jealous of my talent. im off to the bar. have a nice ife.

  • Fake Ouimet says:

    Anonymoose at 8:42 pm, please rewrite your comment so it doesn’™t contain actually defamatory statements.

    • Anonymous says:

      All right, the big guns at CBC headquarters needs to do a better job monitoring the CBC-Edmonton newsroom. All sorts of unacceptable behaviour was happening there. Without naming anyone, a person at a high supervisory level used to come into work drunk. Anyone who works in that newsroom can attest to this. But no one wanted to jeopardize their job by formally complaining. Life has a way of working out sometimes.

  • the truth says:

    My evidence? Turn to Newsworld for a few hours.

  • Anonymous says:

    My jaw almost dropped when I read this drivel. Nobody at CBC-Edmonton is mourning this man’s departure, apart from the flaky women he hired, b/c he preferred to think with his little head rather than his big one. It’s so obvious Mike Linder wrote this himself. He needs to get over himself. Now if the other two incompetent buffoons running that newsroom, Judy Piercey and Grant Gelinas, got the axe, all will be well in the universe again.

    • Millicent Anne Linder says:

      Dear Anonymous,

      I notice you are not brave enough to put your name to your comments.

      Michael would never have written the letter on top — not in a million years. I have known him for a long long time and that’s not his style.

      I see your style though is to take shots at someone you see as vulnerable and then not have the balls to say who you are.

      well – people who write nasty comments without identifying themselves are low life scum. And whoever you are – what goes around comes around my dear.

      Life has a way of catching up with nasty little people who like to kick someone when they smell an opportunity.

      get it?????????

      Anne Linder ( I dont mind saying who I am)

  • Joe says:

    I can’™t believe anyone has fallen for this. It’™s so obvious that Mike Linder himself wrote this ’˜open letter’™. Who else knew all the players behind the scene and the internal gossip on that level? It takes a particularly narcissistic personality to describe himself as, ’˜most creative, charismatic, effective and popular’™. Good riddance.

  • Anonymous says:

    “While the specific reason for Mr. Linder’™s departure is not known, we’™ve learned that CBC Edmonton staff were so outraged they nearly rioted when the announcement was made, and would likely have stormed the Bastille if their jobs were not at risk. ”

    Are you joking? This wasn’t written by anyone who was in the station that day. The sense of relief amounst the staff was palpable. Not many in Edmonton are mourning Linder’s departure.

  • iO yoyo says:

    Letter writer : please limit your response to 140 characters or less and you might get some response.

    Anti-Semite Conspiracy Theorist : Come on. You would dismiss this guy’s callous and arrogant lockout behaviour, 4 (or is it 5) seasons of lowballing TV, the bloating of middle management, the ill-devised merging of the media lines with a cbcwatch style potshot? Lazy.

    It’s far less about religion than it is about someone who was appointed to take a crack at the operation, who is past his sell-by date. He needs to do the altruistic thing and move on, do some interviews on how nobody understood his mandate but it needed to be done blah blah blah.

    As for Hubie ever coming back to the Teamakers arena, hats off to all of us for ensuring that’ll never happen. Especially you, Allan, wherever you are.

    • Fake Ouimet says:

      Yoyo, stop acting like this place has not gotten better. Plus Hubie was never really in this ’œarena,’ a comment or two notwithstanding.

  • the truth says:

    Another jew hating letter from a 4th floor anti-semite. What a surprise…

    • Fake Ouimet says:

      I don’™t see any evidence of that, Truther. Where’™s yours?

    • Anonymous says:

      What a pathetically low blow response. It’s so easy, isn’t it, to simply claim persecution? Get over it.

    • Truthiness says:

      Truth,
      quite simply: fuck off. I challenge you to detail this persecution. Only the lowest of the low use this lowlife tactic to taint their counterparts. Specifically, it is usually the persecutors who are the first to play the victims. FUCK OFF. I see right through you.

      • The Truth says:

        you swore with the caps lock button on… you must mean business!! You see right through me? I like it. Very superhero vs. villain.

        I’ll be in my super secret volcano hideout if you need to find me.

  • Anonymous says:

    Funny. I wrote a similar letter to the previous President, Robert Rabinovitch, also raising great concerns about Mr. Stursberg’s leadership and the effects it was having on morale. It was right after the “The One” disaster.

    Never heard a peep.

  • Glad no lock out until 2014 says:

    Jill Troyer. That will send shivers up the spine of anyone who was at 500 Church.

    Not much leadership skills with her.

    How did she move up the ladder?

  • Bob Dobbs says:

    I worked with Linder as well. Hell of a guy.

    Which of course means he would be a target. Can’t have too many pros around. That would challenge the big giant head.

  • anon says:

    Don’t get too worked up. Stursberg’s strategy of dumbing everything down is paying dividends. The ratings winners are Blades and Dragons. That is the future of the CBC. You want a National Public Broadcaster with the old priorities, leave Canada.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, we should just accept the dumbing down of the nation and forget the purpose of having a good national public radio
      Let’s stop having elections too, I don’t want to care about anything.

  • Megan says:

    Oh no, really? I worked with Linder at CBC North years ago. I wish him well.

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