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Linden MacIntyre walks away from a 50-year journalism career for next generation


-by Rankin MacDonald

 

For many of us, our news day begins with CBC television every morning.

This morning had all the news, but there was an item that shocked and saddened the people of Inverness County and many more across this great land.

Linden MacIntyre had fallen on his sword.

He was resigning from the CBC in protest for the recent cuts that will eliminate close to 700 jobs.

In an emotional interview, he told the host that his days with CBC will come to an end this summer because he wants to make room for young journalists in a profession where it is difficult today to enter the field of journalism.

He has been a reporter for 50 years and has been with the CBC’s flagship investigative program, The fifth estate for the past 24.

 There was something special about Linden MacIntyre on that show.

You trusted him.

Whether it was the cadence of his voice or the sincerity of the delivery of his message, you knew you were getting the straight goods, the true story.

Linden was our everyman.

We spoke to Linden by phone on Monday night, and he pointed out that we all can be replaced.

But some linger in our memories for a longer time. He will be one of those.

He pointed out that the CBC cuts are hitting young reporters and producers the hardest, and the future of the CBC really depends on them.

He said he has the wisdom of a seasoned journalist, and the future of CBC depends on young people being able to develop that wisdom.

At 70, he feels it is time to open the CBC doors to those who will shape the future of the broadcaster.

He said we never heard the names of those being cut, but it is they who are essential to the CBC.

Linden MacIntyre has won eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy, numerous other journalistic awards and the Giller Prize and Libris Fiction Book of the Year Award for The Bishop’s Man.

He also wrote The Long Stretch, Why Men Lie, Who Killed Ty Conn and Causeway: A Passage from Innocence.

Linden was born in Port Hastings, the son of Dan Rory MacIntyre and Alice Donohue.

He worked at the Halifax Herald, the Financial Times of Canada and at the CBC.

It wasn’t easy saying farewell to the CBC.

It was his life for 24 years; he enjoyed the fifth estate’s scope and freedom. And now he leaves one identity behind but will find who he is in the next chapters of his life.

He has a book ready for publication, and it is here where he will focus his writing efforts for the years to come.

Summer will once again find him at his second home in Judique.


 

 


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