If the CBC Wants to Honour Knowlton Nash it Must Fire Rex Murphy

On a day when the country is mourning the CBC icon and distinguished Canadian Knowlton Nash. 

At a time when the CBC is bleeding to death from the savage cuts imposed by the brutish un-Canadian Harper regime.

And some of its most admired journalists are taking early retirement, to try to protect the jobs of some of their younger colleagues. All honour to them.

I only have one question: will the CBC now also do the honourable thing and finally fire Rex Murphy?



Because anyone, who knows ANYTHING about Knowlton Nash, knows that he must have despised the very idea of having a loudmouth partisan tea bagger like Murphy contaminating the journalistic integrity of his beloved National.

Regurgitating Con talking points, denying climate change, shilling for Big Oil. 

He would have been shocked to see how easily the CBC's hapless mollusc managers let that shabby right-wing demagogue off the hook. 



We were disappointed some people were willing to believe that someone the calibre of Peter Mansbridge would sacrifice his professional integrity, or that Rex Murphy's opinion is for sale.

When what he's doing is clearly a violation of the most basic journalistic ethics, which dictate that even the perception of bias must be avoided.

Nash would have been disgusted to see that despite so many complaints from the public, Murphy is STILL shilling for Big Oil. 



Now as part of a massive new propaganda offensive I wrote about the other night. Which is designed to pave the way for the construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline.

And Nash no doubt would have asked the CBC managers this question: if Murphy is not subject to basic journalistic ethics, on the network's flagship NEWS program, because he's an "independent contractor."

When it came to freelancers such as Rex Murphy, we were of necessity more hands off. They are independent contractors, not employees.

Why would they lay off ONE regular employee before laying HIM off ?

When quite apart from the damage he's doing to the CBC's reputation, Murphy has many other jobs, lives in the most expensive condo on the Toronto waterfront. In the same building in my neighbourhood where Mike Harris lived in when he was Premier.

And he's got powerful friends with benefits and BIG BUCKS....



While the CBC's younger not so well off employees face great hardship and a bleak future, in an almost nonexistent job market.

Oh boy. Poor decent Knowlton Nash must have wondered at the end of his life, what has happened to his beloved CBC, and to the country he served so well.

But at least he was spared, as I unfortunately wasn't, the grotesque spectacle of the ghastly Smurphy on The National tonight.

Looking like he was half looped or had just fallen out of bed...



Oozing barely coherent oily platitudes all over Nash's memory.

Because that would have been the final indignity eh?

Along with the CBC's shabby coverage of his death, which only shows how far it has fallen.

As for the CBC News tradition that Nash so ably represented, that too has declined horribly. In fact it is lamentable to note that CBC TV’s own coverage of Nash’s death on Saturday was shabby, shoddy and so poorly done. On The National, anchor Kim Brunhuber struggled to suggest a narrative to Nash’s career as a repetitive series of footage of Nash, on The National, reporting from Vietnam Washington and Cuba, repeated endlessly and all the while Peter Mansbridge nattered away, affectionately, but mindlessly, on the phone.

And this terse statement. 

“Mr. Nash’s remarkable legacy includes the rich historical news archives he leaves behind, the many books he authored and the many journalists he helped to train. The nation mourns the loss of this iconic journalist.” 

From the man who is slowly killing the CBC, and despises everything Knowlton Nash was and believed in. His quiet decency, his support for public broadcasting, his noble vision of Canada. 

And is of course Rexy's oily soulmate...



Or his grubby puppet master.

And all I can say is, if we want to honour the memory of the good Knowlton who served his country with class and dignity, I can think of at least three ways to do that:

We must do all we can to save the CBC, from the Cons and itself.

We must fire Stephen Harper and his ghastly un-Canadian regime.

And the CBC's useless managers must fire Rex Murphy...



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