CBC Dispatches and Connect to be cancelled
Reports on Twitter during a CBC Town Hall stated that CBC Radio’s Dispatches with Rick MacInnes-Rae and Television’s Connect with Mark Kelley will be among the first to feel the wrath of a 10 per cent budget cut that was handed to the broadcaster in the Mar 29 federal budget.
They may work on different mediums, but Rick MacInnes-Rae and Mark Kelley have something in common today, with both of their shows having been cancelled during an employee town hall meeting called in light of CBC’s newly-slashed budget.
Reports on Twitter during the town hall that outlined the cuts, stated that CBC Radio’s Dispatches with Rick MacInnes-Rae and Television’s Connect with Mark Kelley will be among the first to feel the wrath of a 10 per cent budget cut that was handed to the broadcaster in the Mar 29 federal budget.
Connect is a current affairs show that, according to the CBC’s website, “goes beyond the day’s headlines and sound bites to reveal the real story” of the stories that everyone is talking about; the stories that “shape your world and affect your life.”
MacInnes-Rae will have hosted Dispatches from its inception in 2001 when he co-founded the program, to its eventual end. The international news show was lauded and held in high regard, having received numerous awards over the years. MacInnes-Rae has been with the CBC since he was recruited in 1976 while still a Ryerson Journalism student.
I sat next to MacInnes-Rae while covering a recent panel discussion on journalists in Mexico put on by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma. As people filtered into the cozy Upper Library at Massey College in Toronto, no less than a half-dozen strangers approached MacInnes-Rae to shake his hand, introduce themselves and show their unabashed appreciation for Dispatches. And if the reaction on Twitter this afternoon was any indication (the cancellation of the show garnered its own hashtag, #ripcbcidspatches), it is a show that will be missed.
Both Dispatches and Connect will go off-air in June.
Related: CBC to cut 650 jobs, introduce radio advertising in wake of 'punishing' federal budget
