Jian Ghomeshi, the (former) host of CBC’s Q radio show, recently announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from his duties in order to deal with “personal issues.” News just broke that Ghomeshi will be taking his leave from CBC even further, as he seeks to sue the network for $50 million on the grounds of breach of confidence and bad faith.
Only Kermit can understand his plight.
Jian.ca
To put things into perspective, $50 million is roughly 5% of the CBC’s operating budget. Ghomeshi, a vocal opponent of the government’s cuts to CBC seems to be mugging the network for what it has and jumping ship. It’s a stupid idea, really. Trying to squeeze money out of the CBC is like trying to rob a homeless man; all you’re going to get is a couple of cents and scabies.
Why did CBC give him the boot in the first place? Well, according to them, “information” came to their attention which would “preclude [them] from continuing [their] relationship” with the host. This is the part where we, as news reporters, pledge to not make baseless theories but to go ahead and speculate anyways. Could Ghomeshi be running for leadership of the Parti Quebecois? Is he replacing George Strombobopso Stroumboulopoulos as host of Hockey Night in Canada?
What could Ghomeshi have done to warrant his termination? CBC managed to keep Don Cherry on after all these years. Come on.
We may not know the full story yet, but I can tell you one thing: there is finally some merit in watching CBC.