There is a strong unifying theme in Richard Stursberg’s memoir of his years at the CBC: uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. In Stursberg’s portrait, the CBC is a kingdom plagued by constant budget cuts (yet another round this spring), an obtuse and obstructive board, rebellious employees, malevolent rivals from the private sector and a howling mob of “Annex intellectuals and the plutocrats of Rosedale” opposing all changes in the corporation’s programs.
You might find “crown” a grandiose term for the former head of CBC’s English-language services, but his former employees refer to him as “King Richard.” I believe they are thinking of Richard III, a.k.a. Crookback, but Stursberg clearly identifies with Richard I, the Lionheart. The self-image that emerges from these pages is of a modern-day warrior king, too passionate for pretence or diplomacy, cruelly driven into exile by cowards and jackals who lacked his vision and courage.
In other words, the...
Suanne Kelman is professor emerita of the School of Journalism at Ryerson University. She is the author of All in the Family: A Cultural History of Family Life (Viking, 1998).
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