CBC cutting Canadian icons

In an unprecedented internal uprising, CBC's senior news correspondents are urging network president Hubert Lacroix to reinstate two colleagues whose jobs have been cut to save money.

The 26 national and international correspondents, including senior anchor Peter Mansbridge and correspondents Brian Stewart, Neil Macdonald and Rick MacInnes Rae, have jointly written to Mr. Lacroix asking him to overrule senior news managers and reinstate "icons" Patrick Brown and Don Murray.

"These are journalists who in many ways defined foreign reporting at CBC in the past few decades," says the letter. "Some of us grew up watching them.

"And we remind you they are among the very few who have risen to the task of serving both English and French-speaking audiences. Don has worked in nearly all our bureaux. He is a foreign policy expert. And there is no better war correspondent in Canada than Patrick Brown.

"To let that kind of expertise walk out the door in an effort to save a tiny fraction of our payroll is baffling."

"This is a group of your most senior journalists telling you our news service is losing crucial gravitas. And it would be dispiriting, to say the least, to hear them reporting on the other network. CTV has already scooped up some of our better correspondents. Let's not offer them two of our icons."

CBC spokesman Jeff Keay says the two men were cut as a cost-saving measure, but news executives are negotiating to keep them as freelancers.  "It is no particular surprise that the correspondents' colleagues would come to their defence," he said.