Jian Ghomeshi may have been sold as the face of the "new" CBC, but Rex Murphy's stern, unforgiving visage has long been the face of the public broadcaster's old guard and last night he tore into the fallen upstart during his "Point of View" segment on CBC's The National.
Murphy marvels at how Ghomeshi went from "marquee all-star in this building [to] Voldemort, the unspeakable, from high stardom to a blot on the landscape."
Then he really gets going.
Murphy, who worked with Jian Ghomeshi for years before the latter was fired on Oct. 26 and subsequently filed a $55-million lawsuit against the CBC, starts dissecting the "contradiction between the persona and the person." He notes the irony of the "sensitive over-the-hill hipster" who boasted ("dear god") of being a woman studies major now facing accusations of being a serial harasser and abuser.
But while leaving aside the issue of criminality, which is now under a police investigation, Murphy pounds his former colleague for using Q as a "mattress for his ego and a lever to allegedly mistreat and bully all around him" as well as for thinking that he, himself, was a celebrity.
"He wanted to be in the same space as those he was interviewing, a petty celebrity god, shooting, gliding above it it all. It seems that in the grim lit chamber of his mind, it put him above the rules and regard for those he met or worked with," Murphy said.
Though Murphy did manage to find one silver lining.
"I don't expect we'll hear a 'Hi there, Canada' anytime soon. See, there are small mercies."
