CBC is planning to remove material featuring Jian Ghomeshi from Q's online archives following the disgraced former host being charged with sexual assault and accused of sexual harassment.
The Toronto Star reports CBC management announced Dec. 15 that most of the interviews Ghomeshi conducted would be taken offline.
"We aren't erasing the archives, we're just taking them offline for now," CBC's media relations chief Chuck Thompson told the publication. "There is no obvious right or wrong approach here. We've been giving this a lot of careful consideration over the last few weeks and want to give the program every opportunity to be as unencumbered as possible while some very creative people reimagine Q's future."
The Q archives on CBC.ca include over 2,000 pieces of video and audio with more than 2,000 videos also on Q's YouTube playlists.
Thompson told the newspaper the "lion's share" of interviews will be removed from the CBC website as well as its YouTube channel "very soon." There's no timeline as to when these interviews would be placed back online, if ever. Musical performances would remain online but Ghomeshi's introductions will be edited out.
Current Q guest host Wab Kinew addressed the material's removal on the air and added that the program wouldn't rebroadcast any of Ghomeshi's prior interviews. He also quoted Cindy Witten, senior director of CBC Radio Talk, saying "Jian Ghomeshi is no longer the host of Q. He faces serious charges. We are currently searching for a new host and re-imagining the program. And we're in the process of taking old episodes offline. We're focusing on the future."
Listeners, however, expressed their almost unanimous opposition to the archives removal on the Q website and Facebook page. Here are a selection of their reactions.
Reactions To Removing Jian From Q Archives
Of course, a YouTube user thatguyfranco guessed at just this sort of a move by CBC brass earlier in the month.
In related news, Stars' singer Torquil Campbell -- who often appeared on Q with Ghomeshi for a weekly segment -- announced via Twitter that the first episode of his new podcast entitled Total Fucking Darkness will appear in January and deal with his time with Ghomeshi.