[Update. Original posting 26 May 2006]
In shuffling its overseas scribblers, CBC is sending Paul Workman to Kandahar for a year.
A year.
That is twice the deployment length of a Canadian soldier.
In Kandahar.
After spending a decade years in Paris, Paul's gonna have to do some serious attitude adjusting.
I mean this one is surely on the top CBC reporting gigs just like Alert is at the top of the list of places where Canadian Forces members are climbing over each other to get to.
Workman's replacement is Adrienne Arsenault who is heading to Paris having spent some time in the Middle East.
Nice reward.
Over at CTV, their reporter - Janis Mackey Frayer - in Kandahar did a stint in the Middle East. A bit less of an adjustment, to be sure.
(Friday trivia aside: Anyone remember Janis' early national TV gig? Her bio at the CTV site doesn't make mention of it.)
So inquiring minds will now be wondering:
who'd Paul piss off or otherwise annoy?
Update [27 May]: A couple of e-mails pointed out that this decision reflects a strong commitment by the Mother Corp to cover an important Canadian story.
Yep it does. It is also a marked difference between now and 13 years ago when the CBC sent its Moscow correspondent to cover Chechnya - alongside every other news outfit on the planet - rather than send anyone at all to cover Canadians in Somalia.
CBC's decision to send Workman out in the land of Caine and Connery also reflects a competitive issue - which I hinted at - what with CTV having a presence in theatre already and having deployed both Lisa LaFlamme and Janis to the country for some time. CBC's coverage has been good but sending in Workman reflects a commitment of resources.
Still, though, it's gotta be tough to go from Paris for 10 years (albeit with overseas stints every once in a while) to living 24/7 in Kandahar.
No answers so far on the Janis Friday trivia question. What did this international relations and French language graduate do as her first gig in television?