1. Background

2. Television career

3. Radio career

4. References

Robert Fisher (born 1948 or 1949) is a retired Canadian radio and television journalist.

Background

As a journalism student in the 1960s, he wrote his master's thesis on the then-emerging phenomenon of women in politics.^[1] His first job as a journalist was with a local radio station in Oakville, Ontario, where he began working in 1967.^[2]

Television career

Fisher worked for CBC Television in the 1980s as a Queen's Park reporter and host of Dateline Ontario for CBLT,^[3] until taking a job with the Global Television Network in 1988.^[4] While at Global, he hosted and produced the weekend program Focus Ontario on CIII in the 1980s and 1990s, described by the Globe and Mail as a "must watch" for those interested in Ontario politics. ^[5] He was also the network's first Queen's Park Bureau Chief,^[6] and a sometime anchor of the station's 6:30 p.m. national newscast "First National" and province-wide newscasts on weekends^[7] and Global's 11 p.m. weekday newscasts.^[8]

He served on the journalist's panel for the election debates in the 1987 provincial election as a representative of the CBC,^[9] and in the provincial elections of 1990,^[10] 1995^[11] and 1999 for Global.^[12] In the 1999 debate, his final question to Ontario Liberal Party leader Dalton McGuinty was perceived by some Liberals as unfair.^[12]

As well, he appeared as an analyst for the network's coverage of the federal elections in 1988,^[4] 1993^[13] and 1997.^[14]

He was fired from Global in 2000 after criticizing what he perceived as the network's shift toward infotainment reporting.^[15]

Radio career

He returned to CBC Radio shortly thereafter. He was an afternoon news anchor on CBLA, CBC Radio One's station in Toronto, appeared on the network's Ontario stations as a political analyst,^[16] continued to anchor provincial election coverage for that service in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2014, and filed occasional science news reports, under the pseudonym "Dr. Robert", for the network's flagship interview program As It Happens. He started in radio in 1967 at CHWO, Oakville. Two years later he moved to CHAM, Hamilton as the station's Municipal Affairs Reporter covering City Hall and hosting the weekly "Mayor's Report" with the then Mayor Vic Copps. Fisher had a brief stint at CKOC, Hamilton. But his big break came in 1970 when he was hired by CJAD, Montreal where among other stories he covered 1976 Olympics and the 1970 "October Crisis." He was among the first to announce the kidnapping and later death of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. Fisher was appointed News Director in November,1976. He left a year later to pursue a Master of Journalism degree at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Fisher has taught journalism law and ethics at Centennial College and radio and television news at Ryerson University.

In 2015, Fisher announced his retirement from journalism.^[2] His final day at CBC Radio was July 23.^[2]

He continues to contribute to CBC radio as a regular commentator on Ontario politics for stations in Toronto, Kitchener, London, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Windsor. In a June 2017 appearance on CBC Sudbury's Morning North, he announced he would be returning to the network in September as a political analyst.

References

• Direct-to-streaming
• Direct to Video (Roseanne)
• DirecTV-15
• DirecTV-7S
• DirecTV Arena
• DIRECTV blimp
• DirecTV Caribbean
• DirecTV Chile
• DirecTV (Chile)
• DirecTV.com
• DIRECTV, Inc. v. Imburgia
• DirecTV, Inc. v. Imburgia
• Direct Visual Internal Urethrotomy
• DirecTV Latin America
• DirecTV Latin America/DirecTV Chile
• DirecTV Now
• DirecTV Sports Networks
• Direct Westminster rule
• Directx12
• Direct x 12
• DirectX Raytracing
• Direct Énergie
• Direct–quadrature–zero transformation
• Direcção de Serviços de Urbanismo e Habitação
• Direcção dos Serviços Correccionais