After graduating from
Algonquin College in
Ottawa, Macdonald worked first as a print journalist. He joined the CBC in 1988 and covered Canadian
Parliament for approximately a decade. He then served for five years (1998–2003) as the network's chief
Middle East correspondent. Macdonald was involved in a public dispute with Canadian media mogul
Leonard Asper in 2003. Asper had accused Macdonald of being "anti-Israeli" after taking exception to some of the CBC's Middle East coverage. Macdonald responded with a rebuttal in
The Globe and Mail, accusing Asper of defamation and alleging editorial censorship in the Asper-owned
CanWest media outlets. In November 2010, Macdonald led a CBC investigation into the
United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission and the
Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which had been mandated with solving the murder of former
Lebanese Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri. The report uncovered documents suggesting the UN investigative body had strong evidence to link the
Shia paramilitary group
Hezbollah to the
2005 bombing that killed Hariri, and that the UN had not acted on this intelligence due to diplomatic concerns. Macdonald's report also sharply criticized the performance of the Special Tribunal's head prosecutor,
Daniel Bellemare, who responded that he was "extremely disappointed" with the report. In 2014, Macdonald harshly criticized
Linden MacIntyre, a former CBC employee, after MacIntyre made comments about the CBC in regard to the
Jian Ghomeshi incident. In 2015, Macdonald moved back to Canada after 17 years in the United States, 12 of which he spent in
Washington, D.C. as the Washington bureau correspondent for
The National. Macdonald produced editorial articles for the CBC's website, as well as appearing as a senior correspondent for
The National before he retired in December 2019. ==Awards==