What a ridiculous and stupid opening to a supposedly intelligent article.
I'm referring to this nonsense: "Gerald Stone (deputy Chairman of the SBS Board) and Shaun Brown (SBS managing director) have denied that SBS is being dumbed down and vigorously defended the station in a National Press Club discussion.
Now that’s interesting. How come these two are so outspoken in defending SBS? One seems to be an Anglo Australian. The other is an American resident in Australia. Where is the diversity that SBS is supposed to provide?"
What is this all about? A spot the wog contest? A survey on such a small base coming to the conclusion that these two people cannot represent diversity is just so ludicrous it's laughable.
And in fact there is diversity within these two people: anglo/australian/american.
This argument and most of the rest of the article is simply specious
Piotr Olszewski (Polish/German Australian and SBS viewer.)

SBS is no longer relevant. The concept of multiculturalism which underpinned its formation is divisive and dying. As SBS becomes more and more like 'just another TV station' with commercials, personality feuds etc, the question must be asked: does it deserve taxpayer funding?
I believe the answer is no. The options are: (1) put it on the market, or (2) abolish it. What would change if there were no SBS? Very little.

Get out, don,t we have enough utter and total rubbish on TV now on what passes for TV on 9 10 7,please just leave 2 and SBS alone.
Hopefully if we change Govt then Labour will clean out all the Howard placements,Stone, the NZ twats, one C Pearson,and get some one in there to get SBS back on track.

Excellent article. I agree, we should all be very concerned at the dumbing down of SBS and doubly so as the ABC is on the same slippery slope even though it might not be quite as far down at this stage.

Most of the advertising on SBS used to be reasonably subtle (well, as subtle as advertising can ever be) and the fact that it only ever appeared between programs meant it could be avoided. Now, as pointed out by Peter, most of it is so crass and so intrusive that the whole SBS experience has been completely ruined. Fortunately, programs like Cutting Edge, Dateline and Insight are still hanging in there, but on present trends their future has to be uncertain.

Multiculturalism is not dead. And it does not divide, as claimed by a poster here. It is still a powerfully unifying force in a society such as ours where so many of us have come from somewhere else. In fact, apart from the indigenous population, we are all boat people. We have all come, or at least our ancestors did, from across the water somewhere. We might not have agreed with all the programming choices, but SBS played a unique role in celebrating and informing our diversity. It is very sad to see this great pioneer of global education and entertainment being diminished to just another commercial channel.

I agree with every word you said Peter but I feel you should have sheeted home the blame more strongly and more precisely to where it belongs, that is to the Howard Government. It has deliberately starved our public broadcasters of funds and forced them into corporate subservience. Their independent and critical voice, crucial to any well functioning democracy, has been intentionally silenced as Howard has sought to recast our once proudly diverse and tolerant society into his own narrow and ideologically conservative mould. If he's given another term, the ABC will soon end up in the same place SBS is now. That's his long term plan and one of the few he is yet to realise.

Hey j5o6hn: I agree that we have more than enough drivel on channels 7,9 & 10.

I think that the dumbing down of media is part of a general malaise that is affecting Australian society.

Whether intentional or not, this has the effect of creating a non-critical (non-thinking) populace. (in effect keep 'em dumb, stupid and ignorant). This will provide a compliant voting (or non voting!) citizenry who will maintain the status quo.

NOTE: "Kath & Kim" is a documentary, not a comedy program.

I depend on the availability of good international news to do my job as efficiently as possible.
I am not interested in advertisements, nor the current affairs style of the new format SBS news service.
The ABC is likely to give you sports first and news afterwards. At times I am reduced to watching the foreign language news services in an effort to get some understanding of what is going on in the world, particularly in relation to complex humanitarian emergencies. My foreign languages are likely to improve rapidly if we don't get a better news service...which might be useful if I had the time to spend. I don't. It infuriates me that the ABC and SBS can get away with so much drivel and use taxpayer money to produce rubbish like "Kath & Kim" or programmes which glorify violence or put kids under pressure (Hotspell was a disgrace)or put winning before clean sport (of which there is far too much.)
The best programme on SBS is Global Village - thanks Silvio Rivier.

I agree with some of this article, but its argument is weakened by the addition of redundant ideological baggage, that cumulatively suggests the author wants SBS to be a vehicle for his own political dogma rather than reflecting genuine diversity.

In particular: sneering at advertisements; the politically-freighted blast at outsourcing; the call for more union representation on the board; the rather silly idea that Margaret Pomeranz could add “dignity and gravitas” to anything; anti-Americanism (I’ll admit, one of my favourite SBS shows is South Park); the suggestion that accepting advertising revenue will inevitably lead to compromised editorial independence;, and the idea that there’s something wrong with having competent and experienced business people and those with media experience on the board.

In response I will merely post the letter I sent to SBS News on 28 Aug 2007 -

"Dear World News Team

After watching SBS World News for about 20 years and admiring the professional standards of the station, unfortunately I have to leave you like Mary Kostakidis, and probably for the same reasons!

What a pity.

I will miss the pre 2007 SBS - unless of course there was a miraculous rewind, which the old SBS would probably have been capable of.

Probably too much to hope for now.

Parting is very painful.

Bye."

Don't worry ,all is not lost.Kevin07 will plunder the future fund so he will make both the ABC and SBS an arm for his propagander machine.Fix your interest rates now and get ready for "Bananas in Republics coming down the stairs,bananas in republics chasing Wall Street Bears."

Arjay, so how do explain Howard's stacking of the ABC Board for the last ten years?

Here are just some just to jog your selective and failing memory -

o Michael Kroger
o KEITH Windschuttle
o Janet Albrechtsen

Rainer the ABC and SBS still pump out their left wing rhetoric on a daily basis seemingly with little control from the Federal Govt.They are still the mouthpiece of Labor and this should not be so.

They will expect a lot more financing from Labor and will be beholding to a political party when they get it,thus towing their line.

Arjay, you confuse human decency with leftism.
Would you prefer the ABC rant on like Alan Jones?
Would you prefer they took a more right wing perspective.

You bleat loudly about Leftism but never define your own political calibration (other than whinging about the Left)..

Its time you woke up to yourself old son.

I agree with a lot of the above comments, such as those by Bronwyn.

I feel that some of this indicates that good old SBS is far from alone in showing signs of a condition that is affecting culture in many places around the world: that is, POPULISM - we see it in international politics in different countries, religion, commerce, government and, above all, far too frequently in the various arms of the media who are the channels of information (regardless of the orientation: right wing or left wing, authoritarian or laissez-faire, socialist or capitalist, religious or secular) ........... it often comes down to a triumph of FORM over SUBSTANCE. Pseudo-personal communication, short grabs pitched to the easiest (and often lowest) common denominator... However in my opinion, even with any criticisms, SBS is still far, far better than some of its peers in providing a balance of quality information and debate.. and culturally rich broadcasting.

Batten down the hatches, it's going to be a long haul to get things to improve in our cultural environment, but we shouldn't give up hope...

I agree with most of what the article says. I was agreaved at the introduction of ads between programs, went along because I imagined ads might help SBS become even better than it once was, nomore.
An investigation as to why emailed comments, read complaints, arn't answered, policy apparently exists of shutup and be happy.
No answer to complaints is just one bitch I have, no RSS feeds is another. RSS is my way of knowing when to tune in on programs SBS do well, I once had no need of it I enjoyed so much to watch. The ads were once sophisticated and interesting, no more I avoid them as one does the plague.
The chairmans "meet the press" was puffery at its worst, we need another board and management.
I reason the foreign language programs are still good as they are produced O/S, that being the reason for no complaints to the foreign language programs.
SBS hasn't soccer I like anymore, outbid by fox, damn their souls. How much is spent on an excuse for management instead of programing. GRRR
fluff4