ST Uzunov
There is no doubt of your concern on this issue but I think you are ignoring a few pertinent commercial realities.
SBS was never intended to be a UN or the Solomon of the Australian Airwaves it is/was a TV station that reflected the cultural diversity of Australia.
The reliable supply of reliable appropriate news from 136 countries +ethnicities involved (including the internecine ethnic rivalries sensitivities) would be a task beyond the several times larger, UN general assembly bureaucracy and budget.
Logic dictates therefore that a more modest/realistic goal is required one of an international outlook with an Aussie focus.
Your criticisms and call for a royal commission is poorly based and it seems to reflect personal interests.
If however if you have clear evidence of bias present them to the appropriate authorities

The point that Sasha Uzunov is trying to make is that SBS is NOT a journalistic body-- it is one that is concerned with commentary and that being left-leaning commentary than anything resembling hard hitting journalism. In many ways it is the Left-Wing Evil Twin of Fox News--- just one look at those loony tunes Cutting Edge programs directed by the likes of Guido Knopp will underline that.

You are either a journo or not-- there is no half way house here-- like you are either Gay/lesbian or not; you are either a Vegan or not--- anything else is pure commentary.

I have said it once before, and will state it again-- being a political extremist does not differ from being a religious fanatic or a person who thinks that aliens are controlling their brains-- it is a form of mental illness.

So why we have to subsidize a bunch of mentally ill Satre-reading kooks is beyond me--- just because the commercial channels are crap does not mean that two wrongs will ever make a right.

BigBadBear (Is that title meant to be intimidating? Just wondered.)

"I have said it once before, and will state it again-- being a political extremist does not differ from being a religious fanatic or a person who thinks that aliens are controlling their brains-- it is a form of mental illness."

Nothing exemplifies this statement better than your own post, Big Bear.

Only someone from the extreme Right would describe SBS as the 'Left-Wing Evil Twin of Fox News' or its documentary program, Cutting Edge, as 'loony tunes'.

Perhaps you could proffer an example of a television station that does offer news and current affairs programs you consider to be based on 'hard hitting journalism'.

As far as Australian television is concerned, a lot of what appears on SBS and the ABC is to my way of thinking indeed hard-hitting, truth-based journalism. Programs like Four Corners, Cutting Edge and Dateline frequently expose current affairs issues from a carefully gathered, evidence-based perspective, and quite fearlessly of the government or corporate toes they might be stepping on in the process. They provide good examples of what I consider to be hard-hitting journalism.

I'd be interested to see your choices. No doubt they'll be quite illuminating in regards to your 'political extremist' claims.

Funny, I’m called Young Bennie at work too.

You’re tilting at windmills Sasha. A royal commission? You still haven’t made a case, your Crikey article notwithstanding. SBS merged with ABC, if this is your angle, would make an excellent broadcaster but would need two channels to fit it all in.

BBB you’ve equated leaning left with mental illness. That’s the sin bin for you. What’s hard hitting journalism – 48 minutes? Perhaps you don't like the docos on SBS but if you can switch over to CSI at the press of a button what's your bloody problem?

BigBadBear.
I saw her comments and understood her criticisms but my point was essentially SBS like ABC are Television stations not a font of all wisdom. If only because of its constricting captivity to budget and political masters (both sides)

Your political antenna is decidedly bent. Just because it doesn't glow on the Geiger counter set to register anything not corporate or extreme right doesn't mean it qualifies for the epithets of ‘extreme left’ or 'Looney Toons'. That is unless you’d concede that commercial media is Self Serving and Rabid Capitalist. This leads to monocular focus on the lowest denominator. Statistics shows that it is these vulnerable demographics (most profitable market segments) are most easily manipulated/fleeced/conned/ripped off.

Axe grinder tend to lose focus on issues seeing their issue as ‘the most important issue of all’ when in rationality its not. Not every one is as smart or wants to view the same things as presented by the me-too- (commercial) media.

Even if they are ‘left wing’ (what ever that means) surely they simply act as a bulwark to the alternative (Competition is good or so we’re told).

Dear Bronwyn,

Spoken like a true leftie......hate to burst your inner-city bubble, but i am as far from being Right wing as you can get.......Left/Right, all one big rort.

As for 4-Corners--- yeah, OK its not bad, but out of all Aussie TV, is that is all thats on the menu for quality journalism??....talk about sad!

As for my username, hahaha....who scared of the Big Bad Bear?...hahaha