0/5

Garbage trucks take Struggle Street protest to SBS headquarters

Struggle Street fronts up at the door of SBS in Artarmon to make itself heard.

2015-05-06_1233

Garbage trucks from Sydney’s west have protested outside SBS headquarters at Artarmon this morning, calling on the broadcaster to pull its controversial doco Struggle Street, which has been branded as “poverty porn.”

ABC reports an emergency two-hour meeting was held at Blacktown Council chambers last night with with SBS management.

Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali said “allegations” about the treatment of the participants were raised in the meeting and SBS said it would investigate.

“I’m extremely horrified the way people are being portrayed in the series,” Cr Bali said.

“There [are] no answers, no analysis, no support as to what’s affecting this community.

“That’s not a documentary, that’s just trash reality TV show.”

Ashley Kennedy, who appears in the show said they trusted the show’s producers and felt betrayed.
“It’s the wrong way it is put across, they violated us in a way we never imagined,” he said.

“It’s destroyed a 19-year-old who’s got multiple disabilities. She’s almost to the point of getting a job, she’s at the point where she’s about to collapse.”

SBS offered to withdraw a promo, but is proceeding with its broadcast tonight.

sbsgarbos7

Meanwhile News Corp has turned the tables on SBS and KEO Films Australia execs, detailing property information about SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid and KEO’s Leoni Lowe, contrasting their homes as not living anywhere near Struggle Street.

SBS content chief Helen Kellie defended the series telling Lateline, “It’s a raw portrayal, it shows the ups and downs of their lives … we make quite clear that those are representative of stories right across Australia.”

Photo: ABC Nine News

14 Responses

  1. And the good folk of Blacktown missed out on their garbage collection today?
    What a ridiculous response by the Council. It just gave SBS more publicity.
    People who allow film crews access to their lives usually live to regret it, from what I’ve seen.

  2. Silly protest, very counter productive. The people themselves chose to participate on Struggle Street, gained their 15 minutes of fame and got paid for doing a job, which nobody else would employ them for.

  3. Having just watched the first episode, I’m very disappointed. Definitely not as funny as Housos. I don’t know if I’ll tune into this again next week.

  4. But the promo gave me “ya slut cat” – my new favourite insult [but it must be said with just the right amount of raspiness].

  5. To late now.The family knew what they were getting involved with.Everyone knows with these shows it generally shows the best highlights you could say and more happy stuff you don’t see much of.You got to have the viewer interested so the most dramatic parts are always shown.

  6. Best marketing campaign ever. Reminds me of the Brian Walsh orchestrated removalist trucks moving neighbours from Seven to Ten!

    This will be SBS’s most watched show yet this year.

  7. …and now it turns out that the fart in the promo was actually a library sound effect as uncovered by a radio producer on WSFM this morning and written about on Radio Today. This is becoming increasingly embarrassing for SBS, humorous for us, but worryingly sad for the show’s participants.

  8. Has anyone seen eps 2 and 3 to see if there is a story arc of redemption? Are we all just getting sucked in by some orchestrated publicity strategy?

    Sending garbage trucks is not the smartest approach given the way some of the participants of the show may be perceived. It just plays into the hands of the detractors of these folk

  9. I consider that a low move from News Corp. This said, I agree the show needs more analysis and actually talking to the people like they have something to offer. If you go in with the mindset that half your show participants have “lost” in the game of life, that demeanour will carry through to the audience. That’s really at the heart of the problem here I think.

Leave a Reply