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SBS criticism turned personal

During media coverage of Struggle Street, SBS boss Michael Ebeid was the target of unkind personal remarks.

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SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid has given an interview to The Age about a range of topics, from Struggle Street and Go Back to Where You Came From to the sacking of a journalist after ANZAC Day tweets.

Amongst the quotes he gives is an interesting remark regarding personal criticism directed at him during the Struggle Street controversy.

Egyptian-born Ebeid grew up in Toongabbie, a neighbouring suburb of Mt. Druitt, but says he has received more prejudice as a gay man than casual racism directed at his ethnicity.

During the volatile Struggle Street debate, the Daily Telegraph drew attention to his own lifestyle, contrasting Mt. Druitt residents with his upscale eastern suburbs home, living “with his younger boyfriend”.

“If it was an article about Q & A they wouldn’t make any reference to Mark Scott’s wife, neither would they do that to David Gyngell​ or Tim Worner​,” he told Fairfax.

“We aim to get the nation talking about our shows. As a public broadcaster our job is to get people thinking about the universe and our society in a way they may not normally.”

Unfortunately there is very little on the question of how SBS will address its revenue after parliament rejected it push to increase primetime ads.

But you can read more of it here.

7 Responses

  1. Toongabbie does not neighbour Mt Druitt, it’s one of the suburban subdivisions around Parramatta opened up during the late 60s/early 70s and is nearly 15km East of Mount Druitt.

    There is a massive difference between Toongabbie and Mt Druitt’s Housing Commission developments of the 80s. Even after they have started building McMansions in Mt Druitt its median house price is still nearly $200k less than Toongabbie’s. ‘

    Seem like he is prepared to play identity politics with it background when it suits him.

  2. It might be nice to properly introduce the subject of this article: he’s referred to by his job title and his surname only, which seems like a lapse in editing?

  3. It’s a real shame SBS refused to allow community television to use its spare digital channel (thereby causing the demise of CTV now that the Government is taking back the channel they’ve been using for the past five years). SBS will never have the money to program an extra digital channel and the Government will eventually take it off them in a spectrum reshuffle anyway. So short-sighted and mean spirited.

    1. You are confusing logical channel numbers (data streams) with radio frequency channel number. SBS doesn’t have a spare channel. SBS only has one 7 MHz channel in each broadcast area (same as all TV networks) so there is nothing for the govt to take off them.

      They currently broadcast 1 HD (SBS HD) and 3 SD (SBS, SBS TWO, NITV) digital data streams. To piggyback CTV would reduce the bitrate (quality) of one or more of their existing streams. I don’t want that.

        1. NITV is a separate entity that is now managed by SBS and for which they receive separate funding from the federal govt. Merging it with SBS2 is not an option.

          1. After all that’s happened with this govt and media in general, there’s no such thing as ‘not an option’…

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