SBS responds to former staffers’ accounts of ‘toxic’ racism: ‘We still have a way to go’
SBS’ managing director, James Taylor, has said he is “shocked and saddened” by the experiences of racism former staff have disclosed this week.
Screenwriter and Indigenous Australian Kodie Bedford wrote a lengthy Twitter thread earlier this week about the “micro-aggressions, forms of paternalism and racism” she faced at the broadcaster 10 years ago.
Bedford said she didn’t speak of the experiences for a long time because “I still carry trauma and feel sick about it”. She was “always introduced as ‘the Indigenous cadet journalist’ while the others were just ‘the cadet journalists'”, she said. “But this was my dream job. I’ll put up with the othering.”
After two years though, “my writing was worse, my self-esteem destroyed, I had suicidal thoughts. The stress on my body meant I developed eczema, I lost my period for four months, I stopped eating; a piece of toast filled me for the day because of anxiety.
“We felt like the dopey blackfellas in the corner, ticking boxes.”
Bedford said that, during her time at SBS, white journalists won Walkley Awards “telling our stories”, and that she “overheard a conversation between two of the higher-ups and how they would enter the non-Indigenous journos into awards, but not the Indigenous journos. We just ‘didn’t have the chops'”.
https://twitter.com/Ms_Kodie/status/1277392809058689025
In response to Bedford’s account, Allan Clarke, a Muruwari and Gomeroi journalist, said: “The racism Kodie, myself and our Aboriginal colleagues were subjected to was horrific. Those toxic years damaged us and left scars.”
Presenter of the Guardian’s Full Story podcast, Laura Murphy-Oates, added that Bedford’s experiences were “horrifying”, but “not surprising to me as a former SBS Indigenous cadet”.
“That job gave me so much, but a few toxic managers can have a big effect,” Murphy-Oates, a Ngiyampaa Wailwan woman, said. When she left, the head of every news and current affairs program except for those on NITV were white.
“Just one example- in my cadet year my voice coach told me my voice ‘still needed a lot of work’ but that it was probably fine, because I was ‘just going to work in Indigenous media anyway’. It’s a small thing, but comments like that, from across the org, eat away at you over time.”
https://twitter.com/AllanJClarke/status/1277459996272451584
An open letter was established following those reports, as revealed by The Guardian, demanding diversity in the leadership team. In light of news director Jim Carroll’s impending retirement, the letter says that choosing his successor “should be an opportunity and not a blind spot”. Every news director since 1978 has been an Anglo-Saxon man, except for Irene Buschtedt, who held the position between 1993 and 1995.
“We believe the next person to hold this position must be a member of Australia’s multicultural or minority community,” says the letter.
“We are in a unique moment in history where all across the world, all industries and especially so the media are facing both a choice and reckoning over the diversity of their staff.”
Taylor, the broadcaster’s managing director, commented that “representation matters, and not unlike many institutions today, we still have a way to go to reflect the diversity of the audiences we serve amongst our senior leadership team”.
SBS managing director James Taylor
“I’ve been shocked and saddened by accounts of racism experienced at SBS,” he said. “SBS stands opposed to any form of racism or exclusion. It can take many overt and less overt forms, none of which are acceptable. Racism is abhorrent and I am committed to ensuring it has no place at SBS.
“All members of the SBS team – including the Board and leadership – are deeply committed to our purpose and Charter. That is reflected in the content and services we deliver to Australians every day – and most recently in our work providing comprehensive information and updates on COVID-19 in 63 languages.
“The diversity of our people across SBS is one of our greatest strengths. I stand by the valuable contributions every one of them makes, and the programming, news coverage and radio services they provide which reflect and explore modern Australia, unlike any other media organisation.”
Bedford said she’s “not bitter towards SBS”, but “the system is still broken”. Upon the release of Taylor’s statement, she added: “I appreciate James Taylor’s words, I believe them”.
“SBS (and ABC) are so important in Australia,” Bedford said. “It puts BIPOC actors, writers, journos, news & stories on screen/radio when commercial networks don’t. In many ways it’s ahead of the game, but it doesn’t mean we can’t improve. I’m passionate about the SBS, I want it to succeed.”
https://twitter.com/Ms_Kodie/status/1277964333616517123
The open letter is the industry’s second of the week. More than 100 journalists have signed one addressed to the Melbourne Press Club’s CEO and chair asking for racial diversity on its all-white board. Journalists at The Age also wrote a letter to Nine executives last month after the newspaper made an unsubstantiated allegation that Black Lives Matter protesters were planning to spit on police, and an editorial incorrectly claimed that Australia does not have a history of slavery. The Age issued two separate apologies for those stories, and its editor exited soon thereafter.
Also last month, News Corp published a column by Peter Gleeson in which he said “the greatest danger to aboriginals and n*groes is themselves”.
And today’s front page of Seven West Media newspaper, The West Australian, features an apology for publishing a 1981 racist cartoon this week. Editor-in-chief Anthony De Ceglie called the “mistake” – the comics page is created automatically through a third-party company – “abhorrent”, and said the cartoon does not “reflect our company’s culture or values under my watch”. The paper will no longer publish Modesty Blaise cartoons, and both the newspaper and the third-party company have conducted reviews into the incident.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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I must say I was shocked when I saw how white the SBS leadership team was (you can see it here: https://www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/the-sbs-leadership-team).
Not sure how SBS can fully deliver on its charter when the people making the decision have no lived experience of life as a person of colour or as a non-native English speaker.
It’s also not surprising that it ends up that way if young Indigenous and POC end up leaving the organisation early on due to bad treatment.
I hope they take this moment to reflect and do better.
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Sadly Kate, SBS (and ABC) have been ‘jobs for life’ for white folks from selective high schools and private schools for many, many, many years.
SBS for years as been called a “coconut” — brown on the outside, but white on the inside — by those who know the reality.
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Older white guy with the corner office is “saddened and shocked” by multiple, verified stories of racism in the ranks. Quelle surprise.
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Think it is more odd than shocking – you kind of expect the multicultural broadcaster would be a little more multicultural at the leadership level.
Always have thought a move from the traditional North Shore base to Western Sydney the multicultural heart of Australia will better connect SBS to the multicultural community.
We need to move on from cherry picking numerical diversity…. pick one group, get outraged Twitter style and forget about any context.
Truth is the first casualty, as context is thrown out the window. Seeing headlines saying SBS is racist because of some cases and one photo of the exec team isn’t giving the full picture. It seems like an odd solar eclipse when the Twitter left is equally outraged as the anti-SBS Telegraph.
SBS’s last CEO is one of the most capable and successful executives from a multi-cultural background in the country.
The board overseeing SBS isn’t all white, a lot more multicultural than most boards. Even with the diversity, all the same background of any board member impressive schools and CVs. Colour diversity does always equal diversity of backgrounds.
SBS showcase the best multicultural talent in Australia – even if they are have to go off charter with programs to generate revenue so they can meet the core mission.
The bigger point, any executive of any colour pretty much ends up having zero real lived experience of any importance.
The nature of the job makes them all so disconnected to their audience, their past and the wider community. They all need to be aware of that.
Thoughts from a humble passionate viewer… cheap seats I know.
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Very disappointing to read that SBS is just keeping up appearances.
Just when you think you know a station you read something like this.
Hope this leads to a serious self evaluation.
Your viewers are from diverse races. You try but not hard enough it appears.
Alango
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Ex-employee here, absolutely disgusted by the history of racism, bullying and cronyism at SBS, especially giving numerous years of my life and work to this organisation. There has been an incredibly toxic culture existing in quite a few departments within SBS enabled and propagated by a legion of homogenous white middle managers that have no respect for what this institution should stand for. Good on Kodie for making your voices heard.
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