Stan Grant rumoured to resign

According to a report in The Australian this morning, SBS' suckiest newsreader, Stan Grant, is rumoured to have tendered his resignation.

If that's the case, SBS will really have shot themselves in the foot- not only did they drive away Mary Kostakidis by undermining the quality of their news programming and routinely giving newbie Stan Grant the more prestigious interviews, now Grant looks likely to be leaving and SBS will be left looking rather silly over their attempt to become more like the shitty commercial television stations in an attempt to siphon away some of their ad revenue.

Mary Kostakidis and SBS settle: bad news for viewers

Mary Kostakidis and SBS have reached a settlement. It's no doubt confidential and it will no doubt mean that Mary is never, ever coming back to SBS, which will continue to get more and more shithouse in terms of its news programming.

In a statement of claim lodged with the Federal Court, Ms Kostakidis wrote that SBS's head of news and current affairs, Paul Cutler, had given "instructions for the [news] bulletin for be 'less grim' and for there to be at least one tabloid story to end each program''.

It was also reported that her split came after a souring of relations between her and news co-host and former Today Tonight presenter, Stan Grant.

Mary Kostakidis to kick some arse at SBS

MARY KOSTAKIDIS, the former SBS newsreader who walked out in a huff, has accused her co-presenter, Stan Grant, of bullying and treating her with disdain and senior management of denigrating the network's core audience because they were over 55 or "just old geezers".

She said management did not seek her opinion on the suitability of Grant as co-host of World News Australia.

She had been "positioned and portrayed" as a news presenter subordinate to Grant and had been diagnosed subsequently with severe work-related stress, was unfit to perform her duties and was on medication and seeing a therapist.

[...]

Grant, a former presenter for the Seven Network's tabloid TV shockers Real Life and Today Tonight, had been forced to leave Sydney after his celebrity love-life gone wrong received maximum tabloid coverage. He worked for CNN in Hong Kong and Beijing until returning to take up the SBS appointment last January.

Fuck SBS. I'm not an old geezer. What age group are they after- 8 year olds, or just adults with the same level of intelligence as an 8 year old? SBS news used to be the more intelligent choice, and they're now doing their best to rival the commercial stations for stupidity. I would like to say that I hope Mary Kostakidis win and then could go back to work, either at the ABC or SBS, but both organisations are now so compromised- the ABC by force, under Howard's hand-picked regime, and SBS by choice, with a massive hard-on for a more commercial audience. So instead, if things don't change at either channel, I hope she finds another outlet for her talent.

I love how her clothes in the photograph above look like a taekwondo uniform- not necessarily my idea of stylish, but definitely looking like she's out to kick arse!

Mary Kostakidis suing SBS

Looks like SBS has refused to budge over the breach of contract dispute with Mary Kostakidis: she's decided to sue.

I hope she wins. Boo hiss to SBS and their sucky new news format. What a waste of great talent- and I don't just mean Mary K, I mean Anton Enis, Lee Lin Chin & Co., who also deserve better. Not that perma-tanned talking head Stan Grant, who should totally go over to 60 minutes or some other shithouse commercial 'news' or 'current affairs' programme.

Go Mary!

Go Mary!

Dear SBS,

It's time for us to come clean on just how much we think your new 6.30pm news format stinks. We've been watching SBS news since the broadcast range was extended to non-metropolitan areas of NSW (late 90s?), and none of the changes made to the news program since that time have been to its obvious detriment up until the recent addition of advertisements and the change to a soft 1 hour news format. When we first heard that the news would run for an hour we were pleased, thinking it would be merely more of the quality we had come to expect from SBS news over the years. Wrong!

More to the point, it turns out it's not just the two of us with this opinion. You guys aren't reporting on the furore that's erupted over Mary Kostakidis, but it's a sure bet you're watching more carefully than anyone what others are reporting. If that's the case you may well have noticed that she has almost universal support and good will from the public and her media colleagues.

We'll leave you with a taste of what some of your regular viewers think of this matter:

6 Comments:

• stan grant is a useless news reader and an even worse interviewer. he comes across as a pompous, untalented tool, which is presumably what got him on cnn. wish he'd go back there and we could get mary back. sbs really seems to be going down the commercial gurgler these days. first negus now this.

  By Gam, at 21/8/07 4:24 PM

• Oh, I can't stand George Negus! What a fuckstick.
  
  I'll be disappointed if she leaves too. And Lee Lin Chin's hair always deserves it's own special mention.

  By Magic Bellybutton, at 21/8/07 7:14 PM

• Fuck oath, man. The new hour long format sucks donkey's balls.
  
  It's all fucking filler - "your say": since when did a goddamn web-survey and the comments of the few deranged tools worked up enough to comment qualify as "news".
  
  Jesus H. Christ, I watched SBS to get away from all that non-news bullshit that pollutes the majors - and to get some real international news.
  
  Sadly, both seem to be disappearing. The interviews are even worse - dodgy, arguably bias or unqualified people rambling to stupid prepared questions by Stan Grant, desperately trying to give his best Witness impression.
  
  Pah. I hate it.

  By patrick, at 21/8/07 9:23 PM

• Patrick- I totally agree! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. Whenever Stan Grant is doing one of his stupid interviews I'll even flick channels to see what's on Today Tonight or A Current Affair in preference to watching him! And more often than not I'll switch to the ABC at 7pm when SBS has yet another ad break. And the 'your say' bit shits me too. I feel sorry for the original SBS newsreaders because they are all highly qualified, multi-talented individuals, not bimbos whose sole qualification is a nice coiff and the ability to read off an autocue.

  By Sarah, at 21/8/07 11:17 PM

• Say it isn't so.
  
  I *love* Mary Kostakidis. She's professional and smart, but you can tell that she could rip you a new arse hole if you pissed her off enough, and that's why I like her. Poor dear should do what she feels is best, but I agree that it just won't be SBS News Australia without her.
  
  Oh, lamentations!

  By Anonymous, at 21/8/07 11:24 PM

• Lamentations here too! Mary K rocks, and Lee Lin Chin - the hair, the marvelous, spikey, grey wonderful hair! She is so utterly stylish and whatsisname is a total wanker. Gah.

  By Rebekka, at 22/8/07 11:38 AM

(from http://todaysapatheticyouth.blogspot.com/2007/08/no-mary.html)

It also wouldn't be a bad idea if you guys checked out the Mary Kostakidis support groups on facebook; already hundreds of people have joined up. We're saying this as big fans of SBS and most of its programming, and no doubt everyone else is too. By screwing over Mary Kostakidis you're screwing over your viewers. You won't find the same sort of support for Stan Grant and you know it.

Yours in hope that this will be sorted out ASAP,

Sarah and Gam

In other Mary Kostakidis news, The Age is reporting that Mary is unlikely to reconcile with SBS and rejoin the news team. Which means SBS are still screwing her around. Those idiots will have really shot themselves in the foot if they lose her. Who do they think they are? A substandard version of Channel 10?

No, Mary!

According to this report in the SMH, Mary Kostakidis has left SBS because she is unhappy with the new format for the 6.30pm news:

It is understood she is only halfway through a three-year contract.

But friends say she is privately enraged at the way the 6.30pm World News Australia program has been changed, and is now being run.

"Management assured her that they wouldn't be running a news show where the man does the hard news and the woman does the soft stuff," said one former colleague, who asked not to be named.

"But instead she feels it's not even The Stan and Mary Show - it's The Stan Grant Show. She's personally offended by the money-grubbing commercialisation of the show, and feels management are abandoning the kind of principles with which SBS was set up, and she personally helped devise."

Mary Kostakidis is my favourite newsreader along with Lee Lin Chin and her hair. Stan Grant sucks and so does the new format, but it'll be practically unwatchable if she's gone! Ooh I hope this isn't true, it's making my bad day even worse!