Could you imagine what the reaction would be from mainstream journalists if the Trump administration cracked down on fake news put out by liberal websites? The Moon administration does this against conservative websites and there is not a peep so far about it from so called journalists:
Justice Minister Park Sang-ki called on prosecutors Tuesday to crack down on fake news, saying the spread of false information undermines public trust in society and can lead to serious political and economic damages. (……)
Opposition parties fired at Lee, saying the Moon Jae-in administration was out to suppress freedom of speech.
In a Justice Ministry press release Tuesday, Park ordered prosecutors to crack down on fake news and track whoever was responsible for its production and distribution. In cases in which serious falsehoods are clear, prosecutors were told to “actively start” investigations even before a formal complaint had been submitted to them.
The Justice Ministry said it planned to collect cases that local courts ruled to have been fake news and pass them on to the police, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Communications Standards Commission in order to request assistance in deleting them from the internet, monitoring any further spread and educating society about their false nature.
The Justice Ministry denied Park’s orders amounted to a violation of freedom of speech, saying authorities were trying to tackle the spread of fake information, which actually “disturbs” the public’s right to know and “threatens the sphere of democratic public debate.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
What makes this crackdown even more dubious is that the Druking Scandal that linked the Moon administration to election manipulation through false comment liking software has quietly went away.
The South Korean left’s war on conservative media continues, but credit to the New York Times for taking notice of what is going on in South Korea:
Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon of South Korea in Seoul in August. He said misinformation about his visit to Ho Chi Minh’s compound in Vietnam had been “vicious.”
South Korea announced a sweeping crackdown on “fake news” on Tuesday, calling it “a destroyer of democracy.” Conservative critics of the government, however, cried foul, accusing it of trying to impede freedom of speech.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said that fake news had spread so widely in South Korea that it was stymying not only citizens’ privacy but also the country’s national security and foreign policies, including its relations with North Korea.
Mr. Lee did not offer examples. But he was furious last week after he visited Vietnam for the state funeral for its president, Tran Dai Quang. While in Hanoi, he visited the stilt house of Ho Chi Minh and wrote in the visitors’ book at the compound that he felt “humble” before the “great” Vietnamese leader. South Korea fought against his Communist forces alongside the Americans during the Vietnam War.
So of course the Prime Minister has declared war on fake news and wants a new law to regulate the news:
Mr. Lee encouraged government agencies to report fake news to the law enforcement authorities for investigation. He also called for a new law regulating such information, which some lawmakers in his Democratic Party had already been advocating.
Opposition lawmakers denounced the government’s move as an attempt to silence criticism, especially YouTube videos used by conservative critics to attack the progressive government of President Moon Jae-in, whom they often call a North Korean stooge. Progressives have long criticized those channels as a main source of inaccurate and unfair information.
“They can already punish distribution of false information under the existing laws,” Park Dae-chul, a legislator affiliated with the conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party, said in a statement. “I cannot help suspecting that this is an attempt to crack down on right-wing podcasts. They want to shut down the voices the government doesn’t want to hear.”
ROK Drop readers may recall how the Korean left has already taken over control of most of the mainstream media in the country through union violence and those they don’t control they have threatened with legal action. They have even had conservative journalists arrested for libel.
The Moon administration is taking these actions because they need to change the South Korean public’s opinion of North Korea and Kim Jong-un. Conservative critics who keep bringing up North Korea’s poor human rights record, past atrocities, terrorism, and other inconvenient truths have to be silenced to continue to shape pro-North public messaging.
The Moon administration’s ultimate goal is a confederation with North Korea and he can’t realize that without the support of the South Korean public.
South Korea’s leftists continue to do the Kim regime’s bidding by trying to draw doubt on North Korea’s responsibility for the downing of KAL 858 back in 1987. The latest ridiculous attack is that they think ROK intelligence blamed North Korea to quickly for the bombing by pinning blame on the Kim regime three days after the terrorist attack:
Debris from KAL 858
South Korea’s spy agency drew up a document with details about North Korea’s involvement in the 1987 midair bombing of a Korean Air flight just three days after the bombing took place and killed all 115 people aboard, court records showed Monday.
The document of the then-Agency for National Security Planning was about the code-named Operation Rainbow aimed at taking advantage of the Nov. 29 bombing to sway public opinion in favor of the then-ruling party candidate in the presidential election just a few weeks away.
Three pages of the five-page document have been classified, and a journalist filed a suit demanding its full disclosure. But the Seoul Administrative Court recently rejected the demand, saying its disclosure could have negative effects on diplomatic relations with foreign countries.
Still, it has been confirmed during the process of the lawsuit that the document included specific details about the culprits — Kim Hyon-hee and her accomplice Kim Sung-il, who killed himself right after arrest — such as how they were arrested and what they did before the bombing.
In addition, the document also included information about Kim Sung-il’s link to North Korea, as well as strategies for using the case on the international stage, such as increasing cooperation with foreign countries, including those with close ties with the North.
The revelation could further deepen suspicions about how the spy agency was able to draw up such a detailed report just a few days after the bombing happened.
Critics and some bereaved families of the bombing have raised suspicions about North Korea’s involvement in the bombing, claiming there is no objective evidence except Kim Hyon-hee’s confession to prove it was the North that blew up the jet. [Yonhap]
There is more evidence of North Korea’s responsibility for the bombing than just Kim Hyon-hee’s confession. You can read my detailed account about the bombing at the below link:
As far as South Korea’s spy agency, why should anyone be surprised that three days after the bombing they were drawing up a document blaming North Korea for the bombing? Especially when they had a suspect in custody?
This is just another attempt by South Korean leftists to cover up North Korea’s responsibility for this terrorist attack. Two months ago they launched a libel lawsuit against Kim Hyon-hee to keep her quiet as well.
South Korean leftists believe Kim was not a terrorist, but instead a ROK government secret operative that intentionally bombed the plane. It seems like total absurdity that someone would think the ROK government would bomb and murder 115 of their own citizens, but remember South Korean leftists still think the ROK government murdered their own sailors by intentionally sinking the ROK naval ship the Cheonan in 2010 instead of a North Korean torpedo.
This is the lengths that South Korean leftists will go to defect blame on their political opposition instead of holding the real culprits, the Kim regime, responsible for the murder of these ROK citizens.
I have written much about the arrest of Korean journalist Byun Hee-jae because his articles have been largely the only reporting challenging the established narrative of why former President Park Geun-hye was impeached. So what is the established narrative of why President Park was impeached?
Here is the opening paragraph in her Foreign Policy article about the impeachment of President Park and the rise of independent journalists in South Korea:
In late fall, I left New York City for Seoul, intending to visit for just a few days. Then, on Oct. 24, a small South Korean cable network called JTBC revealed that its reporters had discovered a tablet that had belonged to Choi Soon-sil, the hidden power behind President Park Geun-hye. The data on the device exposed a web of unprecedented corruption. In response, millions of people took to the streets, waving candles in protest, until Dec. 9, when South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach Park. [Foreign Policy]
From the start of Ms. Kim’s article you can see the importance of the tablet PC that JTBC discovered. Would the tablet PC have been as important if people knew that JTBC had changed their story three times on how the tablet was discovered? Would the importance of the tablet had been the same if people knew that the tablet PC could not be conclusively proven to be Choi’s. Another interesting fact is that the tablet PC did not contain Korean document editing-capable software. So how was Choi supposedly editing sensitive documents for President Park on a tablet that did not have the software to do this? The report with these findings was not released until a year after President Park’s impeachment and the public interest in the tablet had died down.
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 tablet PC on display in Seoul
The big thing people should think about is in their own personal lives, how many people they know that leave their phone or tablet PC without password protection? If you believe JTBC, this is essentially what Choi Soon-shil did, she left a tablet PC filled with sensitive documents in old office space with no password protection that allowed JTBC to find and read the documents. This alone made me skeptical much less the other facts that have since emerged about the tablet PC.
JTBC reporter Shim Su-mi reports where and how she found the tablet PC in an old office used by Choi Soon-shil.
Ms. Kim continues in her article by making an odd attack against President Trump that he received favorable coverage from the media before the US election:
Having just come from the United States, where a credulous media had been manipulated by the winning presidential candidate rather than holding him to account, I was particularly sensitive to the resilient and creative role played by South Korean reporters.
I would agree that during the Republican primaries that Donald Trump received oversized media coverage compared to other candidates. This is because he drove ratings for the networks due to his celebrity not because they supported him in anyway. Once he was the Republican nominee it was like a switch was flipped and the mainstream media changed to relentless negative attacks that did not stop during the lead up to the election and continues to this day.
Ms. Kim’s article continues about conservative bias in the mainstream Korean media under President Park:
The vast influence of South Korea’s independent media is a belated product of dismal failures by the country’s establishment media. For instance, there have long been three main television stations in South Korea: MBC, KBS, and SBS. But after the 2007 election to the presidency of the conservative Lee Myung-bak, the heads of the news stations were replaced by people with an explicitly pro-government stance, essentially turning the press into a propaganda machine. In 2010, thousands of journalists went on strike in response, many of whom were members of the “386 Generation,” a term for those born in the 1960s who went to college during the 1980s dictatorship and student riots. Some of the strikers eventually resigned while others were transferred to lesser divisions where they would not be able to report. It was also around this time that the government took a hand in setting up brand-new cable stations, called jongpyun, linked to the existing establishment newspapers, which were mostly in favor of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Anti-US beef protesters assault South Korean riot policemen back in 2008.
Lee came to power after a decade of left wing rule in South Korea that saw him begin to undue many of the initiative of the prior governments. In response the bias media and left wing groups attempted to get President Lee to resign a few months after being elected with the false US beef claims. It can be argued that what the Korean left accomplished in getting rid of President Park is what they first attempted against President Lee in 2008.
South Korean policeman beaten by anti-US beef protesters in Seoul back in 2008.
After the anti-US beef protests President Lee decided to drive out the left wing board members from the major media outlets and use libel laws against other critics. The political polarization of the Korean media has only continued under the Moon administration which used union protests and violence to drive out board members from KBS and MBC appointed by conservative politicians so the coverage could return to the left wing bias they had under prior liberal governments.
Ms. Kim continues in her article discussing the Sewol disaster:
During the Sewol disaster, however, energized independent journalists finally managed to break the partisan establishment media’s monopoly on the public’s attention. What on the surface appeared to be just an unfortunate accident struck at the emotional core of South Koreans in the same way the 9/11 attacks did for Americans because it revealed a pervasive rottenness under the surface of the country’s political system. It was later revealed that the sinking and the lack of rescue efforts were linked to federal-level corruption involving the ferry owners, the insurance company, the Korean coast guard, and the Korean navy.
No argument from me in regards to the corruption surrounding the Sewol disaster, however, this is nothing new and not something caused by President Park. The fact that a business was able to run an unsafe ferry operation due to corruption is unsurprising to me. This is the country that has had bridges and shopping malls collapse in on themselves from shoddy construction caused by corruption and poor safety enforcement. The Park administration was just a continuation of the status quo.
Here is where Ms. Kim continues on with another well known narrative about President Park’s missing seven hours during the Sewol Ferry Boat disaster:
South Korea is one of the most digitally connected nations in the world. The horror was witnessed live online by the entire nation, and those trapped teenagers were texting and video chatting their parents until their final seconds. In those desperate hours, however, Park was nowhere to be found, and no statement was issued by the Blue House until the president finally appeared in public, seven hours after the accident happened, looking dazed and clueless as she asked, “Why is it so hard to find the students if they are wearing life jackets?” Everyone had drowned hours ago.
Remember Ms. Kim wrote this back in December 2016 when the established narrative had already been established about President Park and the Sewol disaster. Media speculation said she was having botox treatments or even an affair during the missing seven hours. An investigation conducted by the Moon administration after taking office disclosed the timeline of events involving President Park.
By the time she found out about the accident that morning there was no chance to impact rescue operations. If a rescue was going to happen it had to happen by the first responders from the ROK Coast Guard. The Coast Guard office in Mokpo immediately sent a vessel to the accident site after receiving emergency phone calls from passengers. The vessel arrived at the scene before the sinking, but did not order the passengers to evacuate. An immediate evacuation and rescue by the Coast Guard would have saved many of the passengers.
Sewol ferry sinking in the waters off the coast of South Korea.
This was incompetence by the ROK Coast Guard commander on the scene who was clearly unprepared to deal with such an accident and not something Park Geun-hye was going to be able to resolve in the few minutes she had from the Blue House. If people want to criticize her for lax government regulations that allowed the overweight ferry to operate and the poor disaster response by the Coast Guard I think that is fair. However, to claim she could have personally did something to save those people that morning, but instead hung out in her bedroom is completely unfair in my opinion.
What Park Geun-hye was guilty of was bad optics. Instead of making a statement that morning, she waited to receive reports on the situation and met with aides and her infamous friend Choi Soon-shil to determine the way ahead on the disaster. They decided to have Park visit the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters where she made her statement to the country that afternoon. This created the perception of the seven hour gap which her critics were happy to make things up to fill. Even after the investigation the optics still wern’t that good because it showed she received reports and met with aides in her bedroom and presidential residence instead of her office at the Blue House.
Ms. Kim continues about the Sewol tragedy:
When the Sewol ferry sank, Lee was one of the first reporters to arrive at the scene and was the last one to leave, more than a month later. As the mainstream media reported that there was a massive rescue team of hundreds of helicopters and ships, Lee reported that there were just two voluntary divers at the scene. A video clip of Lee, at a meeting of victims’ families, shouting at the other reporters for publishing lies and then breaking down in tears went viral.
In regards to poor coverage of the Sewol disaster it would not be surprising to me in the least if the ROK mainstream media was trying to minimize political damage to the Park administration. Now the complete opposite is happening with the Moon administration consolidating control of the major media outlets to give them favorable coverage instead.
The addictive real-time reporting of the Sewol disaster demonstrated the potential power of independent journalism. Now such journalists are increasingly turning to documentary reporting to engage their audience in an age where films can be made using just a phone. Lee has used this medium expertly. His first film, Diving Bell, about the Sewol tragedy was first released in theaters, then aired on YouTube, and then finally on TV on the eve of the parliament hearing on the Sewol ferry’s sinking. He will soon release a film called The President’s Seven Hours; he was the first to report the claim that during the seven-hour disappearance, Park was under anesthetic in the Blue House, getting a face-lifting, Botox-related injection treatment.
Here is another example of Ms. Kim repeating the established narrative at the time about the botox injections. The investigation launched by the Moon administration did not find that Park was having botox treatments that morning. The investigation did find that she was having botox treatments at other times by a doctor not employed by the Blue House. This doctor was later convicted for lying about the treatments and given a suspended sentence.
President Park Geun-hye turns her head after finishing the Pledge of Allegiance at the 21st Cabinet meeting at the presidential office on May 13, 2014. Doctors speculate that the bruise on the right side of her mouth is a side effect of facial filler injections. Before the Cabinet meeting, Park had no official schedule for three days. / Korea Times file
As far as independent journalism, that is what Byun Hee-jae has been attempting to do with his reporting about the tablet PC and it got him sent to jail. Here is the passage where Ms. Kim talks more about JTBC TV:
Among the generally pro-government jongpyun, JTBC TV stands out as the only left-leaning network. The station, which first broke the tablet story and amplified information originated by Joo and Lee, has dominated ratings during the scandal. Since the Sewol tragedy, when it was seen as the only reliable voice among the cable networks, it has also played a critical role in invigorating Korean media.
JTBC may have done better coverage of the initial Sewol tragedy compared to the major media channels, but their later reporting on the tragedy, the tablet PC, as well as the THAAD issue we now know was either sensationalized or not true.
Of course, just as it is always a few bad seeds among politicians who end up taking their country onto a devastating path, it was only a handful of standout journalists who made a difference. But there’s reason to think that others will soon follow their successful example — and hopefully not only in South Korea.
Now we know that in South Korea that independent journalists that do not follow the established narrative will be jailed while in the United States under Donald Trump journalists can regularly publish ubiquitous “fake news” without the fear of being jailed.
In regards to the narrative against President Park, I have to wonder if she would have still been impeached if the public knew of the dubious nature of the tablet PC and the misinformation of the infamous seven hours? Maybe she still would have been impeached because Choi did have oversized influence in the Park administration and was corrupt, but the conveniently found tablet PC in my opinion seemed to be the key piece of evidence that finally caused the public to widely turn on Park.
I would love to see an American journalist like Suki Kim revisit the whole narrative against President Park. For example do they still believe JTBC’s claims about the tablet PC? The one journalist in South Korea who did vigorously report on it was thrown in jail. I would also like to see what American journalists think about the jailing of Byun Hee-jae. Do they support his work? Also does the American media agree with the Moon administration’s use of labor unions to protest and take control of the major media channels? What about the Druking online opinion rigging scandal linked to the Moon administration? I have yet to see any major media American journalist comment on any of this; maybe they just prefer to not challenge the established narrative?
ROK Drop favorite Dr. Tara O has another great guest posting up over at One Free Korea that I recommend everyone read. This time she discusses how the Moon administration has pre-emptively jailed journalist Byun Hee-jae for libel. Byun has been writing about the infamous tablet PC that ultimately led to the impeachment of former President Park. In the article Dr. O provides further information about how dubious the tablet PC was:
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 tablet PC on display in Seoul
Park was impeached, and Moon was elected. Unlike what has been written in English, Park was not impeached for corruption or bribery, but for charges that she gave away the “monopoly of state affairs,” and the tablet PC was seen as the “silver bullet.”
The tablet PC turned out to contain no evidence per the special prosecutors’ own forensic report and was not even Choi’s. The tablet PC also did not contain Korean document editing-capable software. The report, however, was not released to the public until a year later, long after the impeachment had concluded and the public fervor had died down.
Sohn stated afterwards that “even if there was no such thing as the [insignificant] tablet PC . . . , [it wouldn’t have mattered]” implying that Park would have been impeached anyway, although it was his TV program that incited people. JTBC, popular among the youth, has made other erroneous claims and sensationalized reporting on the Sewol Ferry sinking, Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). [One Free Korea]
I recommend reading the whole article at the link, but a commenter left a link to another article that shows how Byun’s independent journalism site, Media Watch was likely targeted by the Moon administration for libel because of its dogged pursuit of the tablet PC story:
According to Mediawatch.kr, NFS’s forensic report does NOT even mention the name of Choi Soon-sil, much less pinpoint Choi as the user of the tablet PC that JTBC reported was owned and used by Choi.
Na’s testimony should have prompted an avalanche of reports covering this bombshell of a testimony—at least as torrential as those that gushed out of JTBC when it reported that NFS’s forensic report proved JTBC’s claim that Choi was the user of the tablet PC.
Instead, what happened was (1) a deafening silence on the part of JTBC and other MSM outlets, none of which reported this stunning revelation, and (2) the jailing of Byun Hee-jae, the founder of Mediawatch.kr, the only news outlet that has provided an extensive coverage of the testimony.
Mediawatch has doggedly pursued the JTBC’s disingenuous and illegal activities involving the tablet PC. Na’s crucial testimony was covered only by Mediawatch.kr and Jayoo.co.kr, a small internet news outlet which briefly mentioned Na’s testimony in its coverage of the arrest warrant for Byun Hee-jae, and a Youtube channel run by an investigative reporter U Jongchang formerly of Chosun ilbo, who also attended the court proceedings along with Yi Huiu of Mediawatch and Kim Piljun of JTBC. [Tepyung.com]
Once again I recommend reading the whole thing at the link.
Remember that the actions being taken to silence journalists reporting about the dubious tablet PC is being done in concert with the arrest of Druking, the blogger who helped the Moon administration to manipulate online opinion before the election. So he has been effectively silenced as well about disclosing any other actions that may have occurred prior to the election to help President Moon get elected.
Once again I wonder if we will ever see the major US media report on any of this? Probably not they are too busy reporting on more important topics like Roseanne and Samantha Bee.
Could you imagine how many lawsuits the Trump administration would have against the American media if libel laws in the US were similar to South Korea?:
President Park Geun-hye decided to sue the JoongAng Ilbo and its source from the independent counsel team on charges of defamation over a report that she ordered the government to create a blacklist of artists critical of her administration to control public sentiment in the aftermath of the Sewol ferry’s sinking in 2014.
Hwang Seong-wook, a lawyer of Park in her impeachment trial, said Saturday that she never ordered anyone to make the so-called blacklist of artists and cultural figures.
In his text message to reporters, Hwang also said Park decided to file criminal and civil suits against journalists and other members of the JoongAng Ilbo for defaming her with its report.
The president is also suing a member of the independent counsel who was quoted in the report as a source.
“Those who frequently make false reports under the shadow of anonymity must stop manipulating the press,” Hwang said. “We also urge the press to report only confirmed, objective facts.”
On the front page of Saturday’s edition, the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, published an exclusive report saying that Park was behind the blacklist scandal.
The report said independent counsel Park Young-soo and his team have so far concluded that the creation of the list started about one month after the tragic ferry accident, which led to the death of 306 people due to the delayed government rescue efforts. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
What could possibly be going on is that some in the Park administration may be resentful of Jung having influence over President Park and leaked this document in an attempt to sideline him:
President Park Geun-hye on Monday condemned the disclosure of documents regarding Chung Yoon-hoi, a former aide, calling for a thorough investigation.
“(I) do not know what the intention behind leaking the documents was, but it is an act that damages national order,” Park said at a meeting with senior presidential staff.
Saying that real and false information accumulated at the presidential office, the president said that the country will fall into “major chaos and social discord” if information gathered by her office is released to the public without verification.
Going on to say that simple fact-checking could have determine the claims, veracity, Park said similar “groundless incidents” should not recur.
“Who leaked the documents and for what purpose must quickly be made known. The prosecution should investigate and leave no suspicion unexamined.”
On Nov. 28, a local daily reported that Chung was manipulating state affairs as a core member of an unofficial group of advisers to the president citing documents compiled by Cheong Wa Dae’s office for public servants’ discipline.
The presidential office has filed a criminal complaint against a police superintendent identified as Park for allegedly removing concerned documents from Cheong Wa Dae when he was reassigned back to the National Police Agency in February. [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link, but Jung is also the person that Park was rumored to be having a private relationship with that is the source of another libel suit against a Japanese reporter.
Few doubt that OhmyNews, which galvanized younger voters, contributed to the election of President Roh Moo Hyun, who was portrayed by Korea’s mainstream newspapers as a dangerous leftist with little chance of victory. OhmyNews readers, prompted by citizen journalists’ reports that Roh was trailing in the vote, sent out a blitz of text messages urging friends to vote for Roh, and he prevailed by a narrow margin.”Ordinary citizens found a medium to serve their interest and express themselves,” says OhmyNews Chief Executive Officer Oh Yeon Ho.
OhmyNews has since become one of Korea’s most influential media outlets. However, the site continues to look for a profitable business model and is expected to lose money in 2006. This comes after a several years of very modest profits. OhmyNews, set up in 2000, now has about 90 full-time staffers—65 of them journalists—and some 44,000 citizen contributors. Together, they produce around 150 articles a day. This year, it expects revenues of about $6 million, 60% of which come from online ads and the rest from the sale of the company’s news product to Internet portals, and from miscellaneous services.
Let me get this right, they have a staff of 155 people and are only able to release 150 articles a day? That is less than one article on average per person that works there. Plus many of the articles they do produce are crap as I have long demonstrated (here are a couple of my favorite examples from my archives 1 & 2). Is there any wonder why they are losing money to blogs?:
Critics say OhmyNews will have a hard time trying to repeat the sensation it sparked in Korea. It competes for the attention of Net users in increasingly crowded markets, many of which might not really crave its maverick style of journalism. Apart from social-networking sites and portals that are increasingly developing into important news distributors, the explosion of blogging worldwide will probably make a dedicated citizen-news site less attractive in the future.
Even in Korea, fierce competition for online advertisements is expected to push OhmyNews into the red this year, according to company executives. “In any industry, no business model is sustainable unless you constantly seek innovation to adapt to new changes,”says OhmyNews Communications Director Jean Min. He adds that his company will soon come up with a revamped version that befits the Web 2.0 era. One option under consideration is giving readers certain editorial rights, Min says, without offering further details.
OhmyNews execs say the biggest difference between blogs and their service is the role of professional journalists. Blogs don’t have the credibility of OhmyNews, where professionals screen, edit, and fact-check stories from ordinary folks to filter out inaccuracies and potentially libelous claims, the company argues. Whether that kind of quality control will differentiate OhmyNews from competing sources of news and commentary remains to be seen. For the moment, though, the company remains long on idealism but short on a workable business strategy.
“Blogs don’t have the creditbility of Oh My News?” You have got to be kidding? I trust information coming from blogs like the Marmot’s Hole more than I do from Oh My News and I’m willing to bet many people agree with me. Than the claims they are professional journalists who fact check their articles is totally laughable with the number of errors and sensationalism that I and others in the K-blogosphere have shown.
With their financial problems now becoming public, it is now very clear why President Roh is giving Oh My News public funding to support them. Wouldn’t this be like President Bush giving tax payer dollars to the Weekly Standard? It is however quite clear that if Oh My News doesn’t change their ways they are going to be going the way of President Roh; limited time left and increasingly irrelevant.
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