Tag: Journalism

B.R. Myers on Why the Foreign Media Will Not Report on Moon Administration Scandals

I think all of us who closely follow Korea issues have noticed how the foreign press will not report on Moon administration scandals that are very similar and arguably worse than what former President Park Geun-hye was impeached for. This is in stark contrast to the massive interest the foreign press showed during the timeframe prior to the impeachment of President Park.

B.R. Myers

Well now ROK Drop favorite Professor B.R. Myers shares his opinion on why this is:

1) Since Trump was elected, most Western correspondents feel a moral duty to root openly for whatever main political figure in the host country they consider less Trump-like, who in this case is Moon. The same “mirror imaging” dictates that they root against South Korea’s main opposition party, to which they occasionally apply the label “far right,” although it’s well to the left of our Republicans, and most of its members voted in favor of impeaching Park in 2016.

2) When deciding which local stories merit attention, correspondents (and perhaps their editors) seem to follow the lead of the New York Times’ bilingual correspondent Choe Sang-hun, whose own record of stories over the past 10 or so years parallels the agenda of the once-opposition, now staunchly government-loyal Hankyoreh newspaper he used to write for. The language barrier also forces correspondents to rely on local assistants and interns who, like most young people here, get their news from the Naver portal, which has ties to the Blue House and steers clear of stories riling up the Moon-critical half of the country.

3) Foreign journalists are as reluctant as their local colleagues to annoy Moon’s excitable netizen base, especially since the orchestrated attacks in 2019 on a South Korean journalist for Bloomberg who had referred to his reputation in some quarters as a “spokesman for Pyongyang.” (The chairman of the ruling party denounced her as “a black-haired foreigner” for her “borderline traitorous” article.)

B.R. Myers

You can read much more at the link, but Professor Myers goes on to explain how the foreign media is giving favorable reporting to the Moon administration for how they are handling the coronavirus outbreak despite weeks of problems that Koreans were highly upset about similar to what you seeing going on in the U.S. now. The foreign media is also helping the Moon administration to scapegoat the Shincheonji Church for the coronavirus outbreak problems as well.

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Journalist’s Question to President Moon About Economy Causes Controversy

Over at the East Asia Research Center, Dr. Tara O has a posting up about a question to President Moon asked by reporter Kim Ye-ryeoung (김예령) who works Kyonggi Broadcast Corporation. Some believe this question is inappropriate to ask a President:

Reporter Kim Ye-ryeoung asked:

[You said you will] create a society in which a dragon emerges from a sewer [rags to riches], but I believe you know well that in reality, the public opinion is chilly.  The reality is that the economy is stagnant. The people are suffering a lot. They have not given up hope, but they’re very anxious about the future. Related to this, Mr. president, you have emphasized ‘I’m looking at it very seriously.’ Despite this, Mr. President, [you] have not altered the basic direction of the policy and have not changed, and I’d like to know the reasons.  I’m asking directly, where does that confidence come from and what is the basis for it?

President Moon replied:

I’ve spent the last 30 minutes of today’s press conference explaining why we need the current economic policy and that the sustainable growth is impossible without changing the structure, including polarization [the gap increasing between the high income and the low income groups] and inequality. For that we need to take whatever supplemental measures we need to take, but I already amply said why. On the contrary, we need to continue the current policy. I don’t feel we need a new answer.

Journalist Kim’s question has caused a controversy in South Korea.  
Various comments online have attacked her for being “rude” to ask such questions to President Moon while others cheered her for asking what has been on their minds.  Here are some responses:

East Asia Research Center

You can read the responses at the link, but the usual suspects have criticized her by calling her “drunk”, “defiant”, “incompetent”, and that she needs to “study more”. I don’t see what the problem is with asking the President why he won’t change a policy that is not working. I think the real anger is that since KBC is a privately owned news network the Korean left has been able to take control of it like they did with the public broadcasters.

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