Conservative TV channels draw fire for sensational
By Kim Tae-gyu
The nation's four new cable TV channels that debuted in late 2011 have come under fire for what analysts call “sensational reporting” aimed at cranking up their rock-bottom audience rating.
The criticism came about this month after two of the channels, TV Chosun and Channel A, aired interviews with North Korean defectors claiming the communist regime was involved in the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Movement.
The interviewees contended that North Korean infiltrators covertly sneaked into Gwangju in 1980 disguised as civic activists with the goal of fighting the South Korean army.
By so doing, the broadcasters implied that the movement was not a civil uprising against then military dictator Chun Doo-hwan but a riot masterminded by the North.
This infuriated Gwangju citizens, especially the bereaved families of the 10-day movement’s victims, whose number is estimated to be in the vicinity of 2,000, and activists.
Professor Cho Kuk of Seoul National University claimed the TV reports in question were tantamount to "political pornography,” aimed at jacking up low audience ratings through sheer sensationalism.
The new channels — including jTBC and MBN — have had to contend with low viewer ratings that adversely affects their bottom lines after the huge investment that went into their establishment.
Even conservative commentators lashed out at the two broadcasters for airing such controversial reports and the threat of lawsuits has further cornered them.
In response, the two right-wing broadcasters relented and issued an apology for the reports they aired. However, the public uproar shows no signs of abating as similar incidents are expected to recur.
"Worries on rightist sensationalism were raised even before the four TV channels were launched as only conservative newspapers gained the rights to run them,” Professor Kang Sang-hyun at Yonsei University said.
"If the broadcasting market does not expand substantially, they are likely to keep on with sensationalismbased reports in the face of stiff competition with terrestrial broadcasters.”
The channels were accused of adopting yellow journalism from the beginning — on Dec. 1, 2011, one of them reported in its first evening news program that Korea's top entertainer Kang Ho-dong was associated with the Japanese Yakuza.
The evidence the broadcaster came up with was a video clip taken in 1988 where Kang appeared at a meeting that allegedly took place for Korean gang members and Yakuza.
Kang instantly refuted the allegation, insisting that he had no links to the Japanese mafia and was just following his coach as he was a high-school student at the time. The broadcaster eventually aired a correction notice.