Moon's unlikely poodle

By Oh Young-jin

Two photojournalists who belonged to President Moon Jae-in's press pool were assaulted by a group of Chinese security guards during Moon's recent state visit to China.

The orbital fracture, severe bruising and other injuries they suffered perhaps illustrate the sorry state the nation's media is in now ― raising questions about whether they can continue to play the role of watchdog against power.

Why?

What happened after the assault is poignant.

The two injured reporters drew little sympathy as public opinion was unevenly split.

The more boisterous responded: "They deserved it."

This unsympathetic sentiment also signifies the low public esteem for the fourth estate.

But there is more to the story than meets the eye.

The Moon government is apparently using the media crisis of trust to its advantage to further defang reporting.

Moon has done a lot of exclusive interviews with foreign media outlets. This week it was NBC ― the U.S. broadcaster of the PyeongChang Winter Games ― during his Olympic promotion tour.

Moon had an interview with state-run CCTV on his Chinese visit and granted one to CBS before his U.S. visit in June. CNN had one and Channel NewsAsia based in Singapore had one as well.

One foreign journalist who interviewed Moon speculated that the President likes to use the foreign media as a platform to get wider domestic coverage from Korean media. "If he speaks to one Korean media outlet, no other Korean media will report it," she said in reference to the bitter rivalry among newspapers and broadcasters.

But that explanation can only partially explain the jigsaw puzzle about Moon's ambivalence to local media.

The late President Kim Dae-jung, also known by his initials, DJ, who won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for inter-Korean reconciliation efforts, gave a cash reward to his aides for getting a favorable article in one of the conservative papers. His press secretary called conservative papers "a hungry pack of wolves."

The late President Roh Moon-hyun, DJ's liberal successor and President Moon's mentor, told his aides that the first thing he did in the morning was to throw into the trash a bundle of conservative newspapers delivered to him, a comment showing how vulnerable he was to the media's daily onslaught.

Another hint comes from Moon's appointment as press secretary ― Yoon Young-chan, a former newspaperman but an executive of Naver, the nation's omnipotent channel of news. Previously, people with traditional journalistic backgrounds in newspapers and broadcasting would have got Yoon's job.

Naver receives news through contracts from virtually all sources, serving as the biggest and monopolizing news platform that no single outlet can compete with. The fees given to the news providers account for crumbs from Naver's huge profits that no member of the media industry can afford to lose as their bottom lines are relentlessly assailed by the paper-to-digital change of the medium.

In the Naver cyber world, news is only news, regardless of its source, producing a kind of equality in news to the cost of traditional news brands.

That weakened status enables Moon to try confidently to communicate with the public directly. He has professed his preference for direct democracy by skipping the middlemen and talking directly to the people. This tendency has come from his participation in the "candlelight revolution," leading to the ouster of Park Geun-hye, who was impeached, removed from office and is on trial.

Moon owed his election to the nonviolent popular protests against the incompetent and corrupt conservative former president. His government has set up and utilized many direct points of contact with the people, to a point incomparable with previous governments. They include direct petitions to the president, which have been used on key issues such as abortion.

Moon used a public panel to deliberate his decision to stop the construction of nuclear power plants rather than leaving it to the haphazard discretion of the media. The panel didn't back Moon's bid but still the whole process reduced erstwhile players such as the media and critical experts to the role of bystanders.

In a way, Moon's tactic appears more sophisticated and more effective than U.S. President Donald Trump's rough and tumble fight against the media, which comes down to calling them "fake news" producers and a public enemy. It has also exasperated the U.S. media, leading it to organize and stage a spirited counterattack.

Now what does all this make the Korean media look (sound) like?

Many newspapers are still vicious in their opposition to Moon and his progressive national agenda. But far fewer people pay attention to their criticism. Industrial restructuring has taken its toll. The multiplying of online outlets is pushing competition to unbearable levels. In other words, the whole industry is fighting for its survival.

So not by choice, but by the force of reality, the media has become meek.

But it would be a Cassandrian prophecy to say that the weak media serves nobody's interest but a dictator, and that during Moon's term the people may regret the poodle media and miss the days of the pit bull watchdog.

Oh Young-jin (foolsdie5@ktimes.com, foolsdie@gmail.com) is the managing editor of The Korea Times Digital Newsroom.

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