By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Lee Myung-bak government has been bruised and battered by public anger over its decision to resume U.S. beef imports, and major television stations, MBC, and even state-run KBS, were happy to guide the assault.
Now, with the candlelight protests becoming a fading fad and the idea of American beef on the dinner table sinking in as a reality for local consumers, the government seems to be getting bolder in what is shaping up as a war against the broadcast media.
In a controversial decision late Wednesday, the Korea Communications Standards Commission ordered the creators of ``PD Notebook," a popular MBC news program, to air an public apology over what the media arbitration body ruled as false information in its reports on mad cow disease.
The commission also issued a warning to ``News 9," the 9 o'clock news program of KBS, over four separate reports between May 21 and June 11 that accused the government of pressuring television broadcasters through audits.
The ruling on PD Notebook is considered the severest penalty for a television news program since SBS was ordered to air an apology for flawed reporting on its ``News 8" program in 2006.
The ruling was made after the three commission members named by opposing political parties left the meeting room to protest what they called the flawed decision-making process of the arbitration body.
``Instead of holding an open and real debate about the penalties, the commission's general meeting is turning into a place where a ruling made by the lower committee is approved and passed," said Baek Mi-sook, one of the commission members who left early.
KBS refused to accept the verdict and will demand a review.
MBC and KBS, the country's two largest television stations, had been up in arms against the Lee administration from the start, accusing it of pushing for the privatization of television stations. And the public concern over U.S. beef imports gave them more than enough ammunition.
President Lee, who finds his biggest support in conservative newspapers, including the ``Big Three" of Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, seems to believe he could ill afford to back down from the power struggle, having already seen his young presidency rattled by an onslaught from the broadcast media.
Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korean Communications Commission and one of Lee's closest confidents, has been openly calling for the head of KBS President Jung Yun-joo.
And Choi's naming of Koo Bong-hong, Lee's media adviser during the presidential campaign, as YTN president, a 24-hour news channel, triggered anger from media unionists accusing the government of trying to strengthen its grip on television stations.
Koo was named YTN president in the company's shareholder's meeting Thursday, a decision made in 30 seconds as the management hired bodyguards to block unionists from entering the meeting.
In its editions on April 29 and May 13, PD Notebook urged policymakers to take a harder look on the health concerns over U.S. beef, basically claiming that meat from older cattle is more likely to be susceptible to mad cow disease.
However, critics have accused PD Notebook of being too overzealous in getting its message across and manipulating the facts to inflate concerns over mad cow disease. On its April 29 edition, it presented the story of an American woman, Aretha Vinson, who was described as dying from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCDJ), or the human form of mad cow disease.
In the aired interview, Vinson's mother says her daughter ``could possibly have" contracted vCDJ, but the Korean subtitles were translated as ``the disease that my daughter had."
The arbitrators also accused PD Notebook of unbalanced reporting, saying it only aired interviews of American consumer advocates and representatives of the Humane Society, a fierce critic of the U.S. government over its policies in controlling mad cow disease, and failed to represent opposing opinions.
The PD Notebook reports ignited an explosive response from the general public, especially bloggers on the Internet, who used the material to rally people for the anti-government protests. The consequences proved dire for President Lee, who saw his approval rate drop to the high teens at record speed.
``We admit there were some mistakes and flaws in the PD Notebook reports, but it's hard to be convinced that they warrant such severe punishment," said a representative of MBC's labor union.
``It's questionable whether the commission should still be considered an independent body when they pushed ahead to punish MBC even without the presence of three members," he said.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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