Korean Media Watch

[HT to Sonagi over at The Marmot's Hole.]

Here’s another article written by Lee Eun-ung, founder of the “Anti-English Spectrum” web site and group. He continues to rant on about all the crimes purported to be committed by foreigners in the Kyunghyang Shinmun story “외국인 강사 약물검사는 차별?” (“Are Drug Inspections of Foreigners Discrimination?”) and once again presents a compelling story to the lazy reader, but one devoid of concrete numbers or statistics, when they are readily available.

He mentions the recent ATEK petition and human rights complaint, and from the very choice of title mischaracterizes its origins — the HIV test is the main sticking point, and many legal scholars, along with Korea’s own Ban Ki-moon, agree it is a human right violation, both according to the principles of international as well as principles of Korean law. He doesn’t mention the numbers of HIV+ English teachers allegedly identified, nor the numbers of English teachers caught for drugs. This is because the numbers are against him, and this is telling. The numbers are so low that they would not be worth mentioning to help his case.

In the case of the English teacher allegedly arrested for molesting a child in 2007, why does this not appear in official police records? And had there been such an arrest, given the state of the Korean media and its extreme bias against foreigners, would there not have been some reporting on an actual arrest of a foreign English teacher who had abused a child? Again, where are the statistics? Where are the media reports? And the “tip” being based on a single biased source — the same former girlfriend of an Australian English teacher who called newspapers and also presented a Konglish-ridden, anonymous email written from a Hotmail account allegedly from the ex-boyfriend — this is pretty specious and spotty “evidence” to say the least.

And most of the “incidents” mentioned by this man/organization — while unfortunate — have nothing to do with the law, and the tips seem to come from jilted exes wanting revenge. Such as the man who slept with a woman, who later found out he was married back home — what gives this man the right to “pursue” or “investigate” this individual, or interfere in private matters? The fact that the person in question is a foreigner? Or that he apparently gave her a venereal disease? Do such things not happen between Koreans? And even if what he had done had been illegal, what gives private citizens the right to follow, chase, or “investigate” other private citizens? Report them to the police and be happy you did your civic duty.

But this man encourages people to “take action” against foreigners. Based on what? Their personal behavior? Preferences? Because you don’t like the way one dressed? This line of thinking is extremely dangerous. If a foreigner does an immoral thing, this is a sign of what ALL foreigners do? If a Korean or Koreans do something, it can never define a pattern. Even in the crime statistics, exactly 13 of nearly 20,000 E-2 visa holders were arrested for doing drugs. This does NOT jibe with the media accounts of “foreigners gone wild”, but then again, none of these media accounts actually presents the numbers. Isn’t that interesting? Most of these yellow journalistic stories about foreigners cite apocryphal stories, from anonymous or unconfirmed sources, with no police reports or records, and they do not agree with the Korean government’s own crime statistics on foreigners, which the government DOES keep and track. (Sorry, Assemblywoman Choe Young-hui — you’re wrong on that count.)

Even the “English Spectrum” site that this Lee Eun-ung bases his entire raison d’etre upon was a single, sarcastic, and fictional piece that the vast majority of foreigners in the discussion also attacked the author for writing. It was not taken seriously by anyone. No one “used” it. It was not used as a guide to seduce Korean children, no more than most people in the foreign community have ever even heard of the “Secret Sites” apparently selling guides on how to seduce Korean women (‘한국여성 性的비하` 비밀사이트 성행). It’s the same logic as “Anti-English Spectrum” — hold the entire foreign community responsible for the acts of a few, or even a SINGLE idiot.

Such behavior is, in a word, racist.

One wonders how Korea would have reacted if, because of serial killer Cho Seung-hui, the United States started labeling all Koreans in the US as “ticking time bombs of murderous rage caused by excessive academic pressure and a distorted Korean culture based on post-colonial violence that stems from a male-bonding sub-culture of required military service and hazing in the service of what is essentially a hierarchical culture that is used to decades of brutal dictatorship and uses corporal punishment and torture in its official institutions.” Hey, it’s based in fact, within Korean society, right? And now, in America, there are cases of Korean male students murdering, abusing, or violating American kids (Cho Seung-hui and Hanse Park and Sung Soo Kim), right?

So, according to the KOREAN logic, we should hold these individuals as responsible representatives of the entire group, right? During the same time period that Lee Eun-ung is talking about (from around 2005-2009), according to RECORDED statistics and RELIABLE news reports, Korean students in America have murdered 32 people, sexually molested many others, and are suspects in the kidnapping/murder of another. Now, even according to Korean government statistics and even within an irresponsible yellow media, there have still been NO murders committed by English teachers, no injuries, and no cases of sexual molestation. NONE. Even the yellow media reports have never produced a name of a foreigner, or an actual arrest of a foreigner for committing such a crime. They talk about them, but never prevent specifics — because they can’t. So, acccording to the Korean logic, the United States and the rest of the world should hold ALL Koreans responsible for the actions of several crazy ones, and close the borders to them. Perhaps we should require all Korean nationals coming to Korea to undergo psychological testing and wear tracking devices so that we know they cannot commit these crimes? They committed them before, and that means alll Koreans are prone to commit such crimes again. That is the Korean logic in this situation, the logic employed by the “Anti-English Spectrum” man, and all the others.

Because if foreigners can earn such a reputation from zero to even a few cases and have restrictive laws made regarding them, then after dozens of murders, rapes, and molestations committed by Koreans, shouldn’t the United States call all Koreans a “danger to the American people?” If one thinks about this logically, the fact of the extreme racist bias in the Korean media and a population that accepts it without question is obvious.

Pieces such as the ones mentioned above prove this point only too well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Extreme Bias, Hearsay/Rumor, Kyunghyang Shinmun, Lack of Cited Source(s), Lack of Evidence, Maeil Kyeonje, Newspaper, Sexist, Specious Source, Stereotype, The "Anti-English Spectrum", Unbalanced Interviews, Unfounded Generalization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.