On the 22nd, MBC’s ‘News Desk’ said, “‘You’re a prosecutor’.. Advice from a fortune teller at every turning point?” The article reported on the ‘shaman dependence controversy’ on the side of the presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol for the People’s Power. Last week, MBC’s ‘Straight’ reported a transcript of a conversation between Yoon Seok-yeol’s spouse, Kim Geon-hee, and Seoul’s Sori reporter.
According to MBC reports, it seems that candidate Yoon Seok-yeol and a fortune teller named ‘Mujeong’ were close. In the article, MBC said, “Kim Geon-hee spoke to reporter Lee Myung-soo and said that it was a relationship that Moo Jung-eun’s husband, Yoon Seok-yeol, had since she was in her twenties. He said that he followed Mujeong’s words in choosing a career as a public prosecutor and a prosecutor, and then it really came to pass. He said that he followed the advice of the Sims to get married as well.”
In the report, there was also a remark that Kim Geon-hee said good things to reporters Lee Myung-soo, Hong Jun-pyo and Yoo Seung-min. Assemblyman Hong and former lawmaker Yoo objected to this. In the article on page 4 of the Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 24th, Rep. Hong said to Kim on the political platform ‘Youth’s Dream’ on the 23rd, ‘It’s really scary what will happen if you lie like that naturally.’ I do not believe in ‘,” he reported.
The Kyunghyang Shinmun continued, “Ex-Rep. Yoo, who has been silent for so long, said on SNS, ‘It is clear that everything Kim said is false and fabricated.’ I have never worked a accusation order. It’s not even worth mentioning, but I’m making the facts clear.”
In the editorial of the Kookmin Ilbo, “It is a form of answering a reporter’s guiding question, but Mr. Kim said ‘(Rep. Hong Jun-pyo and former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min) did a good job’, and the parties strongly objected. It is part of a private conversation and may be exaggerated. The Democratic Party is strongly inclined to turn the shamanistic controversy into a political issue, and the intention of MBC’s report is questionable.”
Even so, the Kookmin Ilbo reported, “Even considering that, it is already the fourth time that the controversy around the shamans around candidate Yoon and his wife has been controversial. Last week, suspicions arose that a person named ‘Gonjin Judge’ was active in the network headquarters of the election committee and intervened in the candidate schedule. He said that the power of the people is a ‘misunderstanding’ and put the force of dismantling the network headquarters. In the TV debate for the People’s Power candidate, candidate Yoon came out with the word ‘wang’ written on his left palm. Rumors are still circulating about who wrote this letter. There was also an argument that a person called ‘Master of Heaven’ was Yoon’s mentor.”
Candidate Seok-Yeol Yoon urged that all shamans around him be cleaned up. The Kookmin Ilbo said, “The controversy about candidate Yoon and the power of the people is a misunderstanding and has been refuted as a malicious attack by the Democratic Party and some media. It is difficult to know the details of what kind of influence the shamans exerted on the candidate Yun couple. Even in order to dispel misunderstandings, Candidate Yoon needs to organize all the shamans around him,” he advised.
The Kyunghyang Shinmun also said in an editorial, “The court allowed the disclosure of shamanic-related remarks in Kim’s recorded file and decided that it was subject to public verification. In a poll released on the 23rd, 60.7% of the respondents viewed the relationship between the couple and the shaman as negative. “The courts and citizens alike were concerned that shamanism, which entered politics, could affect state affairs,” he said.
He said that he had an obligation to reveal the facts and allegations raised by Candidate Yoon. The Kyunghyang Shinmun continued, “However, the candidate’s campaign for Yun is only taking the position that ‘the candidate, his wife, and the election headquarters have nothing to do with shamanism’. It is not justified to cover up the situation without explanation of what happened to candidate Yoon and his wife, who directly interacted with shamans and engaged in magical acts. There is,” he claimed.
Japanese embassy in South Korea not receiving a gift with Dokdo drawn from President Moon
On the 18th, the Blue House sent local specialties to 15,000 people, including diplomatic envoys to Korea, COVID-19 medical staff, and socially considerate people as Lunar New Year gifts. One of the recipients of the Lunar New Year gift was the Japanese embassy in Korea, who protested to the Blue House saying that Dokdo had a sunrise on the gift box and decided not to accept President Moon Jae-in’s Lunar New Year gift. This news was reported by the Japanese media.
The Hankook Ilbo criticized Japan for being petty. In an editorial in the Hankook Ilbo, “The Japanese embassy even protested to the Blue House by making a coercive claim that Dokdo is Japan’s own territory. There is no way he would have conveyed anti-Japanese sentiments in his last Lunar New Year gift. Rather, it is true that the red sun rising over Dokdo in the picture of the gift box in question was reminiscent of the Japanese flag, making it uncomfortable for Koreans to see.”
The Hankook Ilbo continued, “I am just curious as to what Japan’s intention was to incite the conflict between Korea and Japan by making the issue of gifts public despite the circumstances. Sending it back is a petty act that is difficult to understand. If even the Lunar New Year gift is placed in the political realm rather than diplomacy and used strategically, the relationship between Korea and Japan will inevitably become more distant emotionally,” he criticized Japan.
The Kyunghyang Shinmun, on the other hand, reported that inappropriate criticism was being raised. In the article on page 5, the Kyunghyang Shinmun said, “However, regardless of the fact that Dokdo is Korean territory, it is being pointed out that it is inappropriate for the Blue House to send a gift from the president with a picture of Dokdo to the Japanese embassy in Korea. As it was a gift given to both diplomatic and domestic figures, I did not specify only Japan, but it is said that the Blue House may have other intentions because the Japanese embassy is not unaware that the Japanese embassy will not accept it.”
The Kyunghyang Shinmun continued, “In Japan, there has been an interpretation that the Blue House counterattacked the Japanese government claiming sovereignty over Dokdo. “Some predicted Japanese backlash and raised suspicions that they were trying to use it politically,” he wrote.
The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported, “Some say that this event will be beneficial to Japan. Although the government maintains a position that there is no dispute over Dokdo, Japan raises this issue whenever it has an opportunity to raise awareness that Dokdo is a territorial disputed area. A representative example of this is that the Japanese side boycotted a joint press conference under the pretext of Kim Chang-ryong’s visit to Dokdo after the South Korea-U.S.-Japan vice foreign ministers consultations in Washington in November of last year. That’s the reason why there are criticisms that it’s overrated,” he explained.
Professor Kim Seo-joong in a column in the Kyunghyang Shinmun, “Let’s get the press to report ‘infringement of editorial rights’ in the Seoul newspaper”
Recently, the Seoul Shimbun deleted about 50 verification articles that were written at the time Hoban Construction was trying to acquire a stake in the Seoul Newspaper owned by POSCO in 2019. The Seoul Shimbun had Hoban Construction as a major shareholder last year. The editor-in-chief of the Seoul Shimbun said, “It is a matter of judgment for win-win growth, not an infringement of editorial rights.” After the verification article was deleted, reporters from the Seoul Shimbun are issuing statements by number every day.
In this situation, Kim Seo-joong, professor of the Autonomous Media Content Convergence Department at Sungkonghoe University, said in the ‘Media World’ section of the Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 24th, “But the more serious reality is that there is no media dealing with it except for some newspapers, broadcasts, and media magazines that do not have an owner.” Concerned.
Professor Kim Seo-joong said, “Shinsegae stock price has plunged due to the recent SNS remarks by Vice Chairman Jung Yong-jin. This is the so-called owner risk. The behavior of the major shareholders of the Seoul Shimbun, which infringes on the essence of the press, is also a crisis of the Seoul Shimbun, or owner risk. However, it does not seem to have as much impact as Shinsegae yet. The reason is? There is no media coverage.”
I doubted whether he thought he was touching the evil of the master. Professor Kim said, “Isn’t it possible that most of the media do not report on the Seoul newspaper issue because they are voluntarily ‘infringing’ their editorial rights, thinking that they are touching their own stock price? “We cannot help but question whether the corruption of the stockholders is being covered up by other media, which have strong dominance by the major shareholders,” he said.
He said, “The influence of capital and stocks on the media is getting bigger and credibility is getting lower. Also, the prisoners who left because of this will not come back easily. Journalists should be aware again that the crisis of stock ownership is an important factor in the structural crisis facing the media industry. And even if it hurts, we have to squeeze out pus and let new skin grow.” He urged, “First, let’s report on the ‘editing rights violation’ in the Seoul newspaper.”
[관련 기사 ; 서울신문, “상생을 위한 판단” 호반 대해부 보도 일괄 삭제]