[EDITORIALS]Media have big responsibility

A reporter for CBS television revealed that the derogatory remarks about the first lady reported by MBC television’s “Shin Kang-kyun’s News Service” are a distortion of facts.
The MBC program showed a speaker of the pro-impeachment gathering as saying, “Is a woman who has not even graduated from high school worthy to be the mother of our nation?” but has deleted the part where the speaker says, “We must not say this.” The desk chief of this television program has admitted this manipulation of editing.
News media that are restricted by time and space cannot help but use abridgment for technical reasons. For interviews that go on for an hour, only five minutes can be shown on television, and in case of newspapers, They must be summarized within 1,000 words.
But the editing process must not be used to damage or distort the truth. It is better not to report something if one can’t adhere to the golden rule based on common sense and ethics in journalism.
Our society is deeply mired in skepticism. The only hope of unifying a society that is bent on criticizing one another is the media. This is only possible in media we all can trust. The credibility of the media can be acquired by maintaining objectivity by the accurate conveyance of facts.
The producers of the MBC program that aired misleading information and ignored the overall context of the news and editing will bring distrust to the media. We must not forget that many of those who distrust the media are those whose objectives were distorted by the media. Television journalists and producers of current affairs programs must not forget that “reporting the truth” takes precedence over “broadcasting independence.”
Television programs are not the private possessions of the producers. They must be careful not to fall into the temptation to insert their values and judgments by manipulating the massive influence of the media.
In this respect, it is better to delay the airing of a segment on Kim Jae-kyu, the assassin of former President Park Chung Hee, by an MBC current affairs program. Instead, the program should be aired after the National Assembly elections so that there are no misunderstandings.