Media bias

The Korean Broadcasting Commission has issued a warning to an MBC radio program for violating broadcasting regulations during the campaign season leading up to the presidential election on Dec. 19.
The commission said the station failed to inform the public in advance that Erica Kim’s claims during an interview on the news talk show in question might have lacked objectivity.
“When the media deals with stories concerning plaintiffs, defendants or criminal suspects, they must make sure the interviewees’ criminal conduct is not exaggerated or justified,” a broadcasting rule says.
This means the commission has made the right decision in the case regarding the MBC show.
There have been similar examples of unbalanced news reports recently. An MBC television news program was censured for reporting a story with a large subtitle on screen saying, “I will come to Korea and fight.” The quote was attributed to Erica Kim before her brother Kim Kyung-joon was extradited to Korea from the United States.
A KBS television program was rebuked for its negative portrayal of presidential contender Lee Hoi-chang.
The commission criticized both programs for “constantly broadcasting prejudicial material.”
Why do the broadcast media get involved in this mess whenever the campaign season comes around?
Remember that it was the broadcast media that portrayed Kim Dae-eub as a hero in 2002 when Kim accused Lee Hoi-chang of wrongdoing during the last presidential campaign. It turned out that Kim had no evidence.
At the time KBS ran an interview with a member of the public who said, “Whether it’s true or not, the fact that a candidate whose integrity has been questioned can run for president is a big problem.”
But the show’s producers didn’t cite the opposition’s point of view to achieve balance.
KBS is a government-funded company and so is MBC, partially. They should be ashamed of themselves for promoting controversy by broadcasting biased news, and upsetting its shareholders and the government.
How can these companies abuse their power when they are funded by taxpayers?
They must remember that the essence of publicly funded broadcast journalism is airing fair and objective programs, not slanted reports.