Morality in TV

Prosecutors have recently uncovered evidence of back-door dealings between producers at broadcasting corporations and entertainment companies.

Ever creative, close to 10 producers are suspected of having made outspoken and often outrageous comments asking for bribes in a highly sophisticated manner.

A high-profile entertainment producer at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation has already been detained. Whenever he wanted money, he reportedly handed a staff member from a particular entertainment firm his car key.

The firm deposited tens of thousands of won in cash in his car at any one time. Of course, what the entertainment company received in return was preferential casting of the entertainers in its programs.

The producer also purchased shares in listed entertainment companies on the cheap, gaining huge trading profits.

The other producers under investigation are suspected of indulging in similar shenanigans, according to prosecutors.

Broadcasting corporations are worried that if they are all arrested, all production of entertainment programs will have to be suspended for an indefinite period of time.

Broadcasters, as well as newspapers, have a mandate to serve the public. They have a huge responsibility to lead society in the right direction.

Although behind the scenes, producers in charge of making entertainment programs are not free from this responsibility. Rather, they play the pivotal role of making the careers of star entertainers, who are often role models for teenagers. For this reason, they should be fully equipped with a far stricter code of morality.

Prosecutors must conduct a thorough investigation into these allegations, to address the public’s worries about under-the-table dealings between producers and entertainment companies.

Broadcasting circles should actively engage in the investigation, rather than protecting the guilty. Through strengthening accountability and improving the way entertainers are cast in programs, broadcasters should seek to end corruption within their ranks. This is the only way they can live up to public expectations.