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I should probably be increasingly alarmed by the continued lack of professional journalistic standards that the Korean media so often displays. However, after coming across the latest article with a sensational headline, in The Korea Times, I could only crack a smile and say, “business as usual.”
This one reads: Obama Has Bad Impression of Korea.
Looks like they’re going for the jugular. By clicking the link above you will have access to the full article. You may also note that Obama does not, in fact, have a “bad impression” of Korea. He is simply against the currents terms of the KORUS-FTA that the Bush administration is hoping to push through Congress. It is no secret that the current agreement is heavily balanced in South Korea’s favor. An example Obama repeatedly uses is the fact that, under the current agreement, South Korea will have extraordinary access to the American automotive market, while the USA will be limited to exporting a few thousand vehicles to South Korea every year.
Business as usual indeed. This is a good example of how vast amounts of misinformation was disseminated throughout the web so quickly concerning the safety of American beef.
RSS 
”I think Senator Obama will be strongly supportive of the Korea-U.S. alliance and understands the importance of Korea as a security ally and trading partner,” said Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies. ”I expect as the election draws closer, we will see some op-eds and other foreign policy statements coming from Senator Obama and I would expect that they will be very supportive of the alliances. I know many of his advisors quite well and know that they appreciate the importance of both relationships and believe that Obama does as well.”
Maybe you have a problem with the headline writer being a bit excessive, but that’s hardly a basis to condemn all of Korean journalism.
It’s also no secret that the Korean media, in general, has pretty lax standards on their journalistic practices, the sources they use and the way in which they sensationalize articles to stir up their readers. In fact, even the Chosun Ilbo, whose opinions I agree with most of the time, are pretty unprofessional when it comes to their writing standards.
A single headline is ”vast amounts of misinformation”? Couldn’t you have at least given one more example to show that writing headlines is a problem in Korea?
By the way, I think most Koreans SPEAK KOREAN. The paper you cite is in English. So it hardly can be representative of the Korean press.
Seems to me that you threw this post together in about five seconds with very little effort or thought.
Talk about cherry picking! Seems rather hypocritical to me that you complain about. If you think this post is a model of fair and balanced analysis of the Korean press, you need to have your head examined.
I can show you several examples of how misinformation is spread throughout the Korean media. For the sake of brevity I’ll point you toward one blogger’s story which was circulated yesterday. In fact, this is a good example of the sensational effect the Korean media often goes for. The story is about RUN DMC’s views on Mad Cows disease. You can see that entertaining article here:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/06/18/they-even-ambushed-dmc-with-mad-cow/
The Korea Times, which is one of the most widely circulated newspapers in South Korea, runs English editions as well as an English website in which all of their Korean articles have been translated. Looks like you may want to familiarize yourself with the newspapers here before you start pointing the finger at me for using sources that are not representative of the Korean press.
Finally, if you’re so gung-ho about defending the South Korean media, I invite you to write an article defending its general integrity.
