[KS] Korean bloggers writing in English

[johnfrankl at yahoo.com]

I am simply left wondering how this thread relates to the earlier thread about the presence or absence of a "Korean position."
 
If there is not one, which seemed from my subjective reading to be the opinion of most on the list, then do we need to be worried about Korean bloggers in English. Or, rather, shoul we look for informed and informative bloggers on Korea regardless of their nationality, citizenship, ethnicity, etc.?
 
Best,
 
John Frankl

--- On Fri, 8/22/08, J.Scott Burgeson <jsburgeson at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: J.Scott Burgeson <jsburgeson at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [KS] Are there any Korean bloggers writing in English, for a global readership?
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Date: Friday, August 22, 2008, 7:08 PM

--- On Fri, 8/22/08, Ronda Hauben <ronda.netizen at gmail.com> wrote:

> OhmyNews International has had some English summaries of
> what has been
> happening under the title "This Week in Korea".
> You can see these in the
> Korea section of the english edition of OhmyNews
> International (
> http://english.ohmynews.com)  and there is a blog
> democracykorea that also
> has been posting some summaries.


Ms. Hauben--
   you're very good at plugging OhMyNews but less interested in answering
readers who ask you to verify your sources, as I did twice earlier this summer
(regarding the now debunked PD Such'op and your claim that "cows 30
months of age and older at the time of slaughter are in general not sold for
food consumption in the US"). I just reread your 8 June 2008 story on the
anti-beef/Lee protests and was amused when you wrote:

   "At first, the candlelight demonstrations were initiated by middle
school and high school students..."

   Oh really?

   Later you innocently quote "People's Solidarity for Participatory
Democracy (PSPD)" as a source for your story, without mentioning that they
in fact were one of the key organizers of the protests from the start:
 
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806130024.html

   But no, it was midddle school and high school students who
"initiated" the protests, wasn't it?

   I wonder if the editors at OhMyNews are interested in basic fact checking,
as well as clamping down on the use of innuendo and distortion to push home
points, because it seems that some of its reporters are less than committed to
reporting the truth in a reasonably neutral and objective manner.

   One of the crucial lessons of the Korean beef protests of 2008 is that
democracy cannot be had when there is widespread and flagrant disregard for the
truth.

   You can keep plugging OhMyNews here if you like, but this is a rigorous
academic listserve, and simply ignoring people who raise valid questions about
your work is not going to fool many people here, I think.

   --Scott Bug


      




      
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