[KS] Are there any Korean bloggers writing in English, for a global readership?

[Katsiaficas, George]

Dear all, 

Ronda Hauben does indeed have a valid point insofar as the anti-US beef protests were initiated by middle school girls. Incidentally it was teenage music fan web sites that were the vehicals for their mobilization, not the kind of sites any movement folks would visit. In fact, one PSPD member complained to me that people booed any organizational activist who took the stage, saying they didn't want to hear from them.

But then again, Scott saw something different, testimony to the diversity of experience. Sctt, which PSPD folks did you say were there and what is your source for saying they were the organizers of the first protests?

 

Cheers,

gk 

 

--- 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


     



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 5855 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20080825/1f5ea24a/attachment.bin>