Comments on: That’s Not Funny . . .

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:55:09 +0000

Bizarre. Firing an anchor for a brief, stifled laugh seems harsh, but then young female anchors don’t have a long shelf life anyway.

That Frenchwoman’s wardrobe rocks, save for the occasional tacky, spangly stuff. Now I want a chartreuse leather jacket with zippers. Small-chested women are lucky. They can flash some understatedly sexy skin in unbuttoned shirts without looking porno.

By: bumfromkorea

bumfromkorea — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:05:54 +0000

So, there seems to be a confusion here… this was a nationally broadcasted news, right? So the newsroom mistake like that would have been inappropriate even in the States. Those kind of lighthearted things can be seen in the local news, morning news ’shows’, craptacular pundit shows, and the CNN/MSNBC neverending coverages… but not in news program like ABC World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News.

By: globalvillageidiot

globalvillageidiot — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:56:34 +0000

I would prefer to see a greater effort to fire - and imprison - the corrupt safety officials and dodgy company management responsible for such tragedies.

The anchor’s ill-timed laughter was perhaps in poor taste, but was almost certainly accidental and devoid of any malicious intent.

By: Baek du boy

Baek du boy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:26:22 +0000

#4 you should check out the North Korean news readers delivery the news on behalf of the Korea workers party!

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:53:52 +0000

CM, this would be par for the course in the Korean Government’s cowardly behaviour regarding China. If this is the case, it is truly sad.

By: boshintang

boshintang — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:50:45 +0000

That’s too bad, although personally I am biased toward French news anchors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1G-3laJJP0

By: cm

cm — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:43:33 +0000

This was more to do with placating China.
40 people including 12 Chinese nationals died in the fire (all of them ethnic Koreans) and the Chinese netizens were flooding the internet with angry accusations of Koreans making fun of China (forgetting that more Koreans died in the fire).

By: dokdoforever

dokdoforever — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:08:03 +0000

Koreans appears to prefer stoic, absolutely emotionless news reporting, judging from the normal anchor’s delivery here. Dan Rather has nothing on the guys over here. There’s a fairly new woman anchor on one channel,maybe KBS, and even she comes off serious and manly, with voice deeper than most women I’ve encountered in Korea. Back in the States, all the phony joking and personal banter seems strange after watching Korean news for a while. I suppose its just cultural preference. And, we can’t forget the authoritarian legacy in Korea either. Park and Chun used the news to legitimate their rule - there was an expression about news reporting under Chun, something like “ding dong ding, Chun Doo Hwan” about how following a chime signally the start of the news program, the first story was always about Chun, and what he did that day. So, of course, the anchors had to be deadly serious when presenting news about Chun. To see the effect of authoritarianism, just take a look at the presentation style of North Korean news announcers. Geez, they are so wound up, it looks as if they’re giving an evangelical sermon, and actually, wasn’t Kim Il Sung’s father a Protestant Minister in Pyongyang? I sometimes wonder if they didn’t intentionally adopt that style. Too bad they completely divorced the style from the substance.

By: WangKon936

WangKon936 — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:54:06 +0000

In the local news, anchors here in the states laugh all the time. Should of been given a warning first?

By: littlebrownasian

littlebrownasian — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:30:44 +0000

Well, that’s unfortunate of her. Could have put her mind on whatever it is that she thought funny then at a better time.