Scott has posted another protest report, this time from Saturday night’s demonstration.
Very interesting stuff, particularly concerning the behavior of some of the press/activists. Like always, read the report in its entirety — here’s just a snippet:
Now, I observed these reporters very carefully throughout the course of the night and can safely say that many of them were either amateurs, fakes or clearly partisan and full-on supporters of the protesters. For example, after the police had cleared the road, many of these reporters were laughing and joking amongst themselves in a big circle, and I also noticed that many were regularly conferring with what seemed to be protest organizers. Many of them were not even displaying their affiliation, or were from outlets I had never heard of before, like a 4-man video crew from some broadcasting company called “OBS,” and another one called “LBS.” I’d never seen them before until tonight. Anyway, I know a high school girl who went to the protests regularly just as an ordinary participant in street clothes, and then after joining a Daum cafe, she suddenly appeared one night wearing an official yellow “Daum Citizen Reporter” T-shirt, along with about a dozen other people in the exact same uniform. They all had Press badges around their arms and went around snapping pics and looking very “professional.” My point here is that a good portion of the “reporters” at these protests are not even professionals and they are now clearly helping the protesters at crucial moments when it counts the most. This is something that the police might want to be cognizant of when they prepare for next Tuesday, because clearly the use of the dye-tinted water hoses was a foiled tactic tonight and these so-called reporters were what got in the way.
Well, President Bush’s visit tomorrow should prove interesting.
PS: I’ll be on vacation for the week, which means expect photos of old stuff, but how much news coverage I’ll be able to do, I’m not sure.
18 Comments
Have a good holiday, Robert, and I look forward to seeing your pics when you return!
Re the Shrub’s visit, I found it interesting to note while passing through the avenue that runs up along the west side the the palace to the Blue House that the preparations for Shrub don’t include the stars and stripes. Usually, when a foreign head of state visits, the light poles are adorned with both the Korean and the visiting dignitary’s country’s flag as a courtesy to the visitor. No such sign of respect for the US and Bush who will be greeted by the Taeguki alone.
Here’s a story about OBS:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....ryCode=201
As for the rest, well, why would the “conservative” Korean media bother to cover the umpteenth anti-LMB, anti-U.S., anti-god-knows-what protest? It’s long past its newsworthiness.
Good report.
What is the schedule for President Bush’s visit? Arrive Tuesday? Where? What will he be doing on Wednesday?
Have a great vacation Mr. Marmot.
Here’s a story about OBS:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....ryCode=201
As for the rest, well, why would the “conservative” Korean media bother to cover the umpteenth anti-LMB, anti-U.S., anti-god-knows-what protest? It’s long past its newsworthiness.
“No such sign of respect for the US and Bush who will be greeted by the Taeguki alone.”
Would you prefer the usual suspects tear them down and set them on fire?
Yes
“Heo Jae-hyun, a Hankyoreh reporter, is arrested in Myeongdong in central Seoul on August 2.”
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti.....02312.html
This is the disturbance near the police car that Scott describes in his report. This only shows you to what lengths these progressive “reporters” will go to to create news when there is nothing to report.
Based on the look on that guy’s face, you’d think he had been tasered or worse, but he’s simply being held back. Hamming it up for the cameras, maybe?
So I thought W’s courageous cartographic intervention gave Dokdo back to the Koreans last week. That means these will be welcoming celebrations, right?
Demonstrations will occur, unless Bush pulls a fast one and drops by Pyongyang for a pit stop. This would certainly be a shot in the arm for McCain, who needs all the help he can get, despite the current polls, some of which show, incredibly, a dead heat.
#5, they are not covering the events anymore. As you say it is past their newsworthiness.
They are instead obviously running interference for the protesters themselves. So much for the objectivity of the press.
This is the kind of inside reporting that makes the Marmot’s Hole the best Endlish language site on Korea.
Ya gotta luv da Endlish
As noted elsewhere, somebody super big is at the Hyatt in Itaewon tonight. Secret Service trucks everywhere and local riot police. And there were an enormous amount of helicopters over Itaewon-ro at 4 pm today.
USA Today actually had an article looking at the US-ROK relationship ahead of Bush’s visit, and touching on the protests and anti-Americanism in Korea:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....trip_N.htm
“”It’s not rioting,” Green says of this summer’s protests. “Nobody is tarring and feathering the bulgogi chefs.”"
Funny.
Anyway, my thoughts here:
http://www.park-hyun.com/park_.....erica.html
It’s funny how even with this kind of madness going on, Koreans can think of themselves as getting more pro-American. I really do believe they’re sincere in their belief, however.
Hell hath no fury like a disillusioned old leftie.
Most of the really nasty authoritarian right wing politicos in Europe are former Marxists.
I have little sympathy for the protestors and only marginally more for the LMB gov’t, but minor factual flaw Scott. As far as I remember, beef over 30 months old has not been ‘banned’ or ‘renegotiated’.. there have merely been some mutterings about ‘voluntary agreements’… which are not exactly worth the paper they’re written on, are they?
And this despite the lack of energy and focus in McCain’s awful, awful campaign effort. Methinks that’s a sign the Democrats are headed for another disappointing autumn season.