The Correct Answer Is Letter T for Tasteless.

by Sonagi on May 30, 2009

On the day of the late former President Roh’s funeral, MSNBC has trivialized his death by including a rather tacky question in the weekly news quiz.

Tagged as: Roh Moo-hyun, suicide

{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

1 colontos May 30, 2009 at 8:02 am: Well, they also trivialized a cyclone in India and an earthquake in Central America.

I will say, though, that the specific nature of this question seems particularly tasteless. It’s “How did Roh kill himself” and then a multiple choice, providing four suicidal options. Nice work.
2 Sonagi May 30, 2009 at 8:03 am: Exactly. It was the question itself, not the topic, that was tasteless.
3 hardyandtiny May 30, 2009 at 9:36 am: ahh..how would you write it?
4 Sonagi May 30, 2009 at 10:04 am: I wouldn’t. If I had to write a question at all, I’d probably ask which country’s former president committed suicide, a challenging enough question for most Americans, who barely glance at stories with South Korea in the headlines since they have no interest in the country.
5 john_galt718 May 30, 2009 at 10:37 am: @Sonagi: You say that as though it was a condition specific to the US. I don’t think most countries think much about South Korea. I don’t think Koreans think much about most countries – even those living here in the US. I’ve worked with many foreigners over the years and I’ve never met a group as insular as Koreans.
And agreed, the question was in poor taste – sounds like something Fox would run.
6 Sonagi May 30, 2009 at 10:50 am: I specifically referred to the US since most of MSNBC’s readers are Americans, but yes, I agree that people in most countries are not interested in South Korea. The exceptions are China and Japan. Likewise, most Koreans know little about world geography, history, and culture beyond old and modern China, old and modern Japan, old Europe, and modern US.
7 R. Elgin May 30, 2009 at 12:05 pm: I should really try to find a news service that is not run by a pack of wild jackasses.

I noted that MSNBC was called to task by Jon Stewart for their shameless shilling for Wall Street right up until the time the current crises broke.
8 leguwan May 30, 2009 at 2:50 pm: I would not call those tasteless at all. They could have said something like ‘devoured by a dog after trying to eat it live’
9 Kimberlake May 30, 2009 at 3:57 pm: So mentioning a news story is tasteless these days? Oh, I dunno. I think the anti-semitism on display on this website is a bit more tasteless.
10 non korean May 30, 2009 at 4:06 pm: I don’t think anyone is surprised about something like this coming out of MSNBC. To call them a news agency is a complete joke.
11 emiminja May 30, 2009 at 10:49 pm: why bother wasting any time even thinking about this crap?

it’s so true…..so easy to just rag and bag and bitch and complain all motherf’ing day.

it’s getting old.
12 cm May 30, 2009 at 11:35 pm: “Likewise, most Koreans know little about world geography, history, and culture beyond old and modern China, old and modern Japan, old Europe, and modern US.”

Sonagi, that’s still better than most Americans. Sorry, I had to get that in there. And talking about Koreans insular, western expats in Korea are not much different if not worse.
13 eujin May 31, 2009 at 12:31 am: Likewise, most Koreans know little about world geography, history, and culture beyond old and modern China, old and modern Japan, old Europe, and modern US.

I don’t know how many people watch them, but some of the “travel shows” on EBS are pretty cool. Somebody, somewhere, knows what they’re doing.
14 colontos May 31, 2009 at 4:25 am: The bubble-headed bleached blonde comes on at 5.
She’ll tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye.
It’s interesting when people die.
Give us dirty laundry.
15 DLBarch May 31, 2009 at 4:42 am: The intern who drafted the MSNBC question regarding late President Roh is a frequent poster on MH, and one of the more outrageous posters at that.

‘Nough said.

DLB
16 colontos May 31, 2009 at 4:50 am: I think the anti-semitism on display on this website is a bit more tasteless.

Ok, I’ll bite. What anti-semitism? I don’t see any.
17 Sonagi May 31, 2009 at 4:59 am: Are you serious, DL?
18 Sagwamun May 31, 2009 at 2:21 pm: MSNBC is much too disorganized to be the Fox News of the left. Give Fox some credit — it takes skills of a sort to construct a whole, internally consistent parallel reality to live in. Fox doesn’t even have to correct the past like Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. They just pretend it never happened.
19 captbbq May 31, 2009 at 3:34 pm: That is taken out of this season’s “The Office” finale. Michael and Holly perform a tasteless impromptu sketch at a company picnic ala “who wants to be a millionaire” where they ask how an original partner of “dunder mifflin” killed himself, with pretty much the same A-D choices (no one laughs)… I swear the comedy writers aren’t trying hard enough, because reality is beating them.
20 Kimberlake May 31, 2009 at 7:30 pm: #16, seems the Jew-baiting thread is gone now–but it was up for a good 4-5 days. Maybe the Mossad agents paid someone a visit? I don’t really care why, but as a Jew it’s nice to browse a blog I read for Korean news without having my ethnicity slurred.