U.S. State Department Report Criticizes South Korea for Censorship
Over at One Free Korea he has a good round up about from the State Department report that criticizes the Moon administration for their on going efforts to censor criticism from their opponents:
In December, I was a panelist at this event at the American Enterprise Institute. You can read the transcript here, or watch it on video here. In my remarks, I tried to put the censorship of South Korea’s left and right into that country’s recent historical context, noting the signs that left-wing leaders who emerged from a nominally pro-democracy movement were now engaging in a strategic and systematic campaign to silence defectors, vloggers, and political critics through internet censorship and defamation suits. The Korean Embassy sent its resident propagandist to that event to denounce this as “fake news,” a phrase that Donald Trump has sown in the lexicons of authoritarians everywhere. You can see me harangue him near the end of the event, after each panelist speaks and after Professor Sung-yoon Lee’s more extended comments.
As it turns out, I was not the only one who noted some of the same events with concern. The State Department’s annual country reports on human rights also mentioned a number of them:
One Free Korea
You can read much more at the link.
Fake News: “a phrase that Donald Trump has sown in the lexicons of authoritarians everywhere. ”
He just couldn’t write an honest and informative article without getting an unrelated dig in on President Trump.
News which is fake constantly targets President Trump and he is not afraid to point this out. This is a correct response.
The lexicon of “authoritarians everywhere” is not his responsibility.
The writer of this should try to maintain a degree of journalistic professionalism based around facts and analysis rather than injecting personal political opinion.
Or maybe this entire article is equally misguided opinion no better than any other fake news.
The depicable and leftist Moon censorship is for real and is a serious concern for the people of South Korea.
Joshua had been a very strong intellectual voice against the “Long Defeat.”
Now, he’s all but gone full Little Green Footballs.
I am really surprised. Sure, Trump is no Messiah; but he has shown honesty, clarity, and integrity (things sorely lacking in most poliyicians). Maybe all his friends are Bill Kristol and JEB! Fans. Maybe they put something in his drink…
Censorship is only the beginning for the SK people and their new Confederacy.
I agree with CH 100% but I think what the guy was doing, misguided as it is, was to try to simplistically make himself look unbiased. He may have felt incapable of demonstrating fairness by the quality of his writing alone and thus fired off an anti-Trump warning blast so as to not scare away sensitive Lefties when he criticised Moon. “But I hate Trump too, I’m reasonable”.
I strongly encourage viewing the discussion Stanton references that was held by the AEI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU-FIVLWtJc
It is 2 hours and the 1st hour is a bit meh… the 2nd hour features a guest speaker, Lee Sung Yoon who delivers a spot on assessment of the topic, best part of the whole thing.
Stanton spoke mainly on the issue of oppression of the press and was ok, but I can’t get past how he (likely intentionally) misquotes Trump with the tired claim that he said the media (as a whole) is the enemy of the people (16:45 of the video). I can’t take a journalistic claim seriously from someone who blatantly twists a fact. Trump still has that tweet on his page and it clearly reads that the fake news media, further qualified in parenthesis by who he views as the fake news, is the enemy. Anyhoo the minister never actually says “fake news” (he starts speaking at 51:30), he just states the Administration’s opinion on the topic and you’re left to agree or disagree.
Tara O seems to spend too much time on Twitter tapping on the keyboard because her ability to vocalize her thoughts is terrible, her PPT presentation was really sloppy as well. Came off as pro-Park and I didn’t get anything out of her time. I did have to keep telling my wife to stop yelling at the screen and to just hear her out. 🙄
David Maxwell had a fair presentation but I guess since it was grounded in a defense POV and we talk that shit to death on here I guess I was just zoning out.
So Stanton is yet another guy who cannot compartmentalize his Trump Derangement Syndrome… diluting whatever sensible point he is trying to push by needlessly injecting unrelated Trump fake news and misquotes just to spread imaginary hate.
What is wrong with people?
Bonus: The fake news media IS the enemy of the people… creating division over imaginary problems and misrepresented events… fighting against things that are good for America and Americans… etc.
If Stanton is representative of a media member spreading fake news while crying about being oppressed for spreading fake news, maybe a few journalists need a short helicopter ride to improve the over-all attitude and integrity of the industry.
Before Trump was elected, Joshua was a pretty good read.