Newscaster’s Comments Spur Anger
A Seoul newscaster has drawn sharp criticism for appearing to express relief upon learning Sunday that the two dead passengers on Asiana Airlines flight 214 were Chinese and not South Korean.
“We just received an update that the two dead are assumed to be Chinese….We can say it is a relief at least for us,” Channel A presenter Yoon Kyung-min said on a news broadcast for the cable news channel on Sunday.
Online reaction was swift in protesting Mr. Yoon’s statement.
“How dare they use such an expression? They proved themselves to be extremely deplorable,” wrote South Korean Twitter user Leesk0104.
Another South Korean Twitter user Jwhahn criticized the new channel’s
“ignorant and inhuman thinking” and called for the channel to dismiss him.
“If it had been China who made such a comment, (Korean internet users) would have probably started an online war against China,” the user wrote.
Channel A later released a statement attempting to clarify Mr. Yoon’s remarks:
“The comment was made to emphasize the fact that there is no Korean dead in the accident, which is a relief for us. We apologize for not running the live show smoothly.”
Attempts to reach Mr. Yoon were unsuccessful.
His comments were also quickly picked up by Chinese media, triggering further outrage.
“Is he a human?” many users questioned on Sina Weibo, the popular Twitter-like microblogging service. They called the anchor
“brain-damaged,” “unethical” and
“inhuman.” Many Weibo users demand his apology and resignation.
Global Times, a sometimes rabble-rousing tabloid owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, called the anchor
“indifferent and apathetic.” But the tabloid noted that many Korean netizens also criticized the anchor, quoting posts from Korean forums.
The coverage comes two weeks after South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s state visit to China, where the Chinese-speaking Korean leader won some general praise from the Chinese public.
On Monday, much of South Korean media and social networks focused on the heroic efforts involved in evacuating the plane, with headlines about how the crew and passengers reacted swiftly, limiting further casualties.
“The 10-Minute Miracle,” was the headline on South Korea’s biggest national daily newspaper, The Chosun Ilbo.
South Korean Twitter user Yourajoa wrote:
“Asiana cabin crew’s professionalism, courage and sacrifice gave me warmth and made me cry.”
Only one major South Korean daily prominently raised the question of potential pilot error in the crash, with a headline on its front page that read:
“Pilot of Crashed Plane Only Had 43 Hours of Flight Experience on B777.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2...edium=facebook
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