How does a newsroom get it so wrong?
Sadly, the answer is "stupidly, dangerously, foolishly (and perhaps illegally) easily".
When news broke that on August 6th Suga of BTS was caught with a DUI by police in Seoul when drunk driving a scooter and had his license revoked, there was a lot of different sort of reports. The star, born Min Yoongi and aka Agust-D, released an apology for his actions on August 7, plus a statement from Big Hit sharing some information about the event.
Celebrities in South Korea are often upheld as the ideal citizen, and DUIs are treated immensely seriously, with bans from broadcasters and instances of members leaving their K-pop groups. The severity of this situation has only grown over the past few days, with many articles questioning the impact on BTS.
Pretty much as soon as the news broke, confusion and misinformation was rampant. It was a scooter. It was a kickboard. It was a moped. He only drove a few blocks in his own neighborhood. He went across town. He was speeding. He was parking. He was found blackout drunk.
Then JTBC dropped a video alleging to be police-verified CCTV of Suga driving, showing a person driving what looked closer to a moped than what generally is thought to be a scooter, on the street, swiftly.
All hell broke loose, as it appeared that Suga's apology had misrepresented several aspects of the incident, at a time when South Korea is grappling with rising scooter-related accidents and even deaths. Over the next few days, media outlets spread the information like wildfire, and countless stories came out. It felt like there was a battle between those supporting him and those who want him to leave BTS due to this criminal action that could have potentially ended up being very dangerous, especially since he seems to have lied in his apology to minimize it. Hybe further apologized for that, and issued a statement attempting to clarify things, but the genie was out of the bottle as furious internet debate erupted over whether he had actually done something wrong or not.
And then, after days of uproar, it turned out that JTBC had the wrong video. A different video later came out, first reported by the Donga Ilbo, showing someone identifiable as Suga riding a much smaller scooter, on the sidewalk, with a helmet. He falls over while driving up to his apartment building, and police officers nearby come across him. That's ostensibly when he appeared drunk to them, and they asked him to take a breathalyzer.
The investigation is still ongoing, and early reports said his BAC was 0.227, which could result in major fine or several years in prison. But it's unclear the sourcing of this now as police press have said the details are still not release, and the JTBC video has led to a lot of confusion about what's actually factual in this case. There's also uncertainty around the type of vehicle, and any fines or sentences will depend on how the police classified his scooter given it's capabilities.
JTBC issued an apology on August 16th for sharing the wrong video, and has since been referencing the new video in subsequent reporting.
There's a lot to talk about, ranging from the discussion about how serious DUIs are seen in South Korea, and perhaps should be everywhere, 0r if scooters should be regulated the same way as cars under DUIs*, or if it's really fans or antis of BTS calling for his withdrawal.
But I want to talk about something else: how does the media get it so wrong? Isn't the point of it to fact-check everything? How is the average person supposed to trust any reporting?
I imagine that someone, or several someones, is getting fired, and JTBC may very well have a lawsuit, or several, on their hands as defamation laws in Korea are very strict. The Korea Communications Standards Commission is investigating JTBC for the reporting failure and spreading misinformation. This follows an investigation earlier this year into JTBC spreading false news about Bigbang's G-Dragon, raising several concerns about JTBC's standards.
But those ramifications and the consequential fallout of upset over the original video, and the lack of trust in the media that the JTBC failure has fueled, aren't necessarily the biggest issue, but it's how did it happen.
I hate to say it, but it's because even though people like to blame "the media," the people that make up "the media" are human, and humans often F up in a big, sometimes dangerous, way.
I posted on Threads shortly after the news of the false video became apparent, and pointed to the journalistic failure of this all. I referenced how journalism is currently, around the world, failing in fact-checking, likely due to diminished budgets, staffing, and, most importantly, the push to always be the fastest. For example, just within the past two weeks major American outlets like Bloomberg and Complex have fired writers for publishing materials inaccurately or unethically. Fact-checking budgets are nonexistent in most newsrooms nowadays. Even where they do have on-staff fact-checking, the push to publish is almost always more important.
Journalism is suffering around the world, with diminished resources and diminishing trust. The push to be first to air or publication for breaking news has never been worse.
I imagine that JTBC reached out to a source in the police or the security company that manages the CCTV of that neighborhood's buildings, acquired the video, and didn't question the veracity. At the time, I remember thinking, "wow, that was really fast" and questioning how they knew it was him because I honestly couldn't tell. But because I am aware of JTBC's reputation, I trusted their news show. And I trusted the system of the newsroom, because I myself had been part of a newsroom several times in my career and I know how serious it is to get things wrong, especially for on-air content.
Working primarily in digital media for my entire career, corrections and updates are more or less the norm. They're certainly not ideal, but it's rare to meet a journalist operating in digital spaces that hasn't had to make corrections or updates to pieces post-publication.
Heaven only knows that I've made plenty of mistakes, either due to lack of nuance, editing errors, lack of time to research a story, or simply - and I'd say mostly- rushing to publish something. I've always tried to apologize in the most serious of cases, and updated all instances when I could, oftentimes fighting with editors and even losing relationships to ensure that a post-publish update is made. It's the worst feeling to get things wrong, and I'm still haunted by every instance where I've messed up and made a mistake. And I feel that way as a single person putting out the news I report, with very little fact-checking going on in most entertainment outlets nowadays.
But broadcast isn't digital. Broadcast isn't made to be seen on social media and abandoned a few seconds later; broadcast is meant to be engaged with visually, audibly for at least a few minutes if not an entire half hour or hour block of time. My first job out of college was in one of the main NYC newsrooms. Corrections on-air were far and few, because they just aren't allowed to happen. To avoid that, so many people are typically involved in making news. If the assignment desk editor gets the initial news, it's up to a reporter and/or a producer to confirm the details before things go to air. There is a whole process.
And even with that, the people who make the news are only human, and mistakes happen. That's why every single news org in existence has some standards to issuing corrections.
But the reason this video feels like a phenomenal error for JTBC is the scope of it: mistakes don't typically happen with nightly news getting content from sources like police, especially not about public figures. A video can't be edited and updated; a broadcast has only one first live moment. You do not go to air with content you aren't sure about. For JTBC to have published this video, they must have really wanted the scoop and trusted that they had the right video. (To be clear, it was a video of that street on that night; it was just the wrong person.)
I've never worked at a Korean newsroom, but I did work in major New York and Hong Kong newsrooms, and the layers of reporting for newsrooms I don't imagine change that much. When something big goes out as an exclusive and it's wrong, it's just a momentary oopsie. It's a major failing.
I don't believe that it's a conspiracy to bring down BTS or that JTBC was paid off by someone or some company to defame Suga, as I've seen some mention. I also don't think it was a way to cover up the recent scandal around the death of an anti-corruption official who had investigated South Korea's First Lady, another popular conspiracy even though that is still major news in Korea even if it didn't feel that way in fandom spaces. I think people at JTBC rushed, trusted their process, wanted their sourcing to be correct, and their process was wrong.
Being wrong has ramifications, and the damage is truly done. I don't know how this genie is put back in the bottle on this case, or if that were ever possible but it does feel like JTBC's initial reporting fuelled a lot of the furor. I don't know imagine fans will be anymore trusting to the media over this. And ultimately, hopefully, the next big break in this story is from the police investigation and Suga's cooperation with it, and once those facts are out we will all have some clarity.
Further reading for those interested:
Jae-Ha Kim wrote a piece about how media reporting and South Korean shame culture sacrifices celebrities on its pyre, in this case Suga.
The Seoul Law Group has a handy explainer re BAC and DUI's in Korea.
The Joongang Daily have a piece about e-scooter regulation given that South Korea witnessed "Injuries and fatalities similarly spiked, from 238 injuries and four deaths in 2018 to 2,622 injuries and 24 deaths last year."
Parker Molloy wrote a piece about failing trust in traditional news media. It's related to the upcoming US election but I feel relevant here too.
P.S. This piece was originally going to be a very different one called "When fandom binaries fall apart" but then the JTBC issue broke and I revisited. That'll be a story for another time, I guess.
P.P.S. I hit publish and then realized I wanted to add the further reading links, but had to run an errand before the post office closed. I came home, tweaked some things, and published again. So just a head's up that some people's email versions may be slightly different.
P.P.P.S *I wrote this over the weekend, so if any news came out since then I've tried to update it but apologize if I missed anything.
In the news
-Hybe, SM, YG, and JYP released their mid-year/Q2 financial reports and plans for second half of 2025. r/kpop reacts to the mid-year reporting of SM, Hybe, JYP, and YG Ent.
-In Hybe's press release about that report, the company announced that Jin of BTS would release a solo album this year, and that NewJeans are planning a world tour for 2025.
- BLACKPINK reunited for their 8th year anniversary event.
-The Big 4 K-pop companies were all fined by the KFTC for their purchase policies taking advantage of consumers.
-Bang Si-hyuk, Hybe chairman, was seen in LA with a video streamer and her sister. The initial news resulted in Hybe stock dipping.
-The Black Label, a YG subsidiary, announced new girl group MEOVV.
-SM and Simon Cowell's "Made in Korea" BBC show featuring K-pop-trained British boy band Dear Alice launched. If anyone wants to share their BBC account with me, please hit you girl up.
-Waterbomb LA is apparently actually happening, with the first artists announced including ATEEZ, Kwon Eunbi, and Gray. I guess I'll be spending by birthday in LA?
What I'm reading
The Future Sounds Like Ateez by Michelle Hyun Kim is what a K-pop feature-length profile should look and sound like.
Should All K-pop Members Be Forced to Participate in Interviews? Jae-Ha Kim wonders after a recent viral situation revolving around a ZB1 interview. Having gone through this several times, most recently with my Enhypen interview earlier this year, I personally don't think the onus is on interviewers here and fans need to learn that not all people writing about their faves are bitchy, vile antis but rather sometimes in a group meeting, which is essentially what interviews are, not everyone talks.
I do believe it's actually in the artists' best interests to talk since it's a chance for them to promote themselves, but I've been in interviews where members are clearly exhausted, or sick, or just in a mood, and I don't think that any interviewee should be forcing people to respond. I do personally try to do at least one round-robin question per group interview so everyone has a chance to speak, but usually they're not super serious questions and more a way to make the group comfortable. For my Enhypen interview, my editor didn't even like it so removed it from the final draft, which sucked but I was able to share it on IG as an extra.
K-pop wealth gap widens: Big agencies boom, small ones struggle- A bit old, but I was trying to go through some of my hundreds of open tabs. This story's a bit weird because it implies Min Hee-jin's ADOR is an independent small company rather than a subsidiary of Hybe, but the general idea is something on my mind lately.
What I'm listening to
A bit of everything, but nothing that's making my heart sing on the music side of things atm. Send me recommendations in the comments, please!
I did listen to two very different podcasts recently about K-pop, and think there's a lot to be sad about K-pop convos on various podcasts.
What I'm watching
I watched Shogun last week and it was excellent. I just began My Mister today after many years of not watching it, and I'm very intrigued.
