Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
In my article on the latest Kim Hyun Joong news, I aimed to cut through the horseshit as much as possible, which is why my headline and content was much different than what Koreaboo wrote. Granted, I understand why Koreaboo did it, because their title and content is much more bombastic and got much more clicks thanks to it.
Unfortunately for them, Lizzie Parker of Beyond Hallyu took them to task on what they specifically did wrong and how it could open them up to legal action.
As part of their ongoing legal battle, Kim Hyun-joong’s ex-girlfriend is set to stand trial in March accused of manipulating evidence and defaming Kim Hyun-joong. Yesterday, before she was actually charged, Korean news outlet OSEN published an “exclusive” leaked report detailing the prosecutor’s evidence and what she was due to be charged with. There could be arguments over whether it is responsible to report on this kind of information before the charges have actually been made but what was definitely irresponsible was the way Koreaboo misleadingly and inaccurately translated the report.
Slight mistranslations of what someone said in an interview with a fashion magazine or an instagram post can be annoying and misleading but publishing inaccurate reports relating to serious crimes like fraud and domestic violence has consequences. It can make a potentially innocent (note potentially – it hasn’t been decided) person look guilty and seriously muddies the waters on important issues. A lot of K-pop fans are young and understandably don’t have a full understanding of how the legal system works (hell, a lot of adults don’t either – especially the legal system of another country) and this particular case touches on a issues that will affect a significant number of them in some way in their lives. If Koreaboo wants to get a 15-year-old intern to translate idols’ social media posts about what they had for lunch today, that’s one thing, but if they are going to report on real news about serious and sensitive crime cases, they need to do so with the responsibility of a real news organisation. Or one day, they might find themselves in trouble.
Read the whole thing here because quoting the start and end doesn’t quite sum it up.
Again, as I said yesterday, the actual content of the source article is less controversial and dramatic than how Koreaboo interpreted it.
The source article is a lot less dramatic than Koreaboo’s interpretation of it. Put it that way.
Lizzie goes a step or five further and explains how it’s actually libelous and they’re probably lucky they’re based in another country and the party being libeled has more significant things to worry about. Given that immediately after the Koreaboo article was released you had people thinking the baby that was actually born was somehow fake, it’s not hard to see her point.
