This iReport is part of an assignment:
South Korea beef protests
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Posted June 14, 2008
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Location
Seoul, South Korea
Seoul, South Korea
Assignment
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Mad Cow Terrorism and Conspiracy Theory
Mad Cow Terrorism and Conspiracy Theory The following link will take you to the source of the original Korean editorial about the MBC news program "PD Note." http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2008/05/20/2008052001536.html In the original editorial, there is no mention about Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, which all Koreans by now know is not the human form of the mad cow disease, or vCJD. But in this English edition of the same article, the full text of which is shown next, it keeps on saying CJD, making the editorial itself looking stupid, making no sense. This is how all foreign correspondents have been cheated, and made to believe that MBC is not to blame. I'm stunned at how little is written in English about MBC and its total lies and intentional inflation of fear. There is a big conspiracy going on everywhere. Somebody needs to intervene! Remember how the anti-US beef protesters were claiming that eating American beef will kill all Koreans at the initial stage? Then the anti-government groups started to claim that it was all President Lee's fault, successfully turning the frightened protesters into angry anti-government protesters. Then came anti-US groups, which I will elaborate later, who started to claim "Why is the US government pushing so hard to sell American mad cows to Korea? This is a life-and-death problem for us, but the US government is insisting that they have to dump garbage beef at us." This is scary. If this does not frighten you, I don't know what does. I will start to advertise my series of iReport articles soon, so that people can see the whole picture more clearly. I don't have enough supporting evidence yet, but when I have, I will. I ask CNN editors to check into this issue as well. ....................................... MBC Needs to Acknowledge Its Mistakes (http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200805/200805210025.html) The MBC news program "PD Diary", which broadcast the report on mad cow disease showing a staggering cow being dragged into a slaughterhouse and an American woman in her 20s said to have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- the human form of the bovine disease -- has been ordered by the Press Arbitration Commission to air a statement saying the two key points made by the program are untrue. The report spread fear among the Korean public that consuming American beef causes CJD and triggered nationwide protests against imports of U.S. beef. The commission said it is no evidence of mad cow disease if cattle stagger, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the interim finding that the woman did not die from CJD. "PD Diary", which aired on April 29, consolidated the belief among Koreans both young and old that U.S. beef equals mad cow disease by showing horrific images and featuring shocking incidents for 10 straight minutes. The images broadcast by the program were fresh in the minds of people across the country who came out into the streets to take part in candlelight vigils. Now it turns out that the main points made by "PD Diary" were false. The unscientific nature of "PD Diary" became a controversial topic immediately after the program was aired. Staggering and falling down, also known as "downer cow" symptoms, are not the main symptoms of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The symptoms can come from problems with metabolism, fractures, and weakness due to disease. But "PD Diary" inserted the caption "BSE-infected cow" as it showed a downer cow. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the woman's death and interim findings showed the cause was not CJD, but "PD Diary" insisted it was the fatal human variant of mad cow disease that killed her. Another key claim made by the program was that Koreans were genetically more susceptible to CJD. But the scientist who conducted research on that subject denied that claim, saying it was difficult to state that a particular gene makes a person more prone to contracting CJD. After it was cited numerous times for inaccuracy and was referred to the Press Arbitration Commission, "PD Diary" on May 13 belatedly and grudgingly acknowledged at the end of a follow-up program on U.S. beef that all downer cows were not infected with mad cow disease and aired the U.S. Agriculture Department's announcement regarding the cause of the woman's death. It's as if MBC had virtually set the entire country on fire and was trying to hide the matches. Yet the network is refusing to abide by the decision of the commission, saying it had already aired the clarifications. MBC must learn the basics of common sense -- to be able to acknowledge what it needs to and to know how to apologize for its mistakes.
- TAGS:
- seoul,
- south_korea,
- beef,
- protest
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