The media in Korea plays a key part in the anti-US process in Korea.

I am torn in a chicken or the egg conundrum with it: Does it guide the people or reflect their will?

It does both, but which has the upper hand?
I doubt Koreans even know, and it really doesn't matter.

The Korean press is a free press in a democratic society, and as such, it does cater to the audience (the news consumer market). I also believe Koreans are more in touch with the news media than American society. I think they pay more attention to newspapers and the nightly news more than I have seen in the States.

In my adult classes, I could usually tell what was in the Korean news by what class after class wanted to talk about --- often (at least once every two weeks if not every week) it was something bad connected to the US-SK relationship.

That is why I consider a 2nd type of anti-American spike in Korea to be what I call "office water cooler talk" --- a period of a few weeks where the media and/or pop culture and/or some event strikes a nerve in Korean society, and everybody across the land is talking (again) about how bad the US has been for Korean society.

Most people only look at the street demonstrations and count heads or guage the violence to decide how anti-US Korean society has become.

That is a dead wrong way to look at it.

Anyway, the main point of this post was actually a positive note if you are in favor of USFK in Korea having as un-rocky a road this year as possible:

The Korean media was out in front of the protests at Pyongtaek warning them to stay quiet.

They only do this in basically 2 situations: 1) Things have gotten so out of control already, 60 Minutes is doing stories about it and/or someone powerful in the US government like Hillary Clinton or Donald Rumsfeld starts talking about anti-US activity in Korea and troop downsizing

or

2) The media foresees an easy potential for such an outcome and tries to cut it off before it can get out of control.

If you were in Korea from late 2001 to the summer of 2002, you would have seen this even if you were blind.

The Afghanistan War, heightened US power after 9/11, the F-15K / FX Fighter Project, the US Embassy, Bush calling North Korea an "Axis of Evil", the Apolo Ohno Scandal and all the other usual stuff, were being paraded in the street in a string of anti-Americanism rivaling 2000 in its length and heat.

But, the World Cup, long in preparation, was set to arrive, along with tons of foreigners, and especially foreign reporters, so the same Korean media that had been helping to drum the masses into the street over things like Korea deciding to buy the latest version of the F-15 over a French company's plane --- put out the "Shut the F- up!!" message ---- and all that activity died overnight.

If you watched later in the year, after the first tidal wave of anger over the tank accident reached a peak --- when 3 US soldiers were mobbed in the subway - one held captive and forced to participate in a huge anti-USFK rally -- and then after the NY Times and LA Times wrote a story about the beating of the 3 soldiers (whoppie!! 2 stories!! Thanks US press!!!) ---- the Korean media suddenly turned from demanding those soldiers be put on trial for hitting the anti-US leader who started the fight --- to telling everybody to shut up --- which they did overnight.

Then as the society saw the US media and government were not going to press forward with anything about the humilation and attack on the one soldier -------- the heat built up again over the tank accident until hundreds of thousands of people were marching in the street every weekend.

With the Korean media cheering them on ---- with the usual means --

--not reporting what USFK had done or said in regards to the accident -- they never mentioned the monetary settlement the US, ROK, and families arrived about a month after the accident, nor that the large monument build on the accident site was done with USFK donations, nor that the officers of the base met the families the day of the accident, nor that USFK held the first candlelight vigil (the first for months) 7 days after the accident complete with VIPs from both governments and a helicopter tribute ----- instead the media kept repeating that USFk did not accept responsibility and did not apologize for a couple of months and then only because of how much Korea was raging.

Gee........This started out to be a positive post about the Korean media --- and look what I've done.........

But......that is the point.....

If you read articles like this and note the message coming from the government --- you would think the Korean media and government is conservative and pro-US / USFK.

Which is wrong.

They are pro-Korean, as they should be. And they are nationalistic.

And if they believe what is good for the nation at this particular moment is mobilizing the society to put pressure on the anti-US groups to weaken their effort in Pyongtaek so the base consolidation goes as smoothly as possible and USFK doesn't become more unhappy in Korea and think more about leaving....

...that is exactly what they will do ------------- and Korean society as a whole will listen.

And people who don't really want to think about or understand anti-Americanism in Korea will have something to point to to say, "See. Most Koreans don't want US troops to leave. It's just the vocal minority."

Blah blah bla f-ing blah.

I get irritated hearing it, because it is what people who should know better have been saying for decades.

If you put a time like this together with a time like 2002 or 2000 or just any regular month to month in Korea ---- if you look at the periods in which South Korean society isn't worried about its image abroad when the foreign media is watching or isn't worried about US government talk of troop cuts ----

----the norm in Korean society is the media, often parts of the government, universities, now lower education with the power of the Korea Teacher's Union, elements of pop culture, and so on ---- keeping the ill-will toward the US position in Korea at minimum always on the back of everyone's mind --- more frequently at the forefront of the society's thinking.

For example --- the amount of stories on the environment and how the stories are done play the usual part.

I believe I wrote about this already ----

It is natural for the conditions of the bases closing down to be a news item.

It would also be natural for the reporters and producers to talk to the USFK people or even some in the Korean government.

But, the stories I'm finding right now are like the usual --- if they talk to any party ---- it is usually some member of an anti-US /USFK group or some professor connected to such a group.

That is the voice they let dominate the topic.

In such an environment, it is only natural for anti-US base thought to creep into the Pyongtaek expansion - especially since a good number of these segments I'm finding focus on the base there.

Which is a good insight into how this works ---

at the same time you have the Korean media (and government) overtly telling the Korean people to put a tight lid on anti-Americanism around Pyongtaek and other bases and to put pressure on the anti-US groups ---

you still have much of the other elements that generate anti-Americanism opperating - never letting Koreans forget what USFK and the US relationship is really all about ---

A necessary evil.

The Korean media taking these brief opportunities to tell Koreans to cover up the normal anti-US activity is just them saying "necessary".

They'll get back to the evil part soon enough.