The image below made me think of a good example that shows how the media works things.



When the 2002 tank accident (where 2 middle school girls were crushed on the road as a column of armored vehicles were going to a training range) happened, the World Cup soccer games were still going on in Korea, with all those thousands of foreigners and especially the foreign press, so the news coverage of the tragic road accident was sparse.

MBC did take the time to falsely report some Korean soldiers along for the exercise got in a fist fight with the 2 soldiers in control of the tank that hit the girls - because those 2 were laughing and joking about it.

That was a myth with legs in 2002 and beyond.

(Later, MBC brought on a former Korean tank driver who explained, using graphic images of the crushed bodies, how the only way the injuries could have been made like they were was if there were one US soldier standing on the ground directing the driver how to run the girls over. It was reporting like this and just loose language and tone that had Korean society as a whole saying the soldiers killed the girls on purpose.)

But, after the first days coverage, the media turtled, because they already knew anti-US demonstrations would happen near the soccer events with the American team by the radicals and this could gain international press coverage.

There was not another story about the event for 2 weeks, which came while the Cup was still in Korea, but this was about a base protest (over the accident).

What caught the attention of the media (and more) for a few days before silence until the WC left Korea (along with the foreign journalists) was the story related to this image below --



Which was connected to this image too



The poor man above was a "reporter" for one of the growing number of "internet journalism" sites -- probably www.voiceofpeople.org.

They helped cut a hole in the fence while the hundreds of students and others protested nearby at the gate --- throwing slabs of sidewalk and concrete over the fence - injurying 9 soldiers --- then when the hole was finished, a dozen or so charged through it and clashed with US MPs and others there for riot control just incase something like that happened.

The Korean media still wasn't playing up the crushed bodies of the dead girls and homicide and criminal GIs needing to go to Korean court yet ---

----but for a few days --- they went for in-depth coverage of ---

the horrible human rights and free speech violations done by USFK by mistreating the 2 poor reporters.....

The flexicuffs, used by riot control units in Korea and the US and beyond, were termed "wire" and the effort to subdue the invaders who ran headlong into the riot duty people was deemed abuse.

The quasi-governmental Human Rights Commission ---- the one who hasn't been able to do much to condemn North Korea ----- demanded to interview the US MPs, and when USFK refused, the ordered a non-binding fine ----- and the Korean media talked about what a grave injustice was being done.

Now, I could be wrong ---- but I'll give good odds on this to any takers ---

The Korean media will have a VERY different view of the riot in Pyongtaek and the use of flexicuffs there.

They will condemn the radical groups.

They will no condemn the riot police.

They will certainly not hold hearings and order a trial for the riot policemen, soldiers, or their officers who used flexicuffs or ordered their use.