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New York, 9:14 AM
Thu Nov 26
45 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/13/09
11/11/09
11/11/09
11/11/09
10/13/09
10/12/09
09/03/09
Laura Ling looks like she swallowed something bitter. Japanese plums?
The VICE crew went to the PRNK one year before, *with* permission and NK handlers, and were almost jailed for taking movies there. Google 'The Vice Guide to North Korea' and watch.
Oh, and even with permission and being guys they were scared shitless.
It's not like Current & Vice don't talk. The girls knew *exactly* what they were up against.
Where were the Chinese soldiers? On their side of no man's land. The 'girls' were still on Korean soil.
What point of view? The Current clubkids were trying to one up the Vice clubkids, using the PRNK as a prop.
Every time I see one of these clubkids go to a REALLY BAD SPOT in the world and then go 'Ima scared' into the camera I just roll my eyes.
09/02/09
I also don't see the problem with Lisa Ling using every single person in her Rolodex to get her sister out of that crime syndicate of a country. It's her sister. Flesh and blood. You wouldn't have done the same? You would have had enough moral rage to declare that she did the crime and she shall do the time, and just leave her there to die?
What about the Iranian-American female journalist that was jailed in Iran for vague reasons? She lived and worked in Iran knowing full well the Iranian government has a hard-on for journalists and media types, and will incarcerate them any chance they get. Isn't that sort of asking for it as well?
When these ladies were still incarcerated in North Korea, the majority of the comments here were supportive of their release. All of a sudden now they're back on American soil, they have become ungrateful ingrates for trying to tell their stories? People begrudge them for trying to get a book deal or TV movie deal? Would you like to sit in solitary confinement in North Korea for a while with an uncertain future in exchange for possible book deal?
09/02/09
09/02/09
As for the harshness of their solitary confinement, it has been reported by "Han Park, an American academic who was visiting North Korea at the time, [that] they were housed in a guest villa designed for foreign visitors outside the capital of Pyongyang. Professor Park said that Korean officials laughed at any suggestion that the women were receiving harsh treatment. ‘We are not Guantanamo,’ he was told."
Again, it seems that Ling and Lee mishandled themselves, putting themselves, their handlers, and perhaps even the Korean underground railroad and its beneficiaries at risk.
09/02/09
09/02/09
It will be interesting to see how the several arguments weaving through Gawker and Jezebel reconcile, if ever. (Man, I'm getting whiplash trying to keep up.) Were Ling and Lee dedicated journalists who took a calculated risk? Were they naive fameballs who stumbled into making themselves the story? Were they innocents manipulated into danger by their negligent bosses?
I seem to be stuck on simply expecting Ling and Lee to accept the consequences of their judgment and actions, and even to accept that in all ways they got off much better than the true victims of the story they went (or went sent) to get: The citizens of North Korea.
09/02/09
09/02/09
Here's another thing: I read that Euna Lee was born in South Korea and then moved to California as a university student. If that is true, how could she have grown up in the ROK and not known (and prepared better for) the dangers that she faced by merely being within sight of the PRNK border?
Again, I don't know how the National Geographic's guys pulled this off without making themselves the story. Seriously, read their article and look at thier photos. Were they not in the midst of it all? I believe it had to be professionalism and good planning that accounted for their success (and lack of capture), not luck.
09/03/09
But equating what the clubkids *did* and their current [no pun intended] attitude *now*, all that's going to do is piss off elements in the PRNK to think they were punked by the Americans. Again.
They're coming off as ungrateful ingrates because they're not as 'really really really sorry that they did anything wrong' as they were before their release.
There's nothing wrong with getting a book deal or a movie [that will never be seen in the PRNK].
There *is* with going to the world press and saying 'Nuh-uh, we had backsies' (and that apology, you can shove it).
Dear clubkids. The fearless leader has a TV. He probably gets current now. And now the fugitive crossing issue is up on his radar.
09/02/09
In the meantime, I am going to keep beating the drum for the journalists over at National Geographic who successfully covered this story in depth without getting captured or putting the underground railroad there at jeopardy.
09/02/09
I'm only angry cause a lot of people helping North Koreans were compromised in the process and these women show no remorse.
09/02/09
Also,here's a protip: You can't call backsies by running back over the border once you've crossed it. Violating another country's border doesn't work like that.
The tl;dr of this whole story is: Two stupid reporters do something stupid, don't want to admit it, beg for sympathy.
09/02/09
09/03/09
08/07/09
08/07/09
USSR: TASS
Yugoslavia: TANJUG
Poland: PAP
Romania: AGERPRES
08/05/09
Cuz getting fired for speaking up would be a bummer.
08/05/09
08/06/09
08/05/09
What I'm told is that Laura Ling has done a lot of these kinds of dangerous reporting stunts (Lisa Ling has also done her share of this). She is known around Current for taking uneccesary risks in her reportage. Euna Lee was enlisted, even though she was an editor with no field experience, because she speaks Korean. The general feeling among the troops at Current is that Laura took a chance that they wouldn't get caught and dragged Euna along with her.
As I say, that's what I heard, take it as gossip, do with it what you will. What is definitely true is that everyone at Current is tremendously relieved that they're free now.
08/05/09
I wonder if Euna Lee is going to sue the Current execs who signed off on this stunt.
08/05/09
Don't pay the ferry man-
Don't even fix a price.
Don't pay the ferry man-
Until he gets you to the other side.