They shouldn't get to keep any money from this--it should go to pay back all the resources used to extricate them from their own stupidity, and then the rest should be divided amongst all of us who had to listen to all the BS about them and by them while waiting for the weather report or some other far more important bit of news. They should also have to go do some anonymous community service while meditating on their unsuitability as "reporters." #eunalee
@Novaload: No kidding. For months, they denied crossing the border. When they were freed, they used euphemisms like "touched the border". You can't be a little bit pregnant. You broke the law. Live with it. #eunalee
@Novaload: And what were the people these lovely ladies were 'reporting" on going to do when the story ran?
I'm sure Harriet Tubman would have loved to read media accounts of her railroad while she was still shuttling people through it... #eunalee
@OldSpinDoc: Indeed. The local 'contacts' were reportedly begging them not to go further toward the border; and their translator and others said the Korean equivalent of Sod it! and vanished--all concerned for their safety after the Clueless Chicks 15 minutes were over. The Clueless Chicks were not, of course, concerned about them. #eunalee
It was strange during their imprisonment how they would flash her picture on the news and it's always that weird myspace-y picture. I mean, couldn't the family provide a more normal picture? #eunalee
because you are not as interesting as your circumstances, no matter what Oprah says.
PREACH!!! PREACH IT!!
I think this simple truth is at the very core of why Gawker exists: Because some people take themselves way too seriously (ie: famous for doing nothing) which make them ripe for the snarking.
Dudes, doesn't the Lings realize that there's a HUGE fascination regarding what the hell is going on behind borders in North Korea. (Hell, wasn't that why they were there to begin with?) Why do I care about the beauty of Ling Sisterhood(tm) when i could get a firsthand account of Dear Leader battshittery with bonus Clinton on Air Fuck One action? #eunalee
@rudi_freude:
While a variation on the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" (The Ling-Ling Sisterhood) could be mistaken for a film about Dick Nixon's relationship to a couple of pandas.
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.
I wish some of you guys would step off your high and mighty soap boxes and try to see this from their point of view. Their action may be stupid or reckless, but the fact of the matter is the punishment outweighs the crime. Everyone here can claim you would never put yourself in that situation. Maybe you will, maybe you won't but you were not there and you didn't experience it.
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?
@Paul.B.Dodd: Indeed, there are male and female journalists who put themselves at risk while reporting, but the disapproving comments I have seen mostly address the perception of amateurism and privilege in the Ling-Lee affair, and amateurism and privilege are fair game in the Gawker world.
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.
@The Lone Scout: Whether or not they were ever in danger of hard labor is really easy for neutral outsiders to conjecture at this point. Hindsight is 20/20. When you're actually in that situation, even sitting in a guest house, 5000 miles away from home, how many of us has the fortitude to say, fuck it I'm going to get out of here sooner or later? I'm just going to enjoy this guest house. They broke the law but where is some decency and empathy? Do they just dissipate into thin air the minute they returned home?
@Paul.B.Dodd: Certainly, I would not want to be in their position, even if they were accommodated most comfortably, as claimed by an American visitor, in an official guest residence and allowed to communicate with their families, unlike other victims of the PRNK.
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.
@The Lone Scout: It's possible their guide sold them out... even so, as @Paul.B.Dodd said, they broke the law. When you break the law, you get punished. And when you're dealing with a country as volatile as North Korea, you have to be extra careful not to break the law, particularly when it's unnecessarily.
@Experiment626: Yes, possibly their guide literally sold them out, or chickened out, or merely came to his senses. Paul.B.Dodd did agree with me that they broke the law, but I can't muster the same level of sympathy that he does, because I agree with your point: Don't visit the frontier of authoritarian regimes unless you are prepared to bear the consequences.
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.
@Paul.B.Dodd: I'm not going to fault older sis for doing what she did and how she did it. As an old Asia hand, I can tell you they did EXACTLY the right thing.
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.
Andrew, what's up with the new trend of narrowcasting at Gawker? I noticed separate postings for this topic (and, yesterday, SJP's filming of an SATC movie in Gotham) at the Gawker empire. I always thought it was more fun to get the Gawkers and Jezzies together in one big tent on subjects like this one.
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.
I'm calling bull on their description of events. The river in question clearly delineates the border between China and North Korea so they knew perfectly well they were crossing into North Korea and probably wanted film footage from North Korea to add some flair to their story.
I'm only angry cause a lot of people helping North Koreans were compromised in the process and these women show no remorse.
@Big Poppa: I'm with you there.
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.
@Big Poppa: Notice how their version ignores the execs at Current who agreed to the story? And Euna Lee's strong faith, coupled with her Korean language skills, is why she decided to venture out of the edit bay. This version didn't clear up much.
Thing is? Well before Ling and Lee were arrested, National Geographic did a lengthy article with interviews, of North Korean refugees. All told in well written prose and accompanied by photographs and extensive maps and graphs.
So, this story was out there. Just this year. And it seems that they were able to do their work without getting operations shut down.
So perhaps, gonzo journalism didn't work all that well if they have undone years of work and put existing organizations and refugees families at risk. (The NGS story clearly indicates that often families are moved one at a time.)
There's some truth to that. In the late 90s some Italian Zapatourists decided it was a good idea to chase off a Televisa news crew that had landed a chopper near a Mayan village in Chiapas that had claimed autonomy. The Italian hippies decided that they would chase the news team out of the area.
Televisa ran the footage of these foreigners telling Mexicans to get out of a Mexican town. The following week the Interior Secretariat cracked down on activists doing activist things on tourist visas.
The actions ended up shutting down some of the work of genuine charity organizations who were buildings schools down there (because they too were in the country only on tourist visas, which in many cases is the only way it can be done).
The moral lesson is, of course, hippies are fucking stupid and worthless.
On viewing the abysmally disgusting thread, I have to ask - what the fuck myths do Americans have left about themselves? When the fuck did Americans stop embracing people who did interesting things, who maybe followed careers out of principle? Who maybe did things that were inspiring, risky, dangerous, amazing. Americans with the eyes of gamblers and a certain noble spirit tinged with cynicism. What the fuck happened to all of you?
When did you all become a pack of self-hating, miserable, vengeful freaks who don't merely resign themselves to leaving these poor women out there in torturous conditions, but actually seem to DEMAND it.
What the hell happened to all of you? When did you get that beaten down? Is it Bush? Iraq? Is Obama's platform of integrity and principle just the last gasp of a shriveled American lung sack?
EDIT: I'm going to say this to all of you in the hope of inspiring someone, of finding someone with spirit and passion out there in this anonymous thread of disgusting miasma. Fuck you America if you're going to turn on these women. Fuck you.
@Pope John Peeps II: A journalist's job is to observe and report with accuracy and impartiality -- not become the story through ignorance or a because she was in the mood to gamble with her own life, and the lives of her crew.
As for your "F-you" rant: excellent way to win an argument!
@The_Lovely_Miss_Bronx: "report with accuracy"... wouldn't venturing into north korea make their report more accurate? just wondering how these ladies should have researched their story so that it measured up to your standards for good reporting... also, i had to chuckle at the thought of reporters being "impartial"...
@The_Lovely_Miss_Bronx: A journalist's job is to report on what they consider a story, whether it's dangerous or not. That's what people call "courage", or "bravery". Unless you somehow believe that these women purposefully went out there to get captured and sentenced to hard labour.
What the fuck exactly is a journalist if they don't gamble? They're PR professionals. If you flinch from something because you're scared of your job, or scared for your life, you won't get a story that people might "need" to hear. My point is exactly what you're saying: when did Americans lose the myth of themselves as truth-tellers and upholders of freedom and liberty?
And clearly the F-you isn't an argument, but rather a rhetorical device. Since I specifically stated that, I'm not sure where you're coming from.
These aren't "brave" women. They're fools who trifled with one of the world's most totalitarian regimes by entering the country illegally.
Why do they do it? Out of some sense of moral rectitude? Please. That's the last great myth of journalism, that it's some sort of social tool. America has watched generations of self-indulgent pedants use their "brave" reporting to land cushy gigs and big salaries to no end but their own. Our media has become a vehicle for wealthy, ego-mad hacks who look back on events like slipping into Korea as their big chance.
I can't wait for the book deal, by the way. I'm sure the cash is going toward more "bravery."
@Pope John Peeps II: I simply don’t understand how crossing the border – by what? A few yards? -- somehow made their report more accurate or informative, unless the point of the story was that foreigners get arrested when they violate this wacko’s laws. As far as I’m concerned, it added nothing to the story. Of course, I’m glad that those women didn’t come to any lasting harm, and I’m very glad that they’re free and back home – I would feel that way about anybody. I just question their judgement.
Should journalists take risks? Of course. But they need to be carefully considered risks. It’s not the best analogy, perhaps, but what if these women were investigating a dangerous drug cartel – should they just blunder into a no-go area after a warning, just to see what would happen? That’s the job of highly-trained undercover law enforcement personnel, in my opinion. Journalists need to ask tough questions, shine a spotlight onto sleazy, dangerous or illegal activities. I just don’t think they should be the story – their job is to inspire the crusaders, not to be the crusaders themselves. And, to address one of the other commenters, perhaps I’m naïve, but I think most journalists – save the shouting-head assholes who populate both left-and right-wing cable channels – do strive to report acurrately, and without bias. They may not (do not!) always succeed, but I think it’s the goal.
And finally, Pope JPII – you’re right – on rereading, I realize you did flag the "f-you" part as a rhetorical device. In my case, it worked – it certainly made me comment.
@Pope John Peeps II: OK, based on this you're so not a journalist. As someone who has never made any $ in her professional life save from journalism, lemme, if I may, climb upon the soap box and explain some basic techniques to you: Blatant antagonism is not how you obtain killer scoops. Rather, you cultivate sources outside of the official perimeter and coax them into spilling info to you. Your duty is to protect these sources as well as lure them in with civility and a friendly attitude.
These two ladies (and frankly, I should exempt Euna Lee from this--she was a mere desk copy editor and not a field reporter, and only recruited for this jaunt because of her language skills, she's Korean American and can speak Korean, unlike Laura Ling) were out for capturing TV DRAMA in action! They willingly trespassed the North Korean border in search of scoop, and oops--they got caught. Nobody can convince me otherwise. Let me repeat: They willingly WENT there, and they got caught. Reckless behavior. Stupid behavior. I feel for their subsequent plight, because they are someone's daughters, but if I were their editor I would slap them across the head.
You can report this kind of story on North Korea in vivid, harrowing detail without exposing yourself like they did. In fact, the New Yorker ran a magnificent story on North Korean migration back in 2006--can't even locate the proper URL for it, I'm too miffed right now--and no source, or reporter was harmed in the process.
@snugbug: Euna Lee is a video editor, not a copy desk editor. She had no field experience, and was chosen for her language skills. Current claims she was eager to go, but who knows?
@snugbug: Ah, the penny dropped for me when you mentioned that Lee's normal assignment is/was copy editing. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if she saw this as a chance to get off the desk and make her name.
Not that there's anything wrong with the copy desk; in fact, I'd rather have one good copy editor than a room full of reporters who can't write a lick.
For you, snugbug, I'm going to break my policy and become someone's follower.
@Pope John Peeps II: Please, go read One Free Korea [freekorea.us] Stanton makes a very compelling case against what these women were doing. And even if you still disagree, please please please read this [freekorea.us]
@Lulupasternak: Fine, "video editor." If true, video editor Lee was even farther removed from the actual craft of journalisism than a boring ol'-school copy editor. LOL @ thanks for shoring up my point. xoxo
@Lulupasternak: I believe that most television stations and networks put their stories up on the web as text, and in doing so without the benefit of copyediting, they reinforce the image of TV news as information for illiterates, by illiterates.
To put it another way, just because the medium is primarily visual doesn't excuse one from using proper grammar and syntax.
@Cynical Media Bitch: That's not what Euna Lee did! No website has a copy editor (look at Gawker.) Her resume is online. She's a video tape and digital video editor. She works in post-production.
Maybe he should have not talked to a reporter, or exercised more caution with what they were allowed to film (not his face, not anything identifying locations, etc...)
Taking risks is a part of *good* journalism. Putting yourself, your crew and those that you were interviewing is NOT good judgment. Prior to even thinking about stepping one foot across that border, they should have cleaned up any film that they had, stored/tossed notes that they had -- and used some common sense. Getting the story is one thing, and there are ways to do it. But putting yourself and others in danger is simply stupid. Dance girls, revel in your release -- but don't try to sell me or others on your escapade. It doesn't fly.
I've read reports that Ling & Lee danced around the border, jokingly, on camera just for laughs - and were warned multiple times from NK border officials not to cross into the country. And then they were nabbed crossing into the country. Personally, I had no empathy for Ling & Lee. As others pointed out, they knew the risks. They should have done the time. Meanwhile, the actual noble cause in this story, Durihana, gets the shaft.
@PontiusPirate: Really? You really think they acted like a couple of dumb ASU sorority girls on spring break posing for a pic on the US/Mexico border with their arms outstretched saying "Look! My left arm is in China and my right arm is in North Korea! lawl!"
@lobstr: Right. I find that insanely difficult to believe, particularly right underneath the noses of N. Korea border officials (officials that, no less, give multiple stern warnings! How patient and fair!).
@Pope John Peeps II: Ling's sister already admitted that they intentionally walked over, so there is no dispute there. The NK warnings is reported on in the link below. I'll send the link on their "dancing" when I find it. I recall it was described as them jokingly touching their feet on the NK side and then running back, and then walking back to the NK side. Not "spring break" style shenanigans - but still ridiculous if true. All reports agree that they intentionally walked across the frozen Tumen, where the NK guards apprehended them (and Koss and the others fled). Question for me was, "What was the point?" I.e., if they were trying to infiltrate NK, it seems like a pretty boneheaded move (walking across the Tumen vs. sneaking in).[www.upiasia.com]
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
I'm sure Harriet Tubman would have loved to read media accounts of her railroad while she was still shuttling people through it... #eunalee
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
PREACH!!! PREACH IT!!
I think this simple truth is at the very core of why Gawker exists: Because some people take themselves way too seriously (ie: famous for doing nothing) which make them ripe for the snarking.
Dudes, doesn't the Lings realize that there's a HUGE fascination regarding what the hell is going on behind borders in North Korea. (Hell, wasn't that why they were there to begin with?) Why do I care about the beauty of Ling Sisterhood(tm) when i could get a firsthand account of Dear Leader battshittery with bonus Clinton on Air Fuck One action? #eunalee
11/13/09
11/13/09
While a variation on the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" (The Ling-Ling Sisterhood) could be mistaken for a film about Dick Nixon's relationship to a couple of pandas.
11/13/09
Wait, what? Did they capture Carrie Prejean now? #eunalee
11/13/09
11/13/09
China 0 #eunalee
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
08/24/09
So, this story was out there. Just this year. And it seems that they were able to do their work without getting operations shut down.
So perhaps, gonzo journalism didn't work all that well if they have undone years of work and put existing organizations and refugees families at risk. (The NGS story clearly indicates that often families are moved one at a time.)
08/24/09
Televisa ran the footage of these foreigners telling Mexicans to get out of a Mexican town. The following week the Interior Secretariat cracked down on activists doing activist things on tourist visas.
The actions ended up shutting down some of the work of genuine charity organizations who were buildings schools down there (because they too were in the country only on tourist visas, which in many cases is the only way it can be done).
The moral lesson is, of course, hippies are fucking stupid and worthless.
08/24/09
08/24/09
On viewing the abysmally disgusting thread, I have to ask - what the fuck myths do Americans have left about themselves? When the fuck did Americans stop embracing people who did interesting things, who maybe followed careers out of principle? Who maybe did things that were inspiring, risky, dangerous, amazing. Americans with the eyes of gamblers and a certain noble spirit tinged with cynicism. What the fuck happened to all of you?
When did you all become a pack of self-hating, miserable, vengeful freaks who don't merely resign themselves to leaving these poor women out there in torturous conditions, but actually seem to DEMAND it.
What the hell happened to all of you? When did you get that beaten down? Is it Bush? Iraq? Is Obama's platform of integrity and principle just the last gasp of a shriveled American lung sack?
EDIT: I'm going to say this to all of you in the hope of inspiring someone, of finding someone with spirit and passion out there in this anonymous thread of disgusting miasma. Fuck you America if you're going to turn on these women. Fuck you.
08/24/09
[en.wikipedia.org]
08/24/09
As for your "F-you" rant: excellent way to win an argument!
08/24/09
08/24/09
What the fuck exactly is a journalist if they don't gamble? They're PR professionals. If you flinch from something because you're scared of your job, or scared for your life, you won't get a story that people might "need" to hear. My point is exactly what you're saying: when did Americans lose the myth of themselves as truth-tellers and upholders of freedom and liberty?
And clearly the F-you isn't an argument, but rather a rhetorical device. Since I specifically stated that, I'm not sure where you're coming from.
08/24/09
It's not gambling if no one ever loses.
These aren't "brave" women. They're fools who trifled with one of the world's most totalitarian regimes by entering the country illegally.
Why do they do it? Out of some sense of moral rectitude? Please. That's the last great myth of journalism, that it's some sort of social tool. America has watched generations of self-indulgent pedants use their "brave" reporting to land cushy gigs and big salaries to no end but their own. Our media has become a vehicle for wealthy, ego-mad hacks who look back on events like slipping into Korea as their big chance.
I can't wait for the book deal, by the way. I'm sure the cash is going toward more "bravery."
08/24/09
Should journalists take risks? Of course. But they need to be carefully considered risks. It’s not the best analogy, perhaps, but what if these women were investigating a dangerous drug cartel – should they just blunder into a no-go area after a warning, just to see what would happen? That’s the job of highly-trained undercover law enforcement personnel, in my opinion. Journalists need to ask tough questions, shine a spotlight onto sleazy, dangerous or illegal activities. I just don’t think they should be the story – their job is to inspire the crusaders, not to be the crusaders themselves. And, to address one of the other commenters, perhaps I’m naïve, but I think most journalists – save the shouting-head assholes who populate both left-and right-wing cable channels – do strive to report acurrately, and without bias. They may not (do not!) always succeed, but I think it’s the goal.
And finally, Pope JPII – you’re right – on rereading, I realize you did flag the "f-you" part as a rhetorical device. In my case, it worked – it certainly made me comment.
08/24/09
08/24/09
These two ladies (and frankly, I should exempt Euna Lee from this--she was a mere desk copy editor and not a field reporter, and only recruited for this jaunt because of her language skills, she's Korean American and can speak Korean, unlike Laura Ling) were out for capturing TV DRAMA in action! They willingly trespassed the North Korean border in search of scoop, and oops--they got caught. Nobody can convince me otherwise. Let me repeat: They willingly WENT there, and they got caught. Reckless behavior. Stupid behavior. I feel for their subsequent plight, because they are someone's daughters, but if I were their editor I would slap them across the head.
You can report this kind of story on North Korea in vivid, harrowing detail without exposing yourself like they did. In fact, the New Yorker ran a magnificent story on North Korean migration back in 2006--can't even locate the proper URL for it, I'm too miffed right now--and no source, or reporter was harmed in the process.
08/24/09
08/24/09
Not that there's anything wrong with the copy desk; in fact, I'd rather have one good copy editor than a room full of reporters who can't write a lick.
For you, snugbug, I'm going to break my policy and become someone's follower.
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
In TV? How do you edit copy in TV?
08/24/09
08/25/09
To put it another way, just because the medium is primarily visual doesn't excuse one from using proper grammar and syntax.
08/25/09
09/03/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
.. dancing around the border? uh, probably not.
08/24/09
08/24/09