“Television Conference” Wastes Time for Political Offense and Defense

In recent times, the major broadcasting companies’ talk shows such as Korea Broadcasting System 1 (KBS1)’s “Live, Night-Time Conference,” KBS2’s “100 People’s Conference, What Do You Think?”, Moonhwa Broadcasting Company’s “100 Minutes’ Discussion,” and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS)’s “SBS Heated Discussion, This is the Public Opinion,” have dealt with the subjects as follows: “What should we do for the president impeachment conflicts?,” “Impact and influences of impeachment bill,” and “Judgment for impeachment bill, where is it going?”

At 10 out of 13 times that talk show programs broadcasted during March, the three big broadcasting companies have dealt with the impeachment incident as its major issue of discussion. In the other two out of three times, the discussion about April 15 general election related subject was addressed, but it was also filled with controversy as to the impeachment incident.

Most of the channels limit the range of discussion subject to the political issues, and several politicians and professors seem fixated to appear on these programs. The viewers are repeatedly exposed to the same sort of talk and discussion everyday. Many people point out that it is just a mere waste of time.

Politics is the Only Issue of our Society?—

With 11 broadcasts this year, the “Live, Night-Time Conference,” which is shown every Saturday at 11 p.m., has dealt with political issues except the “FTA, Pros and Cons,” on February 14, and “Creating job openings, what do we need?,” on January 31.

MBC’s “100 Minutes’ Discussion” has also dealt the political problems on its 10 broadcasts this year except the February 26’s program, “Opening original price of house sale, is it really necessary?”

KBS2’s “100 People’s Conference, What Do You Think?,” which has been broadcasted nine times this year, has also dealt with the political problems seven times except for “Homosexuality, isn’t it dangerous to the adolescents?” on February 8, and “Divorce rate reaches 50 percent, what should we do?” on January 4.

As for the impeachment bill, many channels have dealt with it many times simultaneously. This year, the discussion for the electorates’ movement has been broadcasted five times so far. “Night-Time Conference” has broadcasted “Failure in application and election movement, is it the beginning of the electorate’s revolution?” on February 7. “100 People’s Conference…” has shown “2004 election’s conflicts over election campaign” on January 11, and “People’s participation, quarrels over April 15’s election campaign” on February 1. “100 Minutes’ Discussion” has also dealt “17th general election’s electorate’s campaign, how should we consider this?” on January 8, and “Why is the failure in election movement being stirred again?” on February 5.

There are many cases that the participants of the talk show appeared again on the other talk shows. In March, Yoo Si-min, a congressmen of Open Uri Party, has participated in the “100 Minutes’ Discussion” on March 11 and appeared again as a panel member of “Heated Discussion…” on March 12. Jun Sung-chul, the chief of the policy-making group of Millennium Democratic Party, and Liu Woon-young, the spokesperson for United Liberal Democrats, and Roh Hoi-chan, the spokesperson for Democratic Labor Party, have appeared on each of these four talk shows twice. Choi Han-soo, a politics professor of Kunkook University has participated in “Heated Discussion…” on March 12 and “100 Peoples’ Discussion” on March 14. Kim Jae-hong, a professor of Kyunggi Graduate School for Politics has appeared on “100 Peoples’ Discussion” once and “Heated Discussion…” twice.

Confrontation Rather than Reaching a Mutual Agreement?—

The viewers point out that these talk show programs do not function more than introducing the assertions of the panels. It tries only to show the confrontation of the opposing opinions rather than undergoing an efficient exchange of opinion to reach a mutual agreement.

On March 26 at the “Heated Discussion…” program, Chief Jun and Spokesperson Roh engaged in a verbal battle over the issues of conservatism and progression.

“Conservatism grows bread, and progression divides the bread into separated pieces. We run short of that bread right now,” said Jun. “Conservatism makes off with the bread or makes a monopoly of it,” said Roh.

Spokesperson Roh even raised his voice against the spokesperson Liu.

“Apologize about the remarks you said that the ULD is the party which will be vanished after this election right now,” said Liu “If you apologize about your remarks that we are pro-North and anti-U.S. faction, I will apologize too. That is why your party continues to fall back,” said Roh.

At the “100 Peoples’ Discussion,” which was broadcasted on March 14, Lee Dong-bok, a former honorary professor of Myungji University, and Cho Ki-suk, a professor of Ewha Woman’s Graduate School for International Studies, had a long-drawn-out verbal dispute.

“You said that ‘don’t force me to make such opinion’ to me, when I forced you?,” said Cho. “My fundamental standpoint is that approval or disapproval of the impeachment bill is not a case to talk about for us,” said Lee

“Please tell when I forced you to agree with my opinion,” said Cho.

After the program, when the dispute was unsolved before the end of the show, many viewers take side with each panels and post their own opinion with bad words such as “You pig-like party, don’t shout at me like a dog,” “Stop these quarrels you stone head party,” and “MC should lead the program.”

“Television talk show programs should take a role as mediator between each participants of the society who have different standpoint and value,” stated Na Mi-su, a professor of Jeonbuk National University, adding, “By diversifying the themes and the subjects of discussion, the talk show programs should renovate its ambiences.”