Christian Science Monitor Corrects Its Story on the Human Rights Commission

The online version of the Christian Science Monitor story, which originally stated that South Korea’s Human Rights Commission had endorsed calls to tear down MacArthur’s statue in Incheon, has been corrected:

A complaint filed with the quasi-governmental National Human Rights Commission, which is reviewing the statue controversy, condemns MacArthur as “a war criminal who massacred numerous civilians.” The complaint adds, “To induce or force children to respect such a person by erecting a statue of him and teaching them that he is a great figure is a national disgrace and greatly injures the dignity of our people.” [Editor’s note: The original version mistakenly had the MacArthur quote coming from the commission instead of from a complaint filed with the commission.]

The story had originally reported that anti-American NGOs’ demands to tear down the statue had “the full support” of the South Korean Human Rights Commission. I quickly tired of the could-have-been/could-not/could-too debate, so when Antti (who has an outstanding blog of his own) and Aaron raised some specific and legitimate questions, I decided to dispense with speculation and just contact the Human Rights Commission and Don Kirk, the reporter.

The HRC never responded to my inquiry, or to any other inquiry I’ve ever made to them, for that matter. On the other hand, Kirk–one of America’s most seasoned Asia and Korea correspondents and authors–was receptive, cooperative, and open-minded from the start, but was travelling and could not give a complete response without checking his notes on the story.

Here are the questions I asked Mr. Kirk last Tuesday, August 9th:

1. If you can say, who or what was your source as to the HRC’s position?

2. If the source was on-line, can you provide a link? Korean is OK.

3. If the source was an individual, what is the source’s position in the HRC, such that the person spoke for the entire agency?

4. Did the source provide you anything in writing to confirm that this was the HRC’s position?

5. It is possible that there was a misunderstanding? For example, do you speak fluent Korean? Did you have the assistance of a translator? Clearly, this is not an issue if you have something in writing (unless the HRC now tries to disavow it).

Because Mr. Kirk asked me to keep his responses off the record, I could not explain how they added to my doubts, but they did cause me to put in some updates raising the questions about the story. Kirk promised me a final response when he could get me one, and I’m certain that it was his intention to do so first thing tomorrow.

Thanks to Mr. Kirk for his courtesy and un-Rather-like willingness to put ego aside and set the record straight. Above all, my thanks to Antti and Aaron for asking good, hard questions that helped move us toward the truth of the matter. This kind of collective power of self-correction is the blogger’s greatest advantage.