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AP Exclusive: North Koreans say Kim Jong Il is like Jesus, only bigger!

I think we’ve just reached the point at which reality is just too absurd for parody, so I’ll just let you read the latest and judge for yourself. Somehow, I don’t think comparing Kim Jong Il’s birth to the nativity at Bethlehem is quite the angle KCNA should have chosen to win over the hearts and minds of middle America. I would, however, like to commend Jean H. Lee for (1) putting her byline on the story, (2) helpfully acknowledging that “[s]ome foreign historians dispute parts of Kim’s eight-volume memoirs as well as the official biography published by North Korea in 2001,” and (3) keeping it classy when responding to criticism of the reporting from her bureau.

Some friendly advice for the AP, since I can see you in my visitors’ log, over there in Ryugyong-Dong, Pyongyang: snark won’t answer the questions about your coverage and its compromises, or make them any less compelling to your increasingly squeamish colleagues. Why not offer a frank and transparent defense of the exact nature of your relationship with the regime you’re covering? Of course, that defense can only begin when you fully disclose the terms of your agreements with that regime.

Update:   So what I wanted to show you at that second link has since vanished, but I kept a screenshot:

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11 Responses

  3. Yes, I noted that mandatory disclosure, buried deep in the middle of a very long article. Do you really defend this as an example of balanced, objective, truth-seeking journalism? Don’t you have any curiosity about the terms of the AP’s agreements with North Korea, written or tacit, and whether those might flavor its coverage?

  4. I’m not “defending” it per se. If I were in a Pyongyang-based news bureau and I was tasked with writing about the hagiography with which millions of North Koreans are apparently mesmerized, a week ahead of the centennial of that idol’s birth, I’d have written something a bit more critical about the man’s decades of abusive power.

    But at the same time, I don’t think this particular example is as bad as you’re making it out. Not only is there direct mention of hundreds of thousands dying from famine and 200K people in a gulag of labor camps, the entire myth construction is something of a big negative.

    And yes, I am curious about the AP’s agreement with North Korea and whether it might flavor its coverage. At the same time, even if there were no tacit agreement to flavor anything, I’m also not deluded about two things: (a) stories such as this are not meant as “news,” and (b) the American public has the ability to scrutinize and process North Korean propaganda or stories about North Korean propaganda.

    As I’ve already stated elsewhere, I see some value in a Western news bureau being in Pyongyang. In fact, I’d like a bunch of them to be (though I also realize that they are constrained by ground rules in order to be there), because (a) I think a sort of Hawthorne effect may be at work here, (b) if things really start to go south at any time, it’s good to have feet on the ground there, and (c) the existence of a news bureau like AP erodes North Korea’s elite’s own fear of exposure to the outside, as the see that the sky does not indeed fall down (so far).

    In short, the cost to the West is very minimal, whereas the potential payoff is considerable.

    I think over time we’ll see the AP stories evolve as they get a feel for how much they can say. Eventually they will go either toward general freedom to say what they want in print media outside North Korea, or they will feel a leash tightening, to the point that it feels like a noose, and then maybe AP will bow out. We shall see which direction, but at the same time, I see great value in you and other bloggers (including me), making an issue of this. AP needs to know people are watching and paying attention.

  5. The stories I’ve read so far very much resemble party propaganda, and do not resemble objective reporting. The “anti-US feats” bit is a good example. No genuine news story would use that language.

    A more recent example: “Kim Jong Un named to top party post” as headline, five paragraphs of Kim dynasty propaganda before the missile launch is even mentioned, then six more paragraphs of Kim praise and banal commentary before any worldwide objection is mentioned. Then the objection is rebutted. Then more praise of Kim Jong Un.

    Something else I’ve been wondering: who is the intended audience for these stories? I fear they are, at least secondarily, for domestic consumption. If these stories are being put out within North Korea with an AP byline, as if to lend the credibility of an international media organization to this obvious state propaganda, then AP is doing the people of North Korea a horrific disservice.

  6. On a separate but related note, I wonder how many have been catching other American news agencies’ in-country coverage surrounding the launch. NBC News has been going big with this, sending Richard “Arab Spring” Engel into North Korea for the launch.

    As with AP, I wonder what deals they made with North Korea over coverage in order to get access.

    My biggest qualm so far is that they cut off their rocket export who they had in tow, quoting him only as saying “technically it’s not weaponized” without elaboration (meaning it easily could be weaponized? or it hasn’t been technically altered so as to be weaponizable?).