
Journalists claim North Korean official was “purged”, then he shows up on TV - BobbyVsTheDevil
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/03/us-journalists-fake-news-north-korean-official-purged/
======
CharlesColeman
There are better articles about this news than this over-editorialized axe-
grinding blog post. For instance, this one about the official's reappearance:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/asia/north-
korean-p...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/asia/north-korean-purge-
kim.html) (and the original NY Times report was pretty careful with its words
about his disappearance: [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/world/asia/north-
korea-en...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/world/asia/north-korea-envoy-
execution.html)).

~~~
darkpuma
The submitted article is about how western corporate media handled a story
about North Korea, not about the North Korean story itself. That NYTimes
article is about the North Korean story, not western media's treatment of that
story.

~~~
CharlesColeman
AFAIK, HN hasn't has any posts about the disappearance or reappearance. We
should probably have one, rather than this.

This particular article is just loud axe grinding and baseless complaining.
For instance, it labels the original Bloomberg report "fake news" and a "false
story," when it was in fact pretty careful with its words and spent _a
significant amount of prominent space casting doubt on the report_. You can
read it yourself here:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-30/north-
kor...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-30/north-korea-envoy-
executed-over-trump-kim-summit-chosun-reports).

This blog post is not so much about "how western corporate media handled a
story about North Korea" but how Ben Norton of thegrayzone.com _feels_ about
the Western media and how he _wants_ us to _feel_ about it too.

~~~
darkpuma
> _" North Korea Executed Envoy Over Trump-Kim Summit, Chosun Reports"_

That Bloomberg headline is itself egregious. Who is Chosun? That Chosun Ilbo
is a right wing propaganda tabloid with a reputation for making shit up should
have been mentioned in that headline. _' Headlines that seem plausible with
details hinting at fabrication in the article'_ is a bad formula and deserves
to be criticized.

In fact, Chosun Ilbo's reputation should have prevented the story from being
republished by western media at all.

~~~
CharlesColeman
> 'Headlines that seem plausible with details hinting at fabrication in the
> article' is a bad formula and deserves to be criticized.

Readers need to read more than headlines, and newspapers shouldn't censor
things as if they don't.

> In fact, Chosun Ilbo's reputation should have prevented the story from being
> republished by western media at all.

No, that's just your opinion, which other people are free to disagree with
without being wrong. For instance, I find it perfectly acceptable that the
story was initially published with ample reliability disclaimers, then later
corrected when new information surfaced.

~~~
darkpuma
> _" Readers need to read more than headlines,"_

They should, _but they don 't._ They know that and you know that. Knowing
that, it's irresponsible to publish headlines that are misleading when taken
in isolation.

~~~
CharlesColeman
> They know that and you know that. Knowing that, it's irresponsible to
> publish headlines that are misleading when taken in isolation.

They made reasonable editorial decisions that you and thegrayzone.com disagree
with, that's all. They weren't irresponsible nor were they misleading.

~~~
cannonedhamster
In reading some of the other articles from the source link, the site makes
some fairly large claims based on thin evidence and appears pretty anti
American and pro Russian propaganda. I'm not sure the sure can claim to not be
guilty of the very same thing it is claiming others are guilty of.

------
Binger99
Maybe it was a Deep fake video?

