[The Hankyoreh, July 4 2008] [Column] Who wants to be the next KBS president? Forget about it!

Kim Jong-cheol, Editorial writer

It is always the case in parliamentary and presidential elections, but during and after this last presidential election an especially large number of news media professionals entered the political arena. A former chief editorial writer at a major paper, a former broadcasting company executive, and a current overseas correspondent have had their “coming out,” and, in all, there have been dozens like them. These “poliurnalists” (political journalists) have sensitive feelers and they flocked to the campaign of Lee Myung-bak, who was overwhelmingly expected to win.

Most notable of these was Kim In-gyu, someone once on the board at KBS. In 2006 he was among the final candidates when KBS advertised for a new president, and after that he wrote a doctoral dissertation about how KBS’s coverage of the 2002 presidential election had been biased, making him an “anti-Jung Yun-joo” figure widely recognized as such by the current ruling camp. Which is why when, last year, he joined Lee’s campaign as the head of the “Broadcasting Strategy Department,” I figured that meant he had given up on his dream of becoming KBS’s president. You thought it had been established that, at the very least, someone who had clearly become active in politics would not get to be the head of a broadcasting company, a lesson learned with the case of Seo Dong-gu during the presidency of Roh Moo-hyun.