In the aftermath of former Korean president, Roh Moo Hyun's passing, KBS2TV has inadvertently incurred the wrath of the nation with it's decisions last weekend.
Former Korean president Roh Moo Hyun had shocked the entire nation on early Saturday morning with his suicide by jumping off a cliff. SBS and MBC reacted quickly to this sudden event by cancelling all their variety programs for the weekend, replacing them with documentaries and special news coverage dedicated to their ex-president. Only KBS2TV decided to do otherwise and went ahead with their regular programming, broadcasting their Invincible Saturday variety. Not surprisingly, it led to widespread criticism and some support for KBS's decision over this.
Supporters wrote, "We can't be watching re-runs of the same news over and over again", "Amidst the gloom, we should have some laughter to lighten the situation", "Although it's sad, we can't give up the weekend just like this." Those who were against KBS's decision said, "Is it appropriate to broadcast variety programs on a sad day like this?", "the tv station is too pre-occupied with it's own interests and is just interested in raising the ratings", "It's too cruel of them to do this", etc.
Immediately after, KBS2TV acted swiftly and went the way of SBS, MBC, replacing their regular Saturday night and Sunday programming with special programs/documentaries instead. The 3 major tv stations also announced on the 25th that all variety programs for the week, up till Roh Moo Hyun's state funeral on 29th May, would be cancelled as a mark of respect. They will be replaced instead with special documentaries to commemorate the passing of Roh Moo Hyun. So it might be a pretty mundane week for many of us, with the cancellation of all variety shows (including music programs), but thankfully, all dramas are showing as per regular programming.
KBS2TV drew the wrath of viewers again on the 24th, when during a news report, it referred those that turned up in person to pay their respects at Roh Moo Hyun's wake as "tourists". KBS2TV issued an apology the following morning on it's website saying, "In a time when the nation is grieving, we aren't sure of how to seek forgiveness from everyone for the grave error that we have made. We will pay more attention in future to avoid this mistake again. We are grateful to all our viewers for their care and concern." Some viewers were unhappy with the way that KBS only apologized on the website and asked for an official apology to be shown on tv instead. And so life goes on.
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