SBS embroiled in another Ilbe image controversy, blames it on Google Search

SBS is in the spotlight again as the broadcasting station is making some viewers suspicious with its repeated show of Ilbe graphics. This time, during the October 16 broadcast of SBS's 'Shocking of the World', SBS showed an image of the late President Roh Moo Hyun's face imposed on a famous painting by Shin Yun Bok, 'Scenery on Dano Day'.

Ilbe is notorious for its misogynistic users who emphasize freedom of speech and use that right to make controversial statements and trends. One of these trends includes expressing hatred towards former President Roh and mocking his suicide. Thus, when SBS broadcasted an image of the edited painting containing Roh's floating face, viewers were quick to suspect that the reference was a derogatory, Ilbe one.

SBS representatives have told news outlet TV Daily that this was an "obvious mistake." They continued, "'Shocking of the World' is a program that is managed by an outsource production company," disassociating the mistake from SBS's own production team.

Still, they defended the employee who made the mistake, saying, "While the PD was doing his job, he downloaded the picture from Google; this is absolutely not unusual for him to do during the job. He is apologetic that while doing this he was unable to notice [the image of Roh Moo Hyun]."

They continued to clarify, "This issue is a repeating occurrence and the problem seems to be Google Search. And so we've warned [our employees] multiple times, 'Using Google Search is dangerous', but because the PD is from an outsourced production company, it seems that our advice did not reach that group [of employees]. In the future, we will work hard to avoid these kinds of mistakes."

Netizens don't seem very convinced by the explanation, as top comments include: "If you look up 'Scenery on Dano Day Ilbe' then this is the picture that comes up. Even if it's like this, is it a mistake?", "There's definitely an Ilbe [working for them]," and "First time can be a mistake, but there's no way you can look at the second time as anything but intentional!! Bastards!!"