Lee Nak-yeon Side: "Kim Eo-jun Biased Toward Lee Jae-myung... Forgets Public Broadcaster Host's Duty"

"The host who should be a referee is playing as a player... TBS must take action"

The former leader of the Democratic Party, Lee Nak-yeon, criticized broadcaster Kim Eo-jun, saying he "brought about controversy with biased remarks."
/Photo by Kim Eo-jun's News Factory

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Seohyun] The camp of former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yeon raised concerns about bias regarding broadcaster Kim Eo-jun.

On the 12th, Lee's camp criticized Kim Eo-jun, who hosts TBS Radio's 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory,' saying, "The host, who should be a referee, is playing as a player," and added, "TBS, a public broadcasting station whose mission is fair and accurate reporting, must take responsible measures as this behavior neglects the duties of a public broadcasting news program host."

Earlier, on the 11th, Kim Eo-jun mentioned Lee's objection to the presidential primary results, stating, "In the 16th Democratic Party primary, votes for withdrawn candidates were all invalidated," "(Unlike the 1st and 2nd rounds) only the 3rd round does not statistically align. For a significant public opinion change in the population, it should have been captured in that week's poll, but it was not," and "I do not agree that Daejang-dong played a decisive role," among other remarks.

He also pointed out, "Legally, it is very difficult for the (Democratic Party primary) results to be overturned, and politically, it is impossible," adding, "All parties do not change rules in the middle of primaries. This is the same for any party. If someone suggested changing the rules mid-primary because it was unfavorable to a specific candidate, who would agree? If there were concerns, they should have been raised and addressed before the primary began."

In response to these claims, Lee's camp rebutted, "The 16th Democratic Party primary was not a runoff voting system but a preferential voting system," explaining, "The preferential voting system itself assumes that votes for candidates who withdraw mid-way are invalidated, so it cannot be simply compared to the current runoff voting system."

They further argued, "After Yoo Dong-gyu, the former Planning Director of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation and executor of the Daejang-dong development project, was detained, criticism intensified and the gap in support rates between candidate Lee Jae-myung and Lee Nak-yeon narrowed. This shows that the Daejang-dong incident had a direct impact," challenging Kim's statement that the Daejang-dong development preferential treatment allegations did not affect the voting results.

They concluded, "Kim's inaccurate, inappropriate, and seemingly partisan remarks being broadcasted unfiltered through public broadcasting waves is highly inappropriate," urging, "We ask the TBS production team to provide a proper explanation and take appropriate measures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.