Yoon Seok-yeol Rally Without Audience? MBC Union Says "Only Lee Shown With Audience, Is This a Dictatorship?"

MBC Reports on Lee Myeongdong and Yoon Sinchon Campaign Sites

A screenshot of the March 1st MBC Newsdesk broadcast where the MBC Labor Union's 3rd Union pointed out biased reporting. / Photo by Facebook capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] MBC's minority union, the 3rd Union, criticized its own News Desk coverage of the Seoul campaign events of Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, and Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party presidential candidate, claiming that only Lee's campaign crowd was made to look large, calling it a "cleverly biased report."

On the 2nd, the union issued a statement titled "No Audience in the Opposition Candidate's Campaign Footage," stating, "Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Seok-youl entered the crucial battleground of Seoul for their campaigns. On March 1, Lee campaigned in Myeong-dong while Yoon campaigned in Sinchon and other areas."

They continued, "MBC News Desk reported these separately. However, the footage of Yoon Seok-youl's report was strange. On that day, crowds gathered like clouds at Yoon's Sinchon campaign site. Yet, the MBC footage did not show those crowds."

They added, "The composition of MBC's Sinchon campaign footage was as follows: ① Close-up of reporter Gu OO ② Close-up of candidate Yoon Seok-youl ③ Zoom-in on Yoon from the stage ④ The stage ⑤ Close-up of Yoon ⑥ The stage ⑦ Close-up of Yoon." They claimed, "In contrast, Lee Jae-myung's Myeong-dong campaign footage used two high-angle shots and camera panning and zoom-out techniques to make the audience appear as large as possible."

The union stated, "This is something we thought only happened in authoritarian countries, but it occurred at a public broadcaster in South Korea," and questioned, "The principle of political rally coverage is to include as many participants as possible in the frame. Who instructed to violate that principle?"

They further noted, "During the coverage of Yoon Seok-youl's campaign at Chung-Ang University, where the audience was small, high-angle shots and full audience shots were used. However, at Yoon's Sinchon campaign, where the audience was much larger, the camera angles were almost exclusively focused on the stage," adding, "It cannot be called anything but a cleverly biased report."

Additionally, they claimed, "On the March 1 News Desk, reporter Kim OO reported that the candidates' mudslinging was rampant, but Yoon Seok-youl's remarks were covered for 80 seconds, while Lee Jae-myung and Democratic Party figures' remarks were covered for only 40 seconds, half the time," arguing, "The 'voter fatigue' mentioned in the article was biasedly framed to be directed at Yoon."

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