President Lee Praises Bloomberg's Correction on 'National Dividend' as "Admirable Integrity in Journalism" (Comprehensive)

"Kim Yongbeom's Proposal Is for Excess Tax Revenue Dividends, Not Excess Profit Dividends"
Targeting Certain Domestic Media: "Refusal to Correct Manipulated and Distorted Reports... Should Serve as an Example"

On May 21, President Lee Jae-myung commented on the corrected Bloomberg News report regarding Blue House Policy Chief Kim Yong-bum's so-called "national dividend" proposal, stating, "How dignified and admirable it is to see the media uphold self-respect and report with integrity."

President Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the Cabinet Meeting and Emergency Economic Inspection Meeting held at the Blue House on the 20th. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

President Lee made this remark in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on this day, saying, "Foreign media corrected their report, clarifying that Policy Chief Kim's proposal was not for a windfall profit dividend, but rather for a dividend from excess tax revenue."

President Lee continued his strong criticism of some domestic media outlets. He said, "A media that intentionally manipulates and distorts the news to favor certain groups or attack individuals, generating fake news, can never demonstrate such an attitude." He added, "It would be good for some domestic media, which repeatedly distort and fabricate reports with clear political intent and refuse to correct them, to take this as an example."

Previously, Bloomberg was criticized for interpreting Policy Chief Kim's Facebook post as a discussion about distributing 'windfall profits' from artificial intelligence (AI)-related companies. Bloomberg also reported at the time that Kim's Facebook post had caused a sharp decline in the stock market.

The Blue House refuted this, explaining that Kim's intent was not to directly distribute corporate profits, but rather to review ways of returning excess tax revenue that the nation might accrue from the growth of the AI industry to the public. The Blue House formally conveyed this stance to Bloomberg in an official letter on May 14, expressing serious concern regarding their reporting approach. In the letter, the Blue House clarified that Kim had never advocated for the redistribution of corporate profits, the imposition of windfall taxes, or the direct transfer of private sector earnings to the public, and pointed out that the inaccurate framing had contributed to market confusion.

Subsequently, Bloomberg issued a correction, clarifying that Kim's proposal was to utilize "excess tax revenue generated from AI profits." The correction also reflected the Blue House's position that this idea was Kim's personal view and not an official government policy.

Earlier, on May 13, President Lee had also responded to the same controversy, stating, "What Policy Chief Kim Yong-bum said was to consider a plan for distributing excess tax revenue generated by windfall profits in the AI sector to the public," and rebutted, "Proposing that corporate windfall profits be distributed to the public is fake news."

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