The said offensive term had appeared on the September 4 airing of 'Running Man.' The term was a misspelling of the team name Gary and Lee Woon Jae coined for themselves, 'Gae Woon Jae.' But due to a careless editing mistake, 'Gae Woon Jae' was instead spelled as 'Gae Woon Ji.' This misspelling had become an issue because 'Woon Ji' roughly means 'falling to death' in Korean, and it is linked to not only extremist right wing site Ilbe but also makes a mockery of former Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide by jumping off a cliff.
SEE ALSO: 'Running Man' gets swept in yet another 'IlBe' controversy
SBS explained to KCSC, "It was possible for us to have been confused by the use of nicknames [on that episode]. Furthermore, we had spent two consecutive nights editing, so the mistake occurred due to a bunch of factors such as exhaustion and low levels of concentration. We will try to improve this system in the future."
A majority of the KCSC members responded, "We have to take this incident as the simple mistake that it is. It's not a probable explanation that a variety program meant purely for entertainment purposes would intentionally derogate a deceased person. However, it is true that the mistake was made, so rather than impose any sanctions, we believe it best to offer the necessary guidance."
However, others reasoned, "We can regard the first two times a mistake, but SBS has had similar occurrences seven to eight times now, which cannot be deemed a simple mistake. We should listen to the opinions of the [variety shows'] production team."
Log in to comment