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| Are we to believe this is the face Park Shi Hoo made when he heard about the accusation? |
I’ve
thought a lot about whether I should write about the Park Shi Hoo
news.
Surfers
of dramaweb almost certainly already know more about this situation
than they want to. But for those of us lucky enough to have missed
the coverage, here’s a quick recap of every single piece of wholly
trustworthy information that’s now available: last month,
actor Park Shi Hoo was accused of rape after a night out with an
entertainment-industry friend and a girl he knew.
As
far as I can tell, beyond that it’s all hearsay and speculation.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the big English-language news sites and
their coverage of the story, and for every article touting some new
piece of information about the case I can find two other articles
that disprove everything it says.
I
can’t even critically assess these conflicting reports: I have
essentially no familiarity with the various Korean news outlets. If
similar charges were leveled against an American star, I would have a
better sense what was spurious and what deserved further
consideration. No news outlet in the world is infallible, but
when the New York Times reports
something, I feel safe trusting them to get the facts right and
present them in a reasonably objective manner. On the other hand, I
wouldn’t even bother reading coverage of the same incident in Star
magazine, a notorious
supermarket tabloid. A lifetime spent consuming American news and
culture has prepared me to understand the distinction between these
sources. But Naver? Hankyung? Chosunilbo? I have literally no idea
what their bent is or how trustworthy they might be.
And
as someone who speaks only English, I’m at an even further remove
the coverage. Relying on news that has been filtered through the
English-language aggregators isn’t the best idea when it comes
to actually understanding what’s going on.
Take
Drama Fever’s blog. I’ve been reading it regularly
ever since I first signed up as a member. Over that time its tone
has changed considerably. In early 2011, it focused on posting news
tidbits gleaned from sites like Dramabeans or Soompi. Later, it
specialized in guest boggers. But since its infusion of venture
capital money last fall, the Drama Fever blog has evolved into
something of a supermarket tabloid of its own. And I’m not going to
lie: I like its hodgepodge approach to celebrity gossip. I’ll
happily watch videos of Korean cats getting their butts scratched,
ogle photo galleries of handsome actors posted on their birthdays,
and devour speculation about whether some girl group member I’ve
never heard of is dating some boy group member I’ve never heard of.
