seoul
CNN
—
YouTube’s most watched daily live show in South Korea might surprise you. It’s not K-pop, it’s not a K-drama, and it has nothing to do with BlackPink.
It’s a provocative current affairs talk show called “Gyeomson (modesty) is nothing,” fronted by an irreverent host, Kim Ou-joon, the lack of deference to authority is making waves in a country where mainstream media has a reputation for respectful coverage.
Kim’s style is reminiscent of an American late-night chat show host. Outspokenly partisan, he says his goal is to counter what he sees as a bias toward conservative government with a liberal voice.
“The conservative media is actively doing biased reporting and I think they can do it based on their political position,” Kim told CNN. “The problem here is that they pretend to be righteous, hiding behind the mask of righteousness.”
Kim’s brash style stands out even more given concerns recently raised by the US State Department that South Korean officials are using defamation lawsuits to restrict free speech.
He highlighted it in a march human rights report the case of broadcaster MBC, which is being sued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over a story claiming that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had been caught on a hot microphone making less-than-complimentary comments about the American lawmakers.
The presidential office has criticized the State Department’s report for “a lack of accuracy”, claiming that it “simply collected and advertised the claims of civic groups or media reports”.
But taking on the conservative administration does not faze Kim, who has been sued for defamation on several occasions.
Meanwhile, Kim’s critics say his taste for controversy only goes one way, accusing him of paying less attention to reports implicating the liberal Democratic Party.
Still, the show’s reputation for daring to go where others fear to tread has done wonders for its viewing figures. Every morning at 7:05 a.m., some 160,000 people tune in to hear Kim’s views on the biggest issues of the day.
Industry observers say the popularity of the show, which has more than 1 million subscribers and can fetch donations of 90 million won ($70,000) a day, reflects a changing media landscape.
Increasingly, they say, current affairs programs are turning to YouTube to broadcast their content, attracted both by a large audience and by the perception that the online arena gives more space to freedom of expression.
“Modesty is nothing,” for example, is the reincarnation of a radio show called “News Factory” that was taken off the air after a row with the government.
YouTube has high penetration in South Korea. According to Statista, a market statistics and consumer data site, there were more than 46 million YouTube users in South Korea as of January this year, more than 90% of the population (compared to more of 70% in the United States).
Most mainstream media outlets now run their own YouTube channels, as do a growing number of smaller, independent companies of all political persuasions, including the right. Tubeshin (1.46 million subscribers) and the left Newstap (more than 1 million).
YouTube’s growing influence was demonstrated before last year’s general election, when Yoon, then a candidate for the People’s Power Party, saw his popularity plummet after a stumbling performance in a YouTube interview on Christmas Day with 3ProTV.
Before the show he had been neck and neck with opponent Lee Jae-myung of the (then ruling) Democratic Party of Korea; Soon after, a Gallup poll showed him trailing by about 8 percentage points.
The influence of the right and left channels has also been shown in recent moves. Right-wing channels pushed for demonstrations in support of former president Park Geun-hye after she was ousted in 2017 in a corruption scandal; they also supported protests outside her liberal successor Moon Jae-in’s retirement home. Left-wing channels supported the counter-demonstrations outside the current President Yoon’s home.
Last year, Yoon’s former party leader attacked what he said was the “malign influence” of YouTube channels.
 "How YouTube Became a Force in Korean Politics 2")
YouTube channels are seen as providing a space for free speech which is even more important given the concerns expressed by the US State Department.
Jung June-hee, a media professor at Hanyang University in Seoul, said most mainstream media avoided criticizing the government, partly because of their own right-wing leanings, but also because they feared being sued.
“After President Yoon Suk Yeol came to power, there have been many cases where the presidential office filed complaints with the media,” Jung said.
“The fear of being targeted, whether you’re on the same side or not, is important,” Jung said.
Over time, the lack of critical coverage caused citizens to lose trust in traditional media and turn to the Internet, said Rhee June-woong, a communications professor at Seoul National University.
“We can’t say that traditional newspapers and media have been completely abandoned, but more and more citizens are dissatisfied with them and are looking to Internet media for information, interpretation and expression,” Rhee said.
CNN reached out to the president’s office for comment on his recent defamation lawsuits, but has yet to hear back.
It is a dynamic that is not lost on Kim. His previous show, the publicly funded program “News Factory,” had been Seoul’s highest-rated radio show for years (and made him one of the country’s highest-paid hosts).
Debuting in 2016 on TBS in a two-hour slot Monday through Friday, its format was simple, with Kim’s commentary on the day’s topic and a news roundup, followed by segments with newsmakers from politicians and teachers to journalists, artists and scientists.
Its no-holds-barred approach to news analysis and live interviews broke the mold in South Korean media and made it a go-to show for politicians, said Jung June-hee, media professor of Communication at Hanyang University.
“Politicians (previously) didn’t appear on radio shows, and morning radio shows … (mostly) used to summarize the previous night’s news and provide information such as real-time traffic updates,” Jung said.
But his oppositional style angered conservatives, as did his coverage of the scandal surrounding former President Park. When a conservative administration returned to power in 2022 (after a period under the liberal Moon Jae-in, under which the program enjoyed a heyday), its days were numbered.
Shortly thereafter, the conservative city council announced plans to cut TBS’s budget in a move widely seen as a reflection of its displeasure with the “News Factory.”
Although Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon denied the link, in February he criticized the program for being “one-sided” and the TBS network for “crossing the line that public broadcasting cannot cross.”
“In any country, people can never have patience when public broadcasting is biased in favor of a particular political party,” Oh said.
Kim released “News Factory” in December. The following month, he released “Modesty Is Nothing.”
The only real differences between the shows are the name and the medium. The format is the same and even the studio is a replica, although now it has been made bigger, in line with Kim’s ambitions.
Within a week, he had surpassed one million subscribers. Since then, it has consistently ranked first in terms of daily real-time views on YouTube in South Korea.
For Professor Jung, it is a success that shows that “voices cannot be silenced.”
Kim, meanwhile, hopes to build a show with as much recognition as any in traditional media.
“I’m going to create a type of press that hasn’t existed on YouTube yet,” Kim said. “This is a statement that I will show that canceling the show for political reasons was wrong.”
