After a disturbing amount of media outlets spent much of the weekend swooning for North Korea’s master of propaganda Kim Yo-jong, The Hill’s media reporter Joe Concha appeared on Fox News Channel’s Happening Now and slammed them for helping to put a positive spin on the murderous regime.
“With critics slamming many members of the media for fawning over the sister of North Korea's ruler, the mysterious young woman hijacking all of the attention at the winter games. Some outlets calling her the Ivanka Trump of North Korea,” Fox News co-host Jon Scott announced as he was leading into the segment and the ridiculous headlines flashed on the screen.
First up was Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Judy Miller. She wasn’t surprised by the media’s coverage but didn’t really have a problem with it. “No, I'm not surprised. I mean, it’s kind of predictable. She is the shiny new object in the atmosphere. But let me tell you if you just go beyond those headlines, you get some fantastic reporting about what a monstrous regime…,” she claimed.
“If the reporting is good why not reflect some of that in the headlines,” Scott asked Concha.
Concha expertly explained that more and more people don’t read the stories in their entirety and only read the headline most of the time. “It's fast food journalism these days in terms of supply and demand. I hate to say it,” he lamented.
The Hill reporter countered Miller by noting that “she is not the shiny new object. You know her official title? This is the most insane thing I've ever heard. She is the director of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation, all right?”
Concha then unleashed on the media for giving almost no context to Kim’s position in the government and the crimes her family’s regime had committed:
But to your point in terms of what is going on in North Korea, 18 million people are starving. That’s insane. 120,000 people in work camps. And you can go on and on and on in terms of the number of people that have been killed under this regime. And to give a headline like that without any context, that has been the danger here.
“It is why critics, not just conservative critics but what I saw on social media all over the place left and right are slamming not just The New York Times, CNN, Reuters, ABC, NBC. You can go on and on,” Concha added. “This is across the board of glamorizing somebody like this who, again, runs propaganda and couldn’t ask for any better press if she wanted it from the U.S. media.”
The relevant portions of the transcript are below:
Fox News Channel
Happening Now
February 12, 2018
11:23:13 AM EasternJON SCOTT: Just in on the Olympics. With critics slamming many members of the media for fawning over the sister of North Korea's ruler. The mysterious young woman hijacking all of the attention at the winter games. Some outlets calling her the Ivanka Trump of North Korea. Here’s a sample of the headlines. But are the media ignoring a massive human rights issue?
Joining us now, Joe Concha, media reporter for The Hill. Judy Miller is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter, author, and Fox News contributor. Are you surprised, Judy, at the headlines that Kim's little sister is getting?
JUDY MILLER: No, I'm not surprised. I mean, it’s kind of predictable. She is the shiny new object in the atmosphere. But let me tell you if you just go beyond those headlines, you get some fantastic reporting about what a monstrous regime this is about the extent to which North Korea starves, jails and tortures its own people. You get terrific reporting on the 30,000 North Koreans who have defected to the south but yes, this is an Olympics, Jon. This is show and they're definitely part of the show. This is lipstick diplomacy … It will be very superficial and won't last.
SCOTT: If the reporting is good why not reflect some of that in the headlines?
JOE CONCHA: That has been the problem. And more and more people-- they scroll through their phones and they see a headline and a blurb, they won’t bother to read the story. It's fast food journalism these days in terms of supply and demand. I hate to say it.
But let’s be clear, she is not the shiny new object. You know her official title? This is the most insane thing I've ever heard. She is the director of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation, all right? The last part is a Henry Youngman joke in there somewhere. But to your point in terms of what is going on in North Korea, 18 million people are starving.
(…)
CONCHA: That’s insane. 120,000 people in work camps. And you can go on and on and on in terms of the number of people that have been killed under this regime. And to give a headline like that without any context, that has been the danger here. It is why critics, not just conservative critics but what I saw on social media all over the place left and right are slamming not just The New York Times, CNN, Reuters, ABC, NBC. You can go on and on. This is across the board of glamorizing somebody like this who, again, runs propaganda and couldn’t ask for any better press if she wanted it from the U.S. media.
(…)
