Rumors, Fear and US Beef

By Andy Jackson

Fed by a steady diet of Internet rumors and half-truths at best, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to protest, among a myriad of other things, the resumption of American beef imports. At the same time, support for President Lee Myung-bak has plummeted to less than 20 percent in several public opinion polls.

How have things come to this? It is worth noting some of the events leading to the current state of affairs as it could very well serve as a model for similar campaigns in the future, both in Korea and elsewhere.

On April 28, MBC's TV journal ``PD Notebook" aired a program containing several falsehoods. Among them was that a young American woman had recently died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, and that Koreans are genetically susceptible to catching CJD.

The most damaging part of the report was when they showed footage of weakened cows being dragged into a slaughterhouse. PD Notebook placed the caption ``BSE-infected cow" with that footage, implying that Americans knowingly slaughter BSE-infected cattle for human consumption.

The show was forced to air a retraction on May 13 but by then the falsehoods had taken a life of their own through Internet rumors. The rumor mill introduced new falsehoods, such as the myth claiming the U.S. government was trying to force Korea to take meat from older cattle that Americans do not eat (in fact, Americans regularly eat beef from animals over 30 months).

It is no accident that at least half of the participants in earlier protests were middle and high school kids, and not only because they are more susceptible to believing Internet rumors.

Members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union have been pushing propaganda CDs and other materials on their students in an attempt to fan fears of death by eating American beef. A KTEWU chapter in North Chungcheong province went as far as to post banners saying, ``We Don't Want American Mad Cow Beef" at a Children's Day festival on May 5.

The usual suspects, such as leftist professional protestors like Oh Jong-ryeol, head of Solidarity for Reunification, among other organizations, politicians and labor groups have also jumped into the act as the protests evolved into a multi-organizational campaign criticizing both real and imagined faults of the Lee administration.

During all this time, President Lee Myung-bak could hardly have been less effective in countering the rumors and effectively communicating the reasoning behind the beef agreement. The result has been a freefall in his popularity, with even conservatives losing faith in his ability to govern effectively.

So what should Lee do from here?

First, he needs to communicate the facts surrounding the reopening of American beef imports. There have been no known cases of CJD caused by eating American beef. The only confirmed cases of vCJD (the version of the disease cause by consuming tainted meat) in America were found in people who got it by eating European beef.

In May 2007, the World Organization for Animal Health, known by its historical Spanish acronym OIE, the world body in charge of assessing meat safety, unanimously concluded that American beef and beef products from cattle of all ages can be safely traded. It has also stated that American testing methods are credible. The OIE reports are the basis for the reopening of the beef trade, a process that began with the Roh administration.

The Lee administration must also be more effective in dealing with Internet rumors and fear mongering campaigns conducted by groups like the KTEWU.

Of course, that is more easily said than done. Mark Twain once said, ``A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." The speed of the Internet and text message communication has only sped the spread of rumor and misinformation since Twain's day.

However, it is a task that must be attempted.

The presidential campaign of Barack Obama, which has also had to deal with numerous Internet-based falsehoods, has established a site solely dedicated to debunking rumors (entitled ``Fight the Smears"). It publishes documents to counter the most common falsehoods spread about him and gives supporters the means to quickly reply to rumors spread online. A similar site regarding the beef issue could be a step in counter Internet-based misinformation.

Lee must secure a base of support by uniting conservatives under his leadership. His reported efforts to bring Park Geun-hye in as prime minister would be hugely helpful in repairing fissures among conservatives and would certainly give him a needed boost.

One thing he should not worry so much about is placating the protesters so they will get off the streets. They will be around in one form or another for the rest of his presidency. That is fine as long as they are not allowed to disrupt the lives of the other 13 million citizens who call the Seoul area home.

To get things going in the right direction, the President needs to pick up a couple of victories to demonstrate that he is still a strong leader. He should and forcefully campaign for opposition parties to abandon their boycott of the National Assembly and push for passage of the free trade agreement with the United States. Both positions are supported by strong majorities of the public, according to recent polls.

Lee Myung-bak's term has gotten off to a rocky start, but this early stumble is an opportunity to retool and emerge as a more effective president.

Andy Jackson teaches American government in the Lakeland College bridge program at Ansan College, Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at andyinrok@yahoo.com