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August 10, 2005
Ben is Stupid: The Sequel
Not only don't I know Korean or Korean culture, I am reminded that I didn't learn how to be a journalist in two weeks either. Specifically, I am ashamed of a View from the Pew column I wrote last month on Yeouido Full Gospel Church. Though everything in the piece is factually true, I treated it in a judgmental, snarky, un-Christian and unjournalistic way. Really, reading the article now, the levels of hypocrisy I displayed are horrific. I was rightfully chewed out the next day (the only reason it got in the paper at all was because the editor was out). Part of the problem, though not an excuse, was that I wasn't sure the degree to which the "column" was supposed to include my own opinion (my editor assures me that degree is precisely zero). Sure, the sermon was rather toxic. Sure, they dragged me off to an office building and sat me down for two and a half hours and pitched their religion to me, making me late for work and behind schedule. But they were also genuinely doing good work, and I could've lost the dumb comments about ATMs in favor of exploring the realities of a church that has spread out across the country and built a vocational school for disadvantaged kids and a home for the elderly and more all based on the charisma of one single man. That would have been a much better article.
I wouldn't have posted about this (frankly I would rather have forgotten that it happened), except that the piece found its way onto a blog by a much-more-experienced-than-me woman living in Busan, a blog that is apparantly frequented by other much-more-experienced-than-me people in the news business in Korea.
At least the Internet makes me aware of (some of) the repercussions my screw-ups have. I am acutely aware of having graduated from college not two months ago yet and being one of the most blundering, ineffectual people I know, not just because I don't know Korean, but because I haven't gotten my brain around this whole "real life" thing.
Though I suppose, with someone already calling for me to be fired after only six weeks in the profession, I can only go up from here.
Posted by b-applegate at August 10, 2005 8:42 AM
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Comments
The pendulum swings... It's good to reconsider and re-examine your prejudice when they jump up and bite you. Profitable and constructive. Yes, your article made me wince, as it did others, but it was what you experienced, and in that, it was true. It was your opinion, but without a shared reference, not very useful. Learn, and move on. You touched a nerve, I think. And isn't that a good thing, too?
Posted by: Dad at August 12, 2005 11:01 AM
By the way, AsiaPages has moved to another service, so the link should be THIS.
And since writing what I wrote, I have met Ben Applegate and had some beers with him; he's a good chap. A raging, anti-Protestant lunatic, but a good chap. ;)
Posted by: kushibo at June 18, 2006 7:57 AM
i is stupid aint i!!!! :)
Posted by: ben at August 20, 2008 3:12 PM