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Unfolding Stories
To YouTube and beyond: controversial South Korean pundit kicked off radio
South Korea's most controversial talk show host had his hit programme taken off air, so now he's taken his massive following to YouTube.
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In this photo taken on January 9, 2023, 'News Factory' talk show host Kim Ou-joon speaks during an interview with AFP at a studio in Seoul. (AFP/Jung Yeon-je)
A
hero to some. A foul-mouthed conspiracy theorist to others. South Korea's most controversial talk show host had his hit programme taken off air, so now he's taken his massive following to YouTube.
Since 2016, Kim Ou-joon's show "News Factory" had aired early mornings on state-funded Seoul radio station TBS, hosting everyone from politicians to classical music stars as the "unashamedly biased" presenter bashed his bete noire: conservatives.
It was the top-rated radio show in the South Korean capital for five years, according to market research data, and Kim became one of the country's highest-paid pundits.
More of a political "influencer" than a journalist, Kim occupies the same kind of space as American late-night television hosts such as Jon Stewart -- using lewd humour to dissect South Korean news, in a nakedly partisan, occasionally offensive manner.
So when a conservative administration took power in May last year, things got a little more difficult.
He has since been sued for defamation more than a dozen times, and when attempts to pressure TBS to remove his show failed, Seoul's conservative-run city government pulled funding.
Officially, the state money was removed to allow the broadcaster to go private.
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