Jang Bong-gun's Pen Memoir My Newspaper Company Story 5

During the Lee Myung-bak administration, I was having a drink at Gwanghwamun when I spotted TBS reporters and Lee Dong-gwan, a presidential aide nicknamed 'Lee the Rats,' at the next table drinking. Overhearing their conversation bothered me, so I loudly muttered, "Rat bastards like you are…" The people sitting with me covered my mouth. That was when I really hated Lee Myung-bak.

I once drew Lee Myung-bak as a rat in my cartoons, but the editor-in-chief called me in and complained, so I redrew it as a human figure. I'm usually quick to make corrections when complaints come in. (After nearly 30 years of accumulation, such corrections have become like a pile of stones.)

It was around the end of the Kim Dae-jung administration when I recall saying something in a book by interviewer Ji Seung-ho. I remember saying something to the effect of, "While press reform has gotten on a certain track, I hope that the culture of excessive mockery and contempt, including the anti-Chosun movement, will improve." I believed that mockery and derogatory terms escalate each other and should be restrained.

However, after that, the culture of mockery became even more severe, reaching its peak during the 'Na Kkeum-soo' era, and it continues to this day.

'Moon Jo-tal-lae-yu' combines the initials of names, so it's difficult to call it a derogatory term, but since it includes the contemptuous word 'tal,' it could be considered one. Even now, I believe derogatory terms like 'Rat Park,' 'Chicken Geun-hye,' 'Jule,' and 'Tteok Prosecutor' should be avoided as much as possible.

However, objectively speaking, these derogatory terms as a response to the tyranny of overwhelming power also constitute freedom of expression and satire. The problem lies in the fact that whether it is accepted as satire by the majority is subject to each person's arbitrary judgment.