HYBE Accused Of Media Manipulation As KBS Article Of NewJeans Gets Deleted In Real-Time
This article is part of our coverage of HYBE vs. ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin. You can read more and view the entire timeline here.
HYBE has been accused of pressurizing the media to remove unfavorable reports about their ongoing feud with Min Hee Jin and the clash of interest with NewJeans.
After the members of NewJeans held a guerilla livestream, demanding Min to be reinstated and ADOR to be restored to its previous state, KBS, one of the leading media outlets of South Korea, published a report claiming Min Hee Jin’s team had advised the members against such a move.
The report said that NewJeans wanted to hold a press conference right after Min was dismissed as the CEO of ADOR, but her team had argued that it could lead to risks such as breach of exclusive contracts and misunderstandings. But the members were resolute to put their stance out there, and hence made the decision independently.
Soon after the article’s publication, it was removed from the KBS website, which struck netizens as odd. A post on Instiz went viral after highlighting this removal, where the OP (original poster) argued that HYBE engaging in such muscle flexing with the media to avoid bad press will only turn the public against them.
The comments under the post already proved their observation to be correct, as most netizens seemed to be turned off by HYBE’s alleged mediaplay.
- “I really f*cking hate this.”
- “Wow.”
- “HYBE can make KBS of all places to take down articles?”
—”If you keep talking about the right to rebuttal and use threats, what power do journalists have?”
- “They’re behaving like that even though they are not mentioned?”
- “Even the devil is going to be surprised.”
- “Did they again threaten them with right to rebuttal and whatnot?”
- “I’m really sick and tired of HYBE.”
Meanwhile, HYBE received even more criticism recently after HYBE employees were caught mocking BTS’s Jungkook following his post in support of NewJeans.
Read more about it here.
