I decided to take down my ridiculously long "About Me" rant. AllKPop has improved vastly over the past few months, so some of my points are not as relevant (and my rage not as proportionate) today. But a year ago, AKP's EVIL brought out my inner raging activist, and although it's embarrassing to reveal how intensely I defended pop idols of all things, I have to admit that it produced some good writing. o_0 Truth be told, I became rather infamous for my long-winded rants of righteous indignation and angry protest. >_>; My only defense is that SS501 inspires such devotion and the strong need to protect them. :P
(before AKP's major improvement in late 2010)
I consider it my personal
mission to battle
AKP's blatant bias, more specifically, their particular dislike for
SS501, arguably the sweetest, humblest, and one of the most talented and lovable idol groups ever. Whether it is a sad lack of coverage or an unnecessarily negative tone, my fellow
TripleS and I will be there to fight the corrupt system with a bombardment of tips and comments of judicious outrage.
But this goes way beyond just indignation as a fan. This is about
principles, which AKP obviously knows nothing about because it is a biased, unprofessional, unreliable, sorry-excuse-for-a-"news"-site. Although there are many,
many K-Pop sites that are better than AKP, the sad fact of the matter is that AKP is, unfortunately, the most frequented one. And because they use their vast influence, not to share news on
all K-Pop as their name suggests, but to breed contempt for artistes they consider losers while shoving their favorites down the readers' throats, I am forced to endure their form of "journalism" just to try to
right their oh-so-wrongs.
If you also think that AKP treats some artists unfairly, I encourage you to comment about it in their articles. (But please watch what you say. Hostility only lowers the credibility of our complaints. Civil and logical attitudes are key to a peaceful protest.) Once in awhile, AKP writers do seem to listen to us and improve a little, so the more
Comment Crusaders, the better!
(in response to AKP's denial of bias)
AKP has improved so much in the past 2 months that it’s like a completely different site. I really, really appreciate the
faster articles, wider coverage, direct translations of articles, and fewer personal remarks.
Bias is human nature and thus unavoidable, but there's no need to add personal comments. AKP already expresses their leanings the same way all news sources do--in the
way they report (all) the news. AKP writers get to decide which Korean articles to use as a source, and their views will inevitably influence the way they translate them into English, perhaps with a positive/negative spin or including/omitting certain information. So their views are still noticed, but by sticking to direct translations only, AKP can maintain
professionalism, like a real news site.
AKP can post more frivolous stuff on their favorites, just as long as they
keep reporting all the important stuff on all artists. Just please continue the progress of the past 2 months, AKP!
That said,
it is kind of insulting that AKP is trying to make it seem like their prior biased behavior from the past 3 years is just a figment of the reader’s imagination, even though no one, I mean,
no one, no matter how much they love AKP, can deny that AKP used to be extremely biased. (For the most part, I agree with their defense, that even when they make a conscious effort to be unbiased, they can't please all fans because fans can be somewhat sensitive. Honestly, though, AKP is only able to say that
now, after 2 months of respectability. Of course fans will still call AKP biased even after they've tried to improve, because AKP has a
long history of being biased!)
I understand that more popularity demands more coverage, but that really doesn’t justify AKP’s bias against SS501. (It’s been awhile since I’ve had to rant about this, but AKP calling us
paranoid conspiracy theorists was just too much.)
SS501 is one of the most popular idol groups in Korea, and now Asia. There’s no way you can use the excuse that less popular artists get less coverage; that doesn’t, or
shouldn’t, apply to them. In fact, AKP used to give rookie groups more articles than 5-year SS501. >_>; It's not just that Triple S are unhappy with the content of the news (although it did seem to be only negative SS501 stuff on AKP). The
problem is that
AKP neglected to report on SS501 at all most of the time.
Despite reporting on similar (or lesser) news for other groups, AKP missed SS501’s Fifth Year Anniversary, DSP’s statements about the members’ status during the contract issues, Hyun Joong’s fashion endorsements, Young Saeng and Kyu Jong’s vacationing in USA, Jung Min’s expansion of his business Royal Avenue to other Asian countries, Hyung Jun’s big birthday fanmeeting (mini-concert with comedians, 4MEN, U-Kiss, and SS501 members), and Hyung Jun’s Singapore showcase and fanmeeting. Those were just the major news missing in June-August 2010. There were many other SS501-related news in the past few years that never got posted on AKP.
Thankfully, SS501 (
finally) started getting fair coverage 2 months ago, when AKP (finally) started acting like a respectable news site. But no matter what they claim,
there’s no denying that AKP had serious bias before. Even non-fans acknowledge the particularly negative treatment of SS501. Since AKP is not just one entity but a whole staff with differing views, I’d like to know how it’s possible that not one writer liked them. What’s there to dislike from one of the kindest, most humble, talented, gracious, adorkable, and charismatic groups? But I don’t think we’ll ever get an answer for that. *sigh*
