An uphill battle against the ‘transcript’ juggernaut

Recordings can change history in politics.

Yang Sung-heeThe author is a columnist of the JoongAng Ilbo. Conversations with trusted confidants over the phone can be recorded and shared with the rest of the world. It can happen to anyone and can spell doom for some and rescue others. If not for the audio recordings of meetings between the parents of Fifty Fifty’s members and Warner Music Korea officials confirming that the multinational music label was trying to make their daughters leave their Korean agency, the girl group’s original small label could have helplessly received a fatal blow. The electronic recording function of a Galaxy phone had saved the group’s CEO. Anything that takes place behind the scenes now can be exposed through a recording.

Recordings can change history in politics. The public disclosure of electronic recordings of conversations and phone calls made in the presidential offices during the Watergate scandal led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation. His lying about the Watergate coverup was exposed. President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monika Lewinsky, a White House intern working in the office of chief of staff, was revealed through taped conversations of Lewinsky was talking about the president over the phone with someone she befriended at the Pentagon, which led to Clinton’s “Zippergate” during his second term.

The easiness of recording phone calls made things more complex. Many politicians lost face because of the revealed recordings of them pouring their heart out during phone calls. The scandal related to money envelope handouts during a party convention electing the leadership of the Democratic Party (DP) in 2021 was triggered by the disclosure of conversations taped in the phone of former party deputy secretary-general Lee Jung-geun. The exposure of DP head Lee Jae-myung damning his sister-in-law in a phone conversation fixated the cruel image of the politician. People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun in 2022 motioned a bill prohibiting the recording of conversations without consent, only to be criticized for attempting to outlaw the disclosure of truth and defending unrestrained tongue-lashing by politicians. Electronic recordings that violate the privacy of individuals cannot be tolerated, but the matter should be different for public and influential figures.

The political episodes involving audio recordings and disclosures of them as well as text messages became intemperate and commonplace under the Yoon Suk Yeol presidency. The first lady’s oddities and heedlessness were exposed from the seven-hour-long taped conversations and messages she shared with a reporter of YouTube news channel Voice of Seoul during the presidential campaign. In the conversations, Kim Keon Hee acted more like a commander of the presidential campaign rather than the wife of a candidate. Regardless of the illegality of a hidden camera, she was caught speaking freely about her husband and accepting a luxury bag from a mysterious pastor. The exposure of Kim Dae-nam, a former secretary in Yoon’s office, was equally confounding as he was heard speaking disdainfully of the president with selfish ambitions. The sad sight of the naked faces of the Yoon government and the presidential office disheartened and angered the people.

The climax in the recording-betrayal series came with so-called political broker Myung Tae-kyun sharing his conversations with the presidential couple. The episode running for more than a month now revealed the president meddling in the party nomination of a candidate in a by-election. The presidential office argues there is no legal liability as the event took place before Yoon was sworn in. But the DP claims to have secured a recording of the two’s conversation after Yoon started presidency. We cannot know what recordings will blow up as the DP pushes for a special probe on the first lady and rationale for a presidential impeachment ahead of its head facing trials on various criminal counts.

We are forced to hear and learn the unofficial side of the presidential couple through the revelation. They can freely speak their mind to whoever, but they seem to forget they hold a highly important public position. Can their carelessness in the face of the commonness of taping come from confidence or thoughtlessness? Before presidency, Yoon used to talk to the members of the cabinet on his private phone although it is a norm to use an office phone for government affairs due to the risk of wiretapping and hacking.

Smartphones today are indispensable, but those of the presidential couple are servicing as smoking guns to bring them down. Their loyalists are only worsening the farce by claiming the recordings had been maliciously edited and chanting unity to fight against conspirators.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.