When stars' ethical lapses are revealed, they apologize and drop out of TV shows or films they're shooting to take responsibility for their past misconduct. Sometime later ― usually after a certain period of hiatus ― they stage a comeback at least pretending they're sorry for their past actions.
Yet these acts of repentance and taking of responsibility for past misconduct seems to be uncommon in politics.
Unlike TV personalities who have been caught out, ethically flawed politicians ― as we've seen in many past nominees for Cabinet ministers ― hang in there, endure the storm and take the helm again once confirmation hearings are over.
Star educator Seol Min-seok announced on Tuesday he would quit his TV appearances after local media reported that his master's thesis was plagiarized. In a social media post on Tuesday, Seol, who is also accused of distorting history, made an apology ― or something akin to an apology.
“I know many people were disturbed by media reports that my master's thesis was plagiarized. I'm truly sorry for disappointing them,” he said. “I admit that I was lazy in doing research and careless in using references and footnotes while citing other research papers.”
Seol said he felt awful about himself as he was unable to meet expectations from viewers. “I will drop out of all TV shows I appeared in, to take responsibility for my past misconduct. I will introspect myself to be humble and work harder to learn more.”
He appeared on cable network tvN's “Naked World History” and MBC reality show “Those Who Cross the Line.” Before the plagiarism allegation, Seol was under fire for distorting history with inaccurate information about ancient world history.
Not long before Seol's lack of ethical standards was revealed, another celebrity was reeling from plagiarism allegations.
In December, singer Hong Jin-young dropped out of SBS reality show “Mom's Diary: My Ugly Duckling” following the allegation that she plagiarized other research papers in her master's thesis about trends in the content industry in the wake of hallyu, or the Korean wave.
She denied the allegation. “I squeezed meetings with my professor into my busy schedule to proceed with my master's project. I did my utmost to complete it and it was done without any problems back then,” she said in a social media post. “But now my work is judged by a plagiarism checker program and said it was plagiarized by a certain percent. It hurts me. I don't know what to do.”
Her agency IMH Entertainment also denied the plagiarism allegation. “Hong had faithfully participated in her master's project. We checked with her adviser and were told that there are some parts that could cause a certain level of misunderstanding but she didn't plagiarize,” it said.
Hong obtained her master's degree and Ph.D. in international trade from Chosun University in the southwestern city of Gwangju.
The singer said she was willing to “return” her degrees to the university. It's not clear whether returning degrees earned is possible.
The two recent celebrity cases show that TV personalities react differently when caught out over ethics violations than politicians.
Plenty of nominees for Cabinet ministerial posts have been grilled during confirmation hearings for their flawed ethics or their involvement in violations of the law. But such allegations rarely hold back their careers. Many of them got the green light, despite the seriousness of their flawed ethics or legal violations.
It is ironic that TV personalities respond to their ethics violations so differently to high-profile politicians, considering the code of ethics is believed to be stricter in the public sector than in the entertainment business.
Confirmation hearings were introduced in South Korea back in 2000 under the Kim Dae-jung government. They aim to test the ethics and qualifications of candidates for key government posts to ascertain whether they are trustworthy enough to handle taxpayer money.
From the 2000s till the mid-2010s, several nominees dropped out of nominations after their flawed ethics were made public. During the Roh Moo-hyun government, 3 out of 81 nominees quit before or in the middle of confirmation hearings, accounting for 3.7 percent of the entire nominees. During the Lee Myung-bak government, the figure soared to 8.8 percent. The Park Geun-hye government saw 10.1 percent of nominees quit after being tapped for Cabinet positions.
After President Moon Jae-in took power, confirmation hearings became a rubber stamp. Many nominees accused of flawed ethics or violations of the law were grilled during the hearings but this didn't matter; they went on to take jobs afterwards.