[article][Asian Junkie] Rain, his military service controversy, and the misguided netizen witch-hunt.
— Posted by: Stephe, Managing Editor ^@@^
Editor IATFB of Asian Junkie wrote:
Well, the actual point of contention for netizens seems to be whether special treatment for celebrity soldiers should even exist to begin with, and while that issue isn’t directly the fault of Rain — since he likely isn’t being treated any different in terms of his actual duties than a litany of other celebrities now and in the past — the nature of his scandal (dating a famous celebrity) has made him the face of the issue nevertheless. As such, he’s taken an unfair brunt of the public outcry because people needed a scapegoat to thrust their existing woes on.
With the utter frustration we’ve been feeling lately because of what we’ve perceived as South Korea’s inexplicable “hatred” of Rain, this statement (and the entire article) gives us a lot of interesting food for thought.
It’s also given us a somewhat clearer look into the minds of its netizens. What do you all think? ^@@^
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Asian Junkie 1/23/2013 — written by IATFB
Rain, his military service controversy, and the misguided netizen witch hunt
The outrage at Rain — that stems from accusations of negligence in regards to his military duties — has subsided a bit, but it doesn’t change the fact that this could follow him for a while, as military service is not something that affects just the insulated world of K-pop, but Korea as a whole, which is why controversies like these really end up hurting celebrities (commercials/brand/whatever).
For whatever reason though, I feel like international mainstream sites haven’t been giving international fans all the details of the situation. People seem confused about what the problem actually is and why Rain is getting such hatred, thus resulting in them rushing to condemn either him or netizens. My goal here is to explore what has actually happened and what people really have a problem with.
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Initially, I understood both sides to an extent. I knew why netizens were pissed at him, and I assumed he was getting special treatment, but I shrugged it off as the status quo, basically.
Well, it turns out his treatment wasn’t that special after all.
Note: These translations are from a fan site. However, not only are they legit translations but there are corroborating sources on the same stories.
The authorities have issued a statement clarifying their position regarding the controversy that has arisen regarding whether the singer Rain(age 31, Jung Ji Hoon), known to be in a romantic relationship with actress ‘Kim Tae Hee’, received special preferential treatment during his military service.
On the 4th, the MBC TV show entitled ‘Section TV Entertainment Communications’ (hereafter referred to as “Section”) reported on the controversy regarding the special preferential treatment Rain allegedly received as an entertainment soldier.
According to the report made by Dispatch, Rain went on dates with ‘Kim Tae-Hee’ as frequently as around once a week since last November, while on overnight or daytime leave. Immediately following the report, there was a deluge of critical comments on the internet claiming that “The military granted Rain preferential treatment as an entertainment soldier.”
In actuality, the average number of days that an ordinary soldier receives for vacation is 44 days. Entertainment soldiers receive an average of 75 days, which is around 1.7 times more.
So basically, he didn’t do much out of the ordinary at all for his position, but he’s now the face for the public’s outrage.
The military could have left the situation at that, but they went even further, basically saying outright that their wrath is being misplaced.
In a phone call with Joy News 24 on the morning of the 3rd, Mr. ‘Shin In Gyun’ commented that “There appears to be a tendency to escalate this issue into a severe witch hunt in a manner that reminds me of past incidents involving Tablo and Tajinyo. It’s necessary to evaluate the situation more level-headedly” and disclosed the results of his research.
According to Representative Shin, as had been disclosed by the Defense Agency for Public Information Services, Corporal ‘Jung Ji Hoon’ received a total of 17 days of reward vacations and 10 overnight leaves granted based on individual performance and 44 days of overnight leaves for the performance of work duties in the 10 month period he worked as an entertainment soldier in the Defense Ministry beginning in March of last year, making a sum total of 71 days of vacations or overnight leaves.
Representative Shin explained the reasons for the leaves in detail, arguing that “It is incorrect for the media to exaggerate based on this data to give the impression that Corporal ‘Jung Ji Hoon’ used as much as 71 days of vacation or leave days.”
We’re all familiar with how the Internet can be, especially when the issue at hand invokes strong emotions. As such, the reaction isn’t a surprise, but a lot of it is still undeserved.
Of course, that’s not to say that Rain has been completely without fault.
Corporal ‘Jung Ji Hoon’ (singer Rain) who violated the decree on military service in the process of dating with his girl girlfriend while off the base for official military duties, has been placed under a period of probation of one week. The degree of the punishment for him is the lowest among ordinary private soldiers.
Therefore, corporal Jung must take time for self-examination by writing letters of apology, only in designated areas inside the Defense Media Agency where he belongs, for a week from tomorrow. He’ll sleep and eat in the same place as his soldier mates do, but he will be excluded from all the usual training schedules. He is alleged to have not raised any particular objection to their decision.
Before this, a Defense Ministry officer said, “Rain violated the degree on military service four times by moving alone not led by any military official in charge while off the base for official military duties and by not wearing his beret.”
In a nutshell though, his punishment was light because he didn’t actually do much wrong other than not wearing his hat and being given rides home by Kim Tae Hee on four occasions.
So why the outrage? Because they’re calling for punishment that revolves around the assumption that he has been taking extra vacation days, getting preferential treatment, and all sorts of stuff that didn’t actually happen, at least as far as his own role in the military goes.
—–
Speaking of his role, one factor that can’t be explained away is Rain’s transfer to the celebrity soldier division to begin with.
Rain will transfer from the 5th division’s recruitment training center to the Ministry of National Defense as a PR agent. An associate told enews on March 8, “Rain is expected to come to the Ministry of National Defense around March 13. I believe discussions are currently being made on the work Rain will do there.”
Rain enlisted into the army last October opting to serve in a regular army unit and was sent to the 5th division’s recruitment training center. However on February 17 he applied for the Ministry of National Defense’s recruitment for its PR recruitment and was accepted as a PR agent on February 23.
This news was confirmed and reported by Rain fan sites themselves at the time.
So while he’s certainly not responsible for how he’s represented in the media right now, he did make the choice to become a celebrity soldier.
So why is that significant, right?
Well, the actual point of contention for netizens seems to be whether special treatment for celebrity soldiers should even exist to begin with, and while that issue isn’t directly the fault of Rain — since he likely isn’t being treated any different in terms of his actual duties than a litany of other celebrities now and in the past — the nature of his scandal (dating a famous celebrity) has made him the face of the issue nevertheless. As such, he’s taken an unfair brunt of the public outcry because people needed a scapegoat to thrust their existing woes on.
The mixture of circumstances has led to confusion in international circles, but I think this article paints a fair overall picture of what has actually happened with the issue at hand. Basically, people feel slighted by the unfair circumstances created for the privileged and have chosen Rain’s case to make their point on. While I understand and support their general cause, using him as their personal pinata is both unproductive and ironically unfair to him.
Trying to kill Rain’s career is going to do little to change things in the long-term, and I think it actually distracts the public from the actual catalyst within this issue: their problem with how the military runs mandatory service.
Cloud USA 
Terri and Stephe you are the best in keeping us updated on our RainRain
I appreciate the both of you Thank you for sharing
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You’re welcome, RaRa. 🙂
Stephe ^@@^
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You ladies do a magnificent job here! Whenever I read something about Rain in the internet or Twitter, I wait for YOUR thoughts on the matter cuz I know you do the walk, ask questions and do the job to get the truth as best as you can. You are right, Rain don’t need to be put in a pedestal, what he needs is an honest to God feedback from us so he can make adjustments and do a good job when he comes back. I think that will be more useful to his career in the long run. Regarding the korean media, they won’t say the truth or apologize cuz that will make them loose face. The only way that would happen is if Rain sue them when he comes back from the military and I don’t think he will do that cuz that will open another can of worms.
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Thank you too, Mari. We appreciate your kind words.
And we will continue to do our best for Rain. I do wish we had more time to devote to the site. But alas, our lives are very full. So, we will just have to do the very best we can.
Terri :-}
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Oh you do your best and then some my friend! You’re so great I sometimes ask myself, how in hell they do so many things for Baby Boo??!! I bet you thought that this down time while Rain was in the military would be boring but no sir, it has being a rollercoaster! I admire you cuz to keep up with Rain is not easy and you do it while working and having family issues too. I bow to you ladies, really!! 😀
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WE have no idea how we do all of these things sometimes either. Between work and family and online activities, it can get insane sometimes.
And yes, we actually believed we were going to get a Rain reprieve with him disappearing for 21 months. HA HA HA HA HA.
Although we were just talking about this last night at dinner. Now that the Rain scandal has died down it has been pretty quiet on the Rain front. Since the Walkathon on the 19th, we actually haven’t seen hide nor hair of him. We are wondering how long this “Rain silence” will actually last.
I’m thinking that DEMA is gonna go “low profile” with Rain, and we aren’t going to see very much of him during these next seven months of his service. Stephe disagrees with me. She believes that DEMA will not be able to resist “using” Rain for PR purposes, and that it won’t be too long before we will see him again.
Bets anyone? LOL.
Terri :-}
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My money is on Stephe’s proposition. As hard as they might want to keep his profile low, they won’t be able to resist. He’s “irresistible” that way. The military knows once June rolls around it will be going, going then in July GONE baby. They won’t have this kind of “free” publicity again. Oh there will be other celebs enlisting true enough, but not another Bi. Maybe when the Big Bang boys enlist, they might be able to duplicate it who knows.
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Thanks, Mari, for being here and staying the course with us all this time. *mwah, mwah, mwah!*
Stephe ^@@^
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Lolll!!! mwah, mwah, mwah to you too, my friend!! I may not be around all the time like I used too for the same reasons you mentioned, life getting complicated and all, but I’m not going ANYWHERE!!! I love Rain, he’s still my #1 baby and I can’t wait to watch him get nasty sexy on a stage again! 😀
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Honestly, I haven’t read anything in this particular article that is much different from what we have already been told. You and Terri have already done and excellent job with explaining things as factually and fairly as possible given the information at hand and the circumstances.
I still haven’t changed my view. While I think Bi wanted to let his public know about his girl andknew there would be some reaction, he didn’t deserve to receive the kind of wrath that was really directed towards the military in general.
How about this Korea, stop requiring established celebrities to enlist then (although that is a radical thought and won’t happen). Then your PR soldier problems will be solved. I don’t know, Asian Junkie seems to think that we international fans don’t get what all the hubbub is about, but really we do. We have deduced that Rain did in fact do some things not quite right, even so he still didn’t deserved the intense backlash. We also get that Koreans want things to be fair for all soldiers with respect to vacation leave, etc. We understand and commensurate to that degree, but don’t just “burn” one man at the stake, be fair and go after ALL soldiers who are in violation of the rules.
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You know?
The thing is Stephe and I have heard from other people over in Korea who have soldier relatives in the ROK Army who say that this privilege they keep talking about with the entertainment soldiers doesn’t really happen. Entertainment soldiers are just SEEN more than other soldiers. And even regular soldiers are often awarded vacation based on meritorious service. And that awarding soldiers with more vacation days is becoming more and more common. So.
I seriously think this was totally a case of Media mayhem. Reporters started spreading misinformation and it got out of control. What we witnessed was simply bad journalism at work–well, if you can even call it journalism, which I am hesitant to do, because it was really tabloidism more than anything.
Terri :-}
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Thank you, BiAlamode.
I really appreciate your comment. A lot.
To all:
Technically, Cloud USA is a fansite, but we do try our very best to remain unbiased when it comes to reporting “Rain news,” which is more than I can say for even the most major Media outlets these days. Speed of output and sensationalism seem to be taking a frontseat to truth these days, which is very frustrating for me, in particular, who learned old-school journalistic techniques–the most important of which was being sure of sources, keeping sources private and reporting news objectively.
In this day of high technology, the Internet and social media, it is often extremely difficult to weed out fact from fiction–as you saw with Rain’s recent situation in the military. Between the bad reporting going on and the language barrier, we had a really tough time deciphering the truth from the manipulation. You would not believe the amount of research and communications going on behind the scenes here–even when we were simply posting news from other sources. And even now, we’re still not sure we got it all right.
I think that one reason Stephe enjoyed this article so much is because AsianJunkie actually wrote several earlier articles which sort of took Rain to task and assumed that the failure was more on his part than on the military or on the netizen side of the house. However, due to Cloud USA’s (and other sites’, I assume) reporting, they began to realize that something was wrong with the Media reports and they changed their stance somewhat. We are always pleased when our work is good enough that it can influence opinions and whenever someone somewhere considers us to be a legitimate Rain news source.
This is a fan-site. So, for someone to use us as a legitimate source is extremely rare, because usually it is automatically assumed that, as a fan-site, we are completely biased towards Rain. Frankly, nothing could be further from the truth.
We love Rain. We sure do. We appreciate his talent, and we certainly do try to show him in a positive light as much as we can. Honestly, though, the reason we can do that so well is not because we are particularly glossing over any flaws of his. Instead, it is because he is so talented and so smart that he generally makes very few mistakes with regard to his life choices and career.
On Cloud USA, you will always find that if Rain does do something wrong, especially something that has the potential to hurt his future career here in the U.S.A., then we are going to tell the truth about it. First of all, it would not do him or his career here any good for us to “pretend” he has no flaws or to lie about a situation. First of all, no one is flawless. So, to expect Rain to live up to perfection would be dumb. As his recent situation proved, he is not without flaw and he does make mistakes. Luckily, we are simply not privy to most of them as a fan-base.
Also, whenever the truth about a situation comes out, which it would eventually, people would recognize it, and if we weren’t being truthful, then we would be liars. Lying would not be good for our reputation as writers, nor would it be of any service to Rain. Seriously, how would his career here in The States be served if Stephe and I were not ethical and honest people? The answer is it wouldn’t be any service to him at all.
Finally, we also do not feel that it is our job to apologize for Rain’s bad behavior. Rain’s a big boy and he is perfectly able to be accountable for his own bad behavior. So, making excuses for him is not our job. It is our job, however, to “report” the facts about whatever it is he has or has not done and to correct any misinformation we uncover about his situation.
The bottom line is although it is our job, as a fansite, to “protect” and “promote” Rain, we just want to go about it the right way, is all. If that makes any sense.
Terri :-}
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Yes….what you said! *SMILES*……
And yes, it makes perfect sense! *SMILES*……
You know what, you ladies are a bright spot in this thing called social media…a RARE bright spot. You and Stephe have always done your best by Rain and this fan site (we Clouds also) and your efforts have certainly not gone unnoticed (at least not by me….SMILES). If I were your boss, you’d both get raises and bonuses and a trip to the Bahamas (or any exotic locale of your choosing) on me (*SMILES*). You have always made this a comfortable place TO socialize. This was only the second place Ever, where I began to comment online and I haven’t looked back since. I want you to know that I truly, truly appreciate it and appreciate you ladies.
You and Stephe have definitely “spoiled” us to a certain degree, because we Clouds also see this as our first news source for all things Rain. Why? because we know that you two will go that extra mile to make sure we get as much or as close to the truth as possible. I’m not a writer by profession, but I have those same sensibilities. I want the facts if I can get them, whatever they are good or bad.
So all I can say is my hat is off to both of you and…….”For Best Duo/Founders Heading a Rain Fan Site”…..the Award goes to………(*Stephe and Terri – Cloud USA*)………….
*SMILES*
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Aww. Thank you, kindly, BiAlamode.
Wow, I wish you WERE my boss. I could use that raise–and the trip. LOL.
Terri :-}
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STEPHE & TERRI
u guy did so much about help cloud to understand how rain and post all the new ans let out the truth what u guy do know and yet u have try hard to even give us all the update and detail what behalf of Rain is you ladies are a make cloud family here and to share and do a lot effort what more is that i am very TRUST by u post and share why u think i am here and why many fans and cloud love about u site ahhahah u have bright this site to where region cloud and USA are bound together here .. i can thank u both esp stephe enough to feed and spoiled us so much about rain that did called effort then what i said ?? …. u ladies have give a best site link and prove us to where u supporting rain i bet RAIN is very happy coz u did so much and yet well dig the TRUST to explain the article ect…. i would love to thank u both for did such beautiful & amazing job even though i am not around time u open this fan-site blog but my bow to u are never forgive it ~
i very appreciated all u dedicated blog of Rain here and yes…. u ladies does deserved a hug from all us who truly know what u very done for pass many for Rain and c,oudUSA as well ~
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Hey, Kongsao, I remember the first time I saw you, and that was over on RainListings with Jax, and Busybee, and Duggu1982… I saw your name in the cafe forum a lot, and the chat box, before we actually met, and you did a SUPER job posting all the Rain videos on the RainTube…
You have really grown and blossomed a lot as a Rain fan since then, and you’ve always shown Rain so much love.
Thanks for coming over and supporting us with Cloud USA, and being our friend. Here’s to being united by Rain for a long time to come, little sister! Cheers! *HUGS* 😀
Stephe ^@@^
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stephe & terri
awawaw that sweetness u both yes i was their their to post all this stuff as well with Jax i glad to part of that site and share what update of Rain i know i crazy about him as only can be fans & cloud support and love Rain too but nerveless my heart never fade from him and i try hard to keep them bounce and more fans to notice what truly inspiration of Rain borough to even why we so hooked by him a amazing and intelligent and talent
like him i would BOW… on that if can seriously i do and for u ladies u both did OUTSTANDING here i could LEAVE this site and yes that time i did even know what cloudUSA site before then that why i hanging in SIXTOFIVE and only site i was their as well yet jax rainlisting and busybee1982 we all meet in that site became HUG friend and family that why i love it so much it SAD both them closed it so u am scrolling all over
place to see their any other site i can TRUST to be visit and home for me to be their and support Rain uh…. finally i romping around site blog and yet that time i was in Fb that how i found u site and starting to come here everyday yet i learn u ladies are so nice and also who actually reply to all us here took even EXTRA MILE to even do as we request as well that was very effort u show your friend and family cloud here in this site that why i LOVE about u ladies not to mention both u are their for Rain LONG enough but even share u side story to us as well i feel a comfort and confident been in this site u know what i mean and yet i am VERY HAPPY as well Rain very LUCKY have you ladies do to for his supporting and i well always be here
ya…. BOTH GET HUG FROM ME ~ 🙂
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Thank you, Kongsao.
Someday, I hope to be able to give every single ONE of you a big hug.
Terri :-}
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Aww, BiA. How much that means to me cannot be put into words. 🙂
Stephe ^@@^
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The things that are different here from what I’ve been reading are these:
* This article actually shares Rain’s true number of vacation days and says that it appears he did not get special treatment when it came to personal time off. (I have yet to see this taken seriously in social media or news media anywhere since DEMA and Rep. Shin initially released the information weeks ago.)
* This editor talks about figuring Rain was guilty of everything early on, but digging further into the matter and discovering that, yes, he has been the victim of a witch hunt.
* This article actually recognizes us as having legitimate information about this matter that can be professionally sourced. No one EVER does that — fan sites are generally considered biased and unreliable across the board. That is why we were like this O______O when MTV sourced us about Rain back in 2010.
* This article clearly stated what Rain did do wrong, what he didn’t do wrong, and states that he should not have been made a scapegoat for people’s frustrations with the military.
Even many of the articles written about Rain at the Walkathon repeated the same old same old — Rain in public for the first time after his military controversy of dating Tae Hee and being given special treatment and more days off than other soldiers… and that’s it, without saying anything about his days off being untrue or clearing any of the above issues up. It’s like nothing was ever cleared up, as far as the Media is concerned.
I personally found the people not really seeing Rain as their adversary but the military, and him being something like the military in effigy and receiving all the heat very interesting, seeing as that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out all along, what the hell could be possibly going through these people’s minds. Do I see it as an excuse for Rain’s treatment? NO. Am I still highly pissed? YES. More enraged than I could ever put into words. No one should be treated the way Rain has been treated. But it was food for thought nonetheless.
Thank goodness our careful researching was helpful to this editor when it came to gathering his/her conclusions. If we can help even one person draw a bead on what is or is not legitimate when it comes to not only Rain, but ANY situation out there that needs to be clarified, then our function as writers is all worth it.
Now if only the NEWS media would clean up THEIR act.
Stephe ^@@^
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Stephe says:
“Now if only the NEWS media would clean up THEIR act.”
BiAlamode says:
Well, hope springs eternal.
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Stephe says:
“Now if only the NEWS media would clean up THEIR act.”
LOL.
Yeah. And I’m not holding MY breath on that.
Terri :-}
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Considering the cynical nature of the site itself, I don’t think Rain has ever really been looked at negatively at AJ: http://www.asianjunkie.com/tag/rain/
Basically, I just took the media stories at face value and said, in regards to him getting special treatment, “Well, life isn’t fair.”
Compare it to my takes on some other celebrities and I think you get the gist.
Whenever there’s public outrage, there’s usually a contrarian point of view because people get so out of hand, so I looked into it and found stuff here then confirmed the information. Reality tends to convince people, so it seems to have worked a bit. Probably helps that I’m not all that shy of blasting celebrities if I think they screwed up.
Anyway, the most effective way for a fan site to refute negative public perception is to provide easily linkable information that revolves around facts, not just ranting. So yeah, thanks for the link and good job with your coverage.
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Thank you, very much, and you’re welcome.
We try, very hard, even when sometimes all we want to do is rant because we’re only human. LOL And we’re moms of sons and think of Rain as a “son” in times of trouble, which makes it even worse. LOL! But you are absolutely right — a hot head never truly solves anything.
I’ve been a reader/lurker at Asian Junkie for a while now. Keep up the good work. (Seriously. I enjoy it. You have had me in stitches.)
Stephe ^@@^
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Thank you, AJ.
Like Stephe, I also am a frequent reader of your blog and enjoy it very much. (Just so you know.)
Terri :-}
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He should had posted pictures of other regular soldiers not wearing their berets to make his point. And who’s fault is it that he wasn’t in company of another soldier when he was out of the base and he still needed a ride to come back. If the ride was given a boy-friend it would had been fine but because it was a girl-friend then hell broke lose.
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