Chapter 349 Public Opinion
Chapter 349 Public Opinion
As the saying goes, "If the water is too clear, there will be no fish; if the person is too strict, there will be no followers." If a person is too clean and too upright, it will be difficult for him to make friends, let alone gain the trust of others. The reason is that a person who is as clean as a saint will be seen as an outsider in the eyes of others, and he is the kind of person who cannot be trusted.
An Rushong was certainly not a pure and flawless saint, but because he had been with Li Minbo for too short a time and they did not know each other well enough, even if there was something unclean about him, Li Minbo would not know, at least he did not have any definite evidence in his hands.
Previously, Li Minbo launched a plan to support the development of the Internet industry. His intention to provide financial subsidies to NGN companies was very obvious. This was actually a move to deepen the "mutual trust" between the two parties. However, it would take some time to complete this step.
An Rushong is a smart man, so he is not surprised by Li Minbo's distrust, nor does he feel unbalanced. He has plenty of patience.
The dinner lasted less than an hour, and when An Rushong and Bai Jinjun left the villa, it was not yet eight o'clock in the evening.
Things that leaders care about or assign to you must be handled as quickly as possible, and it is best to handle them as soon as possible. Although An Rushong was not in the system in his previous life, he still understood the basic principles. Therefore, early the next morning, he mailed a series of evidence in his hands about Li Yuanjun's abuse of public power, corruption and other crimes to the Central Investigation Office of the Supreme Procuratorate. The recipient was the prosecutor Ha Changmin mentioned by Li Xiangen.
Interestingly, on the same day that he mailed the relevant evidence to prosecutor Ha Changmin, Vice President Lee Won-jun, who was caught up in the scandal, also made a public response to the scandal. He accepted interviews from reporters from several TV stations and newspapers on the steps in front of the KBS TV station building at 18 Yeouidong.
In this specially arranged interview, Li Yuanjun declared that the scandalous revelation about him that first appeared in the NGN news pop-up window was a complete slander and defamation against him personally. All the "stories" and "plots" involved in the revelation were fictitious and fabricated by the worst screenwriters. So far, these false revelations have caused great damage to his personal image and reputation. Therefore, as a victim, he will reserve the right to hold the rumor makers accountable and sue them.
Since the news of the scandal was first released in the hot news of the NGN news pop-up window, Li Yuanjun said in his public statement that he would first arrange for a lawyer to file a lawsuit against NGN. He demanded that NGN compensate him for his reputation loss and make a public apology to him.
In order to increase the credibility of his own words when making a public response to the scandal, Li Yuanjun swore and made oaths. He also got a large number of people from KBS TV station to stand up for him, including two vice presidents of the TV station, several screenwriters, PDs and the like, all of whom were relatively famous.
It must be admitted that Li Yuanjun's public response was very effective. This guy has been deeply involved in the media field for decades, and his influence and connections are unfathomable. Therefore, on the same night, several major TV and radio stations in South Korea broadcast related programs, and the stance of the news reports naturally tended to be on Li Yuanjun's side.
On the second day, a hot news topic appeared on Yahoo's hot news list: the Korean Film and Television Writers Association and the Korean Journalists Association both issued statements, publicly supporting Lee Won-jun and condemning NGN's news pop-up windows for publishing false information.
The so-called Korean Film and Television Writers Association and the Korean Journalists Association are actually trade unions for the screenwriter and journalist industries. To ordinary people, these two groups seem to be unknown and not many people know about them, but in the screenwriter and journalist industries, the influence of these two groups is still very large. It can even be said that they represent the common voice of these two industries.
Therefore, when these two groups stood up and expressed their views, a sense of impending storm directly fell on NGN Company. As the president of the company, An Rushong naturally had to bear a certain amount of pressure.
On the afternoon of the same day when the Television Writers Association and the Journalists Association made their public statement, An Rushong received a call from the United States. Of course, it was not a call from the U.S. government, but a call from Draper Fisher Jurvetson. As a partner and venture capitalist, Draper Fisher Jurvetson paid attention to the public opinion in South Korea, and they were worried about the public opinion storm faced by NGN.
Considering that An Rusong is the largest shareholder of NGN and also the chairman of the company, and that when signing the investment agreement, DFJ and Apple had made a clear commitment not to interfere with the normal business operations of NGN, DFJ, although concerned about the public opinion storm currently faced by NGN, has no power to directly put pressure on An Rusong and ask him to respond to the public opinion storm. But then again, he is an investor after all, and it is absolutely understandable that he cares about the external risks faced by the company. Most importantly, although DFJ and Apple cannot interfere with the normal operations of the company, they also have the right to know. Therefore, under the current situation, it is also in compliance with regulations for them to call to understand the situation.
In response to inquiries from DeFeng Ju, An Rushong did not provide the other party with sufficiently detailed feedback. He only told the other party that this turmoil would not cause any form of damage to NGN, and it would subside within the next two days. After that, NGN would profit from this turmoil.
As the chairman of a company, it is obviously a very comfortable thing to hold the absolute controlling rights of the company in one's hands. Just like An Rusong, he holds the absolute controlling rights of NGN, so when facing investors like DFJ, he has enough confidence.
Imagine if he was in a weak position in terms of controlling rights, how could he be so arbitrary? In the current situation, NGN company is a tool to bring him wealth, and NGN software is a tool to bring him influence. If one day he loses absolute controlling rights of the company, then even if he is still the largest shareholder of the company, NGN will no longer be a tool for him. At least, he will not be as comfortable using it as he is now.
Therefore, this call from DFJ reminded An Rushong of a crucial "point": no matter how many rounds of financing NGN Company will promote in the future, and no matter what situation NGN Company will face after its listing in the future, there is one issue that can never be ignored, that is, he must ensure absolute controlling rights over NGN Company as much as possible.
Perhaps, some work related to capital operation needs to be started when the opportunity arises.
Just when a public opinion storm was about to form and it seemed that the entire Korean media industry was standing up for the upright Vice President Lee Won-jun and was about to attack NGN, a piece of news was suddenly pushed to the top of Yahoo's hot news list: the Central Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office raided KBS TV station and took away Lee Won-jun, the vice president of the TV station, for investigation on suspicion of corruption and embezzlement of public funds.
This incident caused an uproar in Korean society. Some people believe that flies don't bite seamless eggs. Since the scandal was exposed before and the prosecution intervened in the investigation later, it means that there may be something wrong with this guy Li Yuanjun.
However, more voices are promoting a conspiracy theory, which claims that the conservatives are actually behind the whole thing, and that Vice President Li Yuanjun's crime is not corruption or embezzlement of public funds, nor is it the use of public power to coerce others, but because his existence has hindered the conservative party's efforts to extend its influence into KBS TV station and hindered the efforts of pro-Japanese people to manipulate public opinion.
Conspiracy theories like this were widely circulated on the Internet, and the result was that a group of people sat in protest in front of the KBS TV station building the next day. The slogans they shouted changed from supporting Lee Won-jun to defending the independence of the Korean press and fair reporting.
However, before this conspiracy theory spread and attracted enough social attention, several videos with hot content and not suitable for children were released on the Internet. Although the heroines in these videos are different, the hero is fixed. He is Lee Won-jun, the vice president of KBS TV station, who is praised by the media as "upright".
There are no blurs on the characters in these videos, and Li Yuanjun's face appears extremely clear. There is no AI face-changing technology these days, so these videos with explosive scenes and shocking dialogues immediately exploded the Internet once they were circulated. Although traditional media such as TV stations and newspapers did not report on them, related videos were extremely popular on various portals and news platforms.
In just a few days, the entire Korean news media was reversed. The upright Vice President Li Yuanjun was called a "bastard" overnight. Countless people on the Internet spread angry rumors and demanded that he be sentenced to death. Some active women's boxing organizations even blocked the door of KBS TV station. They threw paint and feces on the TV station building and demanded that all the senior executives of the TV station, including President Zheng Yuanzhu, resign.
However, NGN, which was the first to release the news of Li Yuanjun's scandal, chose to keep a low profile at this time.
(End of this chapter)