Korean short-track athlete Kim Gun-woo was mourned by his fans. However, he was still alive.
On September 23rd, a story announcing that he had passed away appeared on Kim’s Instagram without his knowledge. This made many of his fans react by mourning and leaving comments in grief; at the same time, news outlets quickly reported his death. Most headlines stated it as fact, while only a few described it as a rumor. However, a few hours later, it turned out to be fake news, since he posted another story clarifying that he is still alive. He stated his position on his Instagram story that he is trying to determine exactly what happened, and how it happened while apologizing to the fans who were concerned by the incident.
Search results captured on September 29 still show headlines such as “Short track athlete Kim Gun-woo passes away three months after retiring.”
The incident has been quickly resolved, yet the outlets’ responses toward the misreporting raised questions about how the media handles incorrect reports. After the clarification, some outlets modified their articles. Other outlets had not. A check of several articles later revealed that some outlets quietly deleted their article without a single explanation. Their headline suggesting fake news was still visible from search results as of September 29. Another outlet did not modify the article, although a few readers commented, “It’s a false report” and “Take it down.”
Left: The headline in search results. Right: The article itself, now deleted.
This is ironic, because the news outlets and media competitively published articles in a rush about Kim’s death. One thing to point out is that all of that happened before a single piece of information had been confirmed. They were fast to report but slow to correct. Kim Gun-woo is alive. But somewhere on the internet, he is still dead.