Comments on: Who Is Mitchell Koss and Why Isn’t He Talking?

By: It’s Time for Current TV to Talk About What Happened to Their Captured Reporters [Reporters In Peril] | Geek & High Tech

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:45:19 +0000

[...] some issues have bubbled to the surface. A Los Angeles-area blogger named Babamoto has taken two in-depth looks at Mitchell Koss, the Current TV producer and cameraman who managed to flee back to [...]

By: spelunker702

spelunker702 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:32:14 +0000

It’s interesting to see a Chinese news report saying that the idea to go to the Tumen River border area came from the same guy who told the Current TV crew to stay away from the boundary.
Reverend Chun Ki-won reveals his suggestion in an interview published in Chinese.

By the way, this is a world exclusive post that I am contributing to EPICANTHUS today.

Here it is:
负责安排此行的美国基督教牧师千基元宣称：“3月17日凌晨3时左右，3名记者和当地导游说要开始继续采访。早晨6时左右，我和她们进行最后一次通话时，她们已经结束采访，所以我建议她们到图们江边边境地区采访。不过，我曾提醒她们，这一地区非常危险，所以要和我商量后再行动，但她们后来并没跟我商量且失去了联系。中国边防军19日下午通知说扣留了两名男子。我才知道出事了。”

http://news.163.com/09/0324/15/5569ST7R000120GU.html

TRANSLATION BY SPELUNKER:
Reverend Chun Ki-won, who was responsible for organizing the itinerary, asserted: “On March 17 around 3 a.m. the 3 journalists and their local guide said they wanted to continue interviews. Around 6 a.m. I had my last telephone conversation with the girls, they had already completed the interviews, so I suggested they go to the Tumen River border area. However I reminded them that this area is very dangerous so they should not take action until after consulting with me. Yet afterward they did not consult with me and we lost touch. It wasn’t until the afternoon of March 19 when China’s border patrol announced the detainment of two men that I knew something wrong happened.”

By: bartscrivner

bartscrivner — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:09:51 +0000

I doubt that Koss alone could have persuaded both women to go. I think he and Ling make the choice, and possibly even before they left the US. She’s ambitious, and why not? But as they entered China with falsified visa applications, which isn’t SOP for most journalists, I wonder how much their bosses at Current knew and signed off on.
I don’t think Koss is Svengali to Ling’s Trilby by any means. Current and Vanguard do more “toe-touch” journalism, meaning there’s usually a stand-up of the reporter confiding breathlessly to camera “Look at me–I’m in INSERT PLACE-NAME HERE”. And despite all Current’s PR machinations, Ling’s no Amanpour.

By: spelunker702

spelunker702 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:29:40 +0000

Do you want to know the only possible reason Mitch Koss is keeping his mouth shut? Here’s the most plausible theory, in my opinion: The idea to go to the Tumen River and cross the border was exclusively his alone. Maybe the local communist guide capitalized on Mitch’s idea and scored a big bounty, but if it was Mitch’s idea to take his crew there in the first place then wouldn’t he be too overcome by embarrassment to reveal the truth after returning to California? If it was indeed Mitch’s idea to go to the Tumen River border area, then I believe that would explain his extreme reluctance to face the nation that still waits for those 2 female colleagues he left behind on the battlefield.

Spelunker

By: djevoke

djevoke — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:16:38 +0000

So, where is he? I understand that he’s trying to keep his own a$$ clean and that he barely escaped probably due to a deal of some sort (I’m speculating). How did they get captured and the two men escaped? How did the two women get sentenced to 12 years?

By: turnedmeintoanewt

turnedmeintoanewt — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:43:50 +0000

It’s not brain surgery, he’s probably shutting up so whatever he might say doesn’t get them into any deeper hot water. He’s also probably working on that advice from the State Department.

What you call a ‘surreal’ level of access to organizations like the State Dept, ATF, etc isn’t that big a deal. The Pentagon itself probably has 200 or more reporters that its media liaison staff know by their first names. There’s information on hundreds of missions, foreign affairs issues, drug busts etc. that are open to media inquiries.

There’s enough drama in the tale of these two reporters without creating more empty-headed scenarios.

By: bartscrivner

bartscrivner — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:54:46 +0000

Here’s Alpert today: http://www.dctvny.org/ABOUT/staff.html

By: douglaseisenstark

douglaseisenstark — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:28:51 +0000

He reminds me of Jon Alpert who may be a decade older and was doing this sort of thing with portable video cameras. Jon worked out of NYC with his wife and young interns and often went to hotspots where he (in)famously inserted his questions into the reports.

By: liberatelaura

liberatelaura — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:59:42 +0000

Some other questions besides your central one:

- If Ling and Lee were effectively disguised as North Korean refugees, what tipped off the NK guards as to their identity?

- If their guide did not lead them into a trap, did they run into one or more NK spies pretending to be refugee helpers?

- And was Mitch Koss able to evade capture because he was not with Ling-Lee at the time but rather waiting across the bridge crossing with the guide-driver?

By: bartscrivner

bartscrivner — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:57:37 +0000

If anything, I think Koss is more idealist than shareholder. The Ling sisters are cute, ambitious “girls” who want to win at everything, and poor Euna Lee was stuck in the sidecar.

Considering that the 18-25 year old crowd prides itself on not reading printed news or watching stuffy networks, we shouldn’t be too surprised that cartoon news, in easy to digest formats, are Current’s stock in trade.

Good job!