News Program Upsets Fans After Mistaking Jonghyun For BTS's Leader

After an extending mortuary, K-pop idol Kim Jonghyun will be laid to rest in South Korea soon. [...]

By Megan Peters

After an extending mortuary, K-pop idol Kim Jonghyun will be laid to rest in South Korea soon. This week, fans learned the singer passed away at 27-years-old after an apparent suicide attempt. Fans are still reeling as news about the tragedy continues to emerge, but one NBC station recently added salt to that open wound.

Over on Twitter, the k-pop fandom rose up after a local news segment from NBC Chicago went live. The station's morning news program covered the death of Jonghyun, but the report contained major errors. Namely, the video package confused the SHINee vocalist with rapper RM from the group BTS.

As you can see below, the package introduces RM as Jonghyun and uses a clip of BTS from the band's recent appearance on The Ellen Show. NBC Chicago went on to incorrectly say "that man" being Jonghyun "recently appeared on The Ellen Show and the American Music Awards."

Fans bombarded the station with complaints, and NBC Chicago has since released an apology for the incident.

"Yesterday, while reporting on the death of Kim Jong Hyun, a member of the popular South Korean boy band SHINee, NBC 5 mistakenly aired video of the band BTS during our morning newscast. We sincerely apologize for this error," the station tweeted.

If you are not familiar with Jonghyun, you should know the talented idol was a singer, songwriter, and producer in South Korea. Signed under SM Entertainment, Jonghyun made his debut in 2008 with the group SHINee and went on to become a chart-topping singer. Shortly before his death, Jonghyun enjoyed a large-scale solo concert of his own, and fans had hoped the singer would announce a comeback for early 2018.

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