criticizes

March 23 (Asia Today) — People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk on Sunday criticized a parliamentary probe plan led by the ruling party, along with the government’s real estate policy and its response to the Iran crisis.

Speaking at a party leadership meeting at the National Assembly, Jang questioned the need for an investigation into alleged prosecutorial misconduct during the previous administration.

“If a fabricated indictment can be proven through a parliamentary probe, it would be much faster to obtain an acquittal in court,” he said. “The investigation will ultimately only confirm that the prosecution and trial were justified.”

Jang also invoked remarks previously made by President Lee Jae-myung, saying, “If a president commits a crime, he should go to prison,” adding that he was “returning those words as they are.”

The conservative party boycotted the National Assembly plenary session a day earlier and held a protest rally outside the chamber. A brief confrontation occurred with ruling party lawmakers after the probe plan passed.

Jang criticized the government’s real estate policy, accusing the president of centralizing decision-making while excluding public officials from the process.

“By that logic, the president, who is facing multiple trials, should step away from judicial policy,” he said.

He also warned against expanding fiscal spending in response to the Iran crisis, citing concerns over inflation, exchange rates and rising oil prices.

“With a triple shock of high exchange rates, inflation and oil prices, releasing an additional 25 trillion won, about $18.7 billion, would push prices and the currency higher,” he said. “This is not the time for cash handouts but for stabilizing the economy.”

Floor leader Song Eon-seok echoed the criticism, accusing the administration of attempting to consolidate power and warning against what he described as excessive control over parliamentary committees.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260323010006783

Daryl Hannah is no fan of FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.” She made that abundantly clear in an op-ed for the New York Times that also criticized the series for what she claims is a misogynistic portrayal of her younger self.

“It’s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show,” Hannah, 65, wrote in the op-ed published Friday. “These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”

A representative for FX did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

“Splash” and “Kill Bill” star Hannah, whose romance with Kennedy in the 1990s made for tabloid fodder before his marriage to Bessette, wrote that the Ryan Murphy-produced project depicted her as “irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate.” She wrote that the show also depicted her as a cocaine-loving, selfish obstacle in the way of the series’ late lovers. Kennedy and Bessette Kennedy died in a plane crash in 1999.

These creative choices, she claimed, were “no accident.”

Hannah decried her story being used as a “narrative device” to drive tension in the series and as a result, the series fell into “textbook misogyny” by pitting two women — in this case, actor Dree Hemingway’s Daryl Hannah and Sarah Pidgeon’s Carolyn Bessette — against each other.

The actor, also a filmmaker and advocate for environmental and senior health causes, also distanced herself from the series’ “untrue” depictions of her life, behavior, actions and relationship with Kennedy.

“I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone’s private memorial,” she wrote. “I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s.”

“Love Story,” created by Connor Hines, premiered in February with Paul Anthony Kelly starring as Kennedy. Hannah wrote that since the show’s debut, she received many “hostile and even threatening” messages from viewers who believe the series’ depictions.

Before Hannah’s op-ed, Murphy received criticism from Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy Jr. In an interview with “CBS News Sunday Morning,” the 33-year-old political commentator said Murphy “knows nothing” about his family and that the prolific TV creator is making a “ton of money on a grotesque display of someone else’s life.”

While she has often chosen not to address “outrageous lies, crappy stories and unflattering characterizations,” Hannah wrote her “silence should not be mistaken for agreement with lies.” She said she felt compelled to speak out against the series’ depiction of her because continuing her “good work,” including her philanthropic efforts, “requires an intact reputation.”

Hannah said she has respected the Kennedy family’s privacy and, like Schlossberg, condemned “self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo and speculation.”

“In a digital era, entertainment often becomes collective memory,” she wrote. “Real names are not fictional tools. They belong to real lives.”