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Before MBC apologized, the Hankyoreh said a considerable portion of the report was true, and labeled criticism of the reporting a "witch hunt." They were scornful of people who accused the program of treason by criticizing Hwang and his team. President Roh Moo-hyun was along the same lines in an article posted on the Choeng Wa Dae website, where he welcomed the Hankyoreh reporting and said he felt uncomfortable at seeing the PD Diary so widely attacked.

An OhMyNews reporter, after criticizing Prof. Hwang as "having repeatedly lied to conceal the facts," asked back, "Are we really democratized after having for so long been influenced by arguments that justify dictatorship in the name of development?" One article went as far as defining the public sentiment toward “PD Diary” as a combination of "fanatical nationalism" and a "results-are-everything ideology." A senior official in the Democratic Labor Party said nothing was wrong with the “PD Diary” reporting, which was timely, and likened women who offered to donate ova for stem cell research to "chickens on a poultry farm."

Then there were the usual suspects among the civic groups. Those attending a forum sponsored, among others, by the Citizen's Coalition for Democratic Media on Thursday persisted in defending the MBC show. They detected "a queer call to keep mum about the truth in the name of the national interest," and said the very spirit of journalism had come under attack. “The ‘PD Diary’ reporting was fully justified in raising ethical issues; better now than never"

Most ordinary citizens were puzzled. What is in it for MBC, they wondered. Is it so disagreeable for us to be proud of Prof. Hwang when he has emerged as our first world-class scientist in a long time? Of course, they felt, Hwang should be censured if it turns out that he fabricated results intentionally. But if there were errors in procedure, couldn’t the producers have the kindness to point them out quietly so they can be corrected?

The suspicions of ordinary people, then, focus on the real motives of the Hwang-bashers and the defenders of “PD Diary,” and on whether the two are not pulling on the same string. Globally, leftist movements tend to be concerned about the environment, abortion, the death penalty, the gap between rich and poor, union causes, student causes -- and bioethics. The unique features of the Korean left wing, in addition, are opposition to Seoul National University, the capital’s wealthier districts, privilege, conglomerates and America. South Korea's leftist movement also likes to stress that we are “one nation,” with all the pro-North Korean sentiment that implies.

Ordinary common sense may not tell us how these are related to the Hwang Woo-suk affair. But a clue is provided by OhMyNews, when it links justifying dictatorship for the sake of development with blind belief in the national interest and the consequent abandonment of due process: there you get a glimpse of a mindset that regards defending Hwang Woo-suk as a product of vested interests or a remnant of dictatorship. It is not for nothing that a reader warned OhMyNews against "looking at the Hwang Woo-suk affair under the tenet of classical progress theory that medical technology, monopolized capital and the state all collude with one another."

An OhMyNews reporter likened criticism of “PD Diary” with the Nazis and Japanese imperialism, which made it nothing but “totalitarianism” in the spirit of the “dictatorship of the past." But such statements in themselves are intolerant and censure differing views in an extreme way.

The greatest loss of face has been the president’s. In the image of him when MBC issued a formal apology after he had just defended it, we can read the embarrassment of the entire progressive wing, who failed to read ordinary citizens’ ordinary minds.

The majority of ordinary citizens and Internet users who harbor affection toward Prof. Hwang may have played a key role in the last presidential election, rejecting “dictatorship” and bringing us the current government. These ordinary people who are indignant at “PD Diary” and its disparaging of Prof. Hwang are also the people who thronged the Gwanghwamun intersection to restore their pride in Korean football.

In other words, the national interest is rooted in our will and efforts to defend it; it is not a cliquish settlement of accounts to get a particular result. If the ruling forces now even take to bashing ordinary people, they are going too far.