Family

this renowned musician. I think in some of the reviews, I think that there was sort of this this narrative that Ah Tableau has surmounted and overcome these issues, you know, these attacks. He's one, He's back our triumph art trying to the power of music. Tablow has overcome and paining creates the most beautiful art. I heard that a lot. They did proclaim it as like a triumphant moment. At

this point, I wasn't like completely all there. It's just a weird feeling, you know, you know, like whole like suffering creates the best art, and it made me think that it's not worth it. Art's not worth that much suffering, So like for it to be a comeback really just wasn't It wasn't anna come back yet. When Tableau's solo album, Fever's End came out in November of two thou eleven,

music magazines were praising the record, which he deserved. This was some of Tableau's best work ever, and in general, the press was marveling and how he'd overcome this difficult time in his life. But Tableau wasn't paying attention to any of that. He was more focused on getting past the damage that Tajose campaign had done to his personal life. It would be a while, but Tableau would eventually realize that Tad had not only altered his life, but his

family's lives forever. At the same time, when the press declared his triumphant comeback, when he was finally free from the accusations and the rumors and free to be the artist the Tableau that everyone now finally believed that he was, that he experienced the worst year of his life. Feena fip HOPI tipp what the signs my name? Whenever I can run, I can keep writing there my books on the Worst Tame the Mark Yeah Boo from Vice and

I Heart I'm Dexa Thomas and This is Authentic Episode seven. Family. In July of two thousand eleven, a journalist named Joshua Davis flew from the US to South Korea to write a story about the Tajan No scandal for Wired magazine. He had already done one article for another magazine, and he wanted to do a more in depth piece that would include an interview with Tableau himself. Some of the most disturbing details from that article aren't from quotes from

the interviews, it's from the descriptions. The first time he meets Tableau, the reporter describes him as looking quote crazed. He says that Tableau was holding a cigarette, but he never lit it and his eyes kept darting nervously across the room. In the second interview with Tableau, the journalist brought up something during his reporting. He'd spoken to some Tajeno members, and these members told them that their basis for believing the rumors, the credibility came from someone who

was close to Tableau. How did you feel knowing that there are family members, Howard Distant who were being implicated in these attacks against you. To tell you the truth, I wasn't surprised you weren't surprised. Yeah, I wasn't surprised because you know, like I didn't get to choose my relatives. They didn't get to choose me. Right. This wasn't the first time Tableau had heard this. During the police interrogation.

Almost a year prior to that, the police had brought up a name that he recognized, Sam Cho, Who's a cousin that I actually know and uh I went to Stanford with apparently was writing things about me. Sam Cho was the cousin Tableau had lunch with when he got to Stanford, And the first thing he said to me, how did you get into Stafford? Really? Yea? I was like, all right, Sam, let's just see. After he graduated, Tableau says he didn't really think much about his cousin Sam

until Sam's name came up in connection with Tajano. So I have to take a couple of steps back here to give you the backstory on why Sam's name ever came up in the first place. It actually involves another scandal, this time involving Tableau's brother and a comedy show. See back in two thousand nine, there was this game show on Korean TV called Infinite Challenge It had an episode where the contestants went to New York and complete challenges, but they had to do it in English. Yeah, I'm

gonna cut well, I don't number one. At the time, Tabloo's brother David was a host of another TV show. This was an educational show where he taught English, and what David saw on Infinity Challenge really set him off. It looked to him like the contestants were pretending to be bad at English and playing it all up for laughs. David was an educator and so even though this was a comedy show, he didn't like the image of smart

Koreans playing dumb. So on November twenty one, two thousand nine, he decided to write a post about it on his blog Are you Fucking Serious? That is the one line that he wrote in English. It's really long, so we'll just kind of cover the main points and we'll have someone else read it. Am I the only one who thinks this? Or did those white boys make him into a complete fool? I wonder what those white boys were thinking. Actually, never mind, even if they said it out loud, the

Koreans wouldn't have understood. Perhaps they thought, what are these fucking retards doing. I know you're being real for entertainment, but keep the local comedy in Korea please. Okay, since when was it so humiliating to be a part of the Korean race. David's blog post spread like wildfire. People were pissed. First, there's the obvious, the vulgar language he used. Not only is this not cool as a member of a major broadcasting network, but most people knew him from

his TV appearances as this mild mannered teacher. I mean, it was almost like watching Mr Rogers drop the F bomb. It was shocking. But there's also the fact that he was Tablow's brother. This was back when Tableau was at the height of his fame. He was getting engaged and preparing to have a baby. He and his family were in the spotlight, and everyone gave off the impression of a respectable, high achieving family, and that foul language rant was far from what one would expect from that kind

of model family. David did end up apologizing, but the damage had been done. This had all cast a shadow over the public image of Tableau's family, which brings us back to Sam Cho the controversy about David's blog. As you can Imagine was making some waves in the news, and on one of the articles on the website of a major newspaper, Sam cho posted a comment. But even though the article itself was about David, Sam was writing about Tableau. You could only get into a good school

because of your cousin's recommendation. Sole International School knows it, but they politely pretended that they didn't notice. Sole International is the high school that Sam and Tableau both went to in Korea. Sam is saying that Tableau wouldn't even have gotten into such a prestigious university like Stanford if it weren't for Sam himself recommending him, so he deserves credit for that part of Tableau's early success. You are

not a top student at Stanford. You didn't even have a high i Q, and you absolutely didn't get good grades in high school. Everyone who studied at Stanford knows that you took so called creative writing courses so you can more easily get higher grades. It's not possible to trace every comment that Sam ever wrote online about Tableau, because it's been so long that some of those original

articles might not exist anymore. But what we know for sure is that before Tajanio ever started, Sam was regularly writing comments and articles, not just articles about David, but even in generic news articles about Tableau. So I have to be clear here. We have seen absolutely no evidence that sam Cho was ever part of the Tajano Forum, and as a matter of fact, he publicly distanced himself

from them. When Tagano started, sam Cho wrote a post on his blog and clarified that he did believe that Tableau had graduated from Stanford, but he added that he had doubts about Tableau being a so called genius. And even though sam rejected their claims, TA Janio found that last part very interesting and useful. Sam Cho was constantly

being referenced by Tajano members. The writer of the Wired article even interviewed some members who said, quote, even this guy who claims he's his cousin called him a liar. The truth is in the cousin's comments. I rely on his statements in the court of Tajano opinion. Sam was a valuable asset. Here was a guy who knew Tableau. I mean their cousins, but it's not that straightforward. They are family, but they were never close when I went to Canada. Before then, I didn't even know they existed.

Sam's family had also immigrated to Canada around the same time the Tableau's family moved there. It was pretty obvious, like right from the beginning that there was absolutely no way we could become close or become friends. We were just two completely different people. The White Tableau describes it, he and Sam hung out once. It sounds like one of those hangouts that immigrant families orchestrate to build a

community to be in a new place. This can be really helpful and important for the adults who have limited chances to make new friends. For kids, though, it can feel kind of forced. He was accomplished violinist, and uh, you know they made him play like they're well, they made him play on the spot, I think, so. Yeah, he did a recital for everybody. It was awkward, honestly, and then the parents were like, you know, we're gonna talk, so you guys, you should go hang out in your

cousin's room. And I went, and I remember he was playing a flight simulator like I think like German luftwaft or something like that, like World War two flight simulator kind of thing, and um, I was just sitting there like watching him play that. Sam and his family moved back to Korea a few years later, so when Tableau went back to Seoul, Sam was already there, and so he and Tableau found themselves at the same high school,

Sol International. And the strange thing is, you know, our differences were even more visible by the time high school rolled around, Like there was no even though he was someone I had known kind of uh and sort of related to me, Like, it was impossible for us to have any interaction in school. And we also had to cross paths, uh kind of in a way because of orchestra. I also played the violin, right, so we were in orchestra.

But I was a horrible violin player, Like I was just not a very good student, like in that way. So I was third violent, which is pretty much you know, just kind of just there. He was first violent, and he was like intense about that too. If you had to visibly like decide who was the more likely to funk up, It's probably gonna be me. These two cousins had very similar upbringings and they both moved back to

Korea again around the same time. They had similar talents for music, and they went to the same prestigious high school, which maybe isn't surprising. Tableau and Sam were operating in the same immigrant ecosystem, with a pressure to succeed by being talented. Going to the best schools and having access to a Western education was seen as keys to success. A lot of kids probably had similar experiences, which, now, if you're putting the pieces together, Uh, it's it's almost scary.

How like there's a parallel here. I did not know these parallels existed. Like other things happened, and you know, time went on, there are other things to think about. I was living my life. Sam and Tableau's relationship honestly doesn't sound all that unique. I mean, this is why comedians are always making jokes about having to see relatives you don't like during Thanksgiving, or watching your family post and wild racist memes on Facebook. Just because your cousins

doesn't mean that you're destined to be friends. But when the conspiracy theories started winding up, nobody knew about that dynamic. All that anyone on Tadano saw was Tableau's own cousin questioning his intelligence. That's all the context they needed or wanted. And again, when Sam saw what Tajo was posting, he wrote on his blog that they were wrong that Tableau

did graduate from Stanford, but it was too late. A lot of people in taj you know, they were really going off of, well, his cousin is saying these things, because it's like, how bad much this Tableau or just Daniel guy b if his own cousin's saying this. One user wrote, the Tableau controversy would not have intensified and grown so much if you have not spoken out against Tableau. Even if these kinds of rumors were already out there,

they became firm because of Mr Joe. When we first reached out to Sam to ask him about these comments and his interactions with Tableau, he didn't respond. I could see why a lot of people have kind of painted Sam as being one of the reasons that Tidano started off, when that's not really accurate. But now that ten years have passed, I wonder what Sam thought about all this, not just about Tableau, but about the bigger picture of what this all meant. So we kept trying to contact him.

Finally he responded, m Hi, Stephanie, this is Sam. It seems you reached out to me several times to hear my side of this story on Daniel Lee's Tableau's scandal in South Korea about a decade ago. We wanted to see if Sam remembered all the interactions that Tablood told us about. Sam told us that he does remember their families hanging out in Canada, but he says they got

together more than once. He also says that they had first met in the eighties, back in Korea, when Tableau was just a little kid who was into G I. Joe's. He also recalls the relationship at Stanford very differently. Remember the lunch that Tableau told us about where Sam rudely asked how he even got into Stanford. Well, Sam says he would never say anything like that, and he actually remembers hanging out with Tableau several times during college. I

wanted to interview Sam like I've interviewed everyone else. He said no, but he did send us an email, and he agreed to let us have a voice act or read his letter as long as we didn't change anything. So here's what he had to say. I don't want to get too involved in what seems to be Daniel's old personal troubles, but since there were quite a few misconceptions and false rumors, I will clarify some serious factual distortions and misunderstandings through this opportunity for the benefit of

the public. He starts out by talking about Tableau's TV appearances. The false storytelling by Daniel Lee about himself and his self aggrandizing behaviors was persistent for many years, and the Korean audience began to doubt his overall credibility, and he gives some examples of what he calls Tableau's exaggerations. Dan's major in English and Creative Writing at Stanford was largely self designed with massive, great inflationary characteristics compared to more quantitative,

stem oriented majors at Stanford. Sam says that because of this, Tableau didn't accurately reflect what one would expect of real academic success at a prestigious school like Stanford. In my opinion, the patternley false yet viral rumor that Daniel Lee was not a Stanford graduate was a culmination of the ever growing public doubt on Daniel's past based on his dubious and not so credible storytelling behaviors over TV and radio

broadcasts in Korea. So I have to say here that we have extensively fact checked Table's credentials, and we haven't found anything that is dubious. But in any case, Sam stressed that he never had anything to do with Tajanio. I have nothing to do with Tableau's anti fans and anti fan side creations in Korea. I did not start it, I did not participate in it. I was never an anti Tableau fan member. In fact, Sam made it clear that he doesn't see his comments at fault in feeding

the conspiracy. Remember he publicly said that he believed Tableau went to Stanford. Sam thinks there's something else at play when people bring up those old comments he posted back in two thousand nine. Ultimately, I think Daniel Lee and his fan base wanted a convenient scape yards living far outside of their social networks to blame because in their disorted minds, Dan Lee's victim play is more effective that way.

When I was in Korea, I read a few parts of Sam's letter to Tableau to see what he thought about it. More or less closed by saying, at this time of my life, I simply regard Daniel Lee as a boy who cried wolf when the wolves came down and imperiled him on his academic pedigree. Many people in Korea chose not to believe him anymore because his past storytelling was not credible. He's probably playing victim to this day.

But it is my sincere belief that the entire credibility trouble for Daniel is his own doing and serves as a modern lesson of Aesop's fable for some people. And in the case, I hope that he's learned of valuable lesson and wish him all the best. I didn't cry wolf. They they sent the wolves, you know, they intentionally sent wolves after me, and then as I was being eaten alive, they told themselves that I'm the one who cried wolf,

so that they feel less guilty about it. It's unfortunate that he thinks that, um, but not surprising honestly, because that was the narrative from the get go. And this is discounting the fact that I did defend myself. They just didn't accept it. I just I just want to say that it strikes me that over the last days of talking to you, this is our producer Kate and talking and like the center of the scandal being about education, and you spending days talking to us about the intense

educational pressure or that you were under that. Clearly Samuel Cho was also under, as was generations of Korean children. To be honest, what it feels like to me is like a primal scream from an entire society of people who don't know what to do with this pressure. Yea, you know the fact that we we went to so many like you know, we crossed paths with these schools, the same high school, same college, um, but the way

we did it was so different. Like I really feel like he was I don't know if you put it on himself or if his parents forced it on him, but I believe that he was um, like he was applied in intense pressure to achieve. Today, Sam says he doesn't really think much about the scandal. He sees himself basically just as a bystander or as an observer whose comments got taken out of content. Next, he still believes that Tableau's own actions and his brother David's comments kind

of primed the pump for this whole conspiracy. He actually seemed to be a little offended at the idea that his comments had anything to do with the way that things escalated the way they did. I find it interesting that some people think that I should have refrained from such comments. Why I don't yet live under a tutalitarian regime here in the United States. It is an American tradition, let alone the legal right to protect, respect, or even

celebrate the well informed, intellectual opinions of people. Needless to say, I'm a super happy citizen of the United States and have been for over twenty years. I have never lived in South Korea since my freshman year at Stanford in seven on a permanent basis, So I should say here that we weren't able to reach Tableau's brother, David Lee to ask him about any of this, but our producer did talk to Sam one final time over the phone,

just to see if he had any other thoughts. They started talking about education and pressure again, and he didn't say much about his own personal experience. But Sam did say that he does think there is a heightened pressure to succeed in Korea, and that's sort of one of the only things that both he and Tableau seemed to

agree on. If you watch how I raised my daughter like I am through showing through action what I didn't like about it, I'm raising her in a different way, and I don't really share it because there's no venue for me to share it really, and it's just my private matter. But funny thing, my daughter said to me, Hey, Daddy,

is Stanford really nice? She asked me. She's eleven, right, And I think she said this because her cousin was told by someone that you know, maybe like you, you should grow up in go to Stanford and mentioned it to how do And I guess how do it because she talked mommy and Mommy's like, oh, that's the school dad, daddy went to. So how do? Came and asked me, And in my heart, I'm like, that's like not what I demand of you or expect of you, Like I want you to do your thing. And I was like,

why do you want to go to Stanford? And she said because I heard there's a shopping center on campus. And I was just put a smile on my face right because thank god it was me. I was able to come out kind of unscathed, if you discount like these things happening to me. But I've had friends in college that that weren't able to make it out alive. Tablo says he came out kind of unscathed, but after spending days with him to close to twenty hours of interviews.

I gotta say I think he might be overestimating himself here. Tableau was under incredible pressure to succeed, and to his credit, he absolutely met his parents expectations for his childhood, a Western education in elite high school, a prestigious college. Now, when he graduated, he decided to take another path. His parents hated this and continually told him that he was screwing up. But he did it anyway, and he proved

that he was right. But then again, the demands that his parents put on him helped his career, so in a way they were right too. That pressure, both internal and external, that unresolved conflict. It turned him into who he is today, but it also left him with a lot of scars and a lot of doubts, especially when it comes to his family. When I see my friends or you know, things, see the things that they've accomplished, UM sometimes have like, you know that that may have

been the safer path that my parents wanted. And if I had taken that path, regardless of whether or not I would have enjoyed it, Um, none of what happened to my family would have happened. Quite possibly, my dad would still be alive. You really think that, Yeah, I genuinely think that that this killed my dad. He had liver cancer when I was in college. He fought it for a long time and then he got okay. Tablow's father had been doing great. The family considered it a miracle,

no relapse, no signs of sickness. But then suddenly he

got sick, really sick. And this was like already about a year into this like heavy, which was like it was like three sixty five days of seeing um, your kid's name like in the new is also the entire family like my brother and my sister, like everyone, uh, and my mom too, like his wife, right like that that must have been like really something like something he you know, and at least I understood the internet like he you know, this was something like completely new to him,

being like maligned m for the public to see. Right in March of Tabloo's father was rushed to the hospital. Tabloo said he remembers going to the hospital just trying to focus on being there for his dad. But at the time, the Tajo trial was one of the biggest news headlines in the country, so the hospital's TVs were

constantly tuned into it. As he was sitting there by his father's bedside, you could hear the news on the TVs in the background giving updates on the trial of the eleven people who were being prosecuted for defaming his family. Even in the hospital, Tabloo's family couldn't escape it. And then Tablow told me that within days of being admitted to the hospital, as the case was still ongoing, Tabloo's

father passed away. It was supposed to be like a moment of triumph, but my dad never got to see it, and it was like just a surreal moment where they were right, you know in a way, Yeah that even if I do overcome this, uh, it wouldn't change a thing. Yeah, it is not easy for me to deal with. And what's worse is that, uh, you know, in a way, my parents, well, my parents were right because eventually, you know, it led to you know, my my dad just like being in the ICU and me like spending you know,

days at the hospital and just watching him die. One thing that I do carry as weight is um. You know, people die of cancer, they die of UM, COVID, they die of like something or old age. My dad died of this and I don't even know what this is. Ah, they killed them, I'm sure of that. M so like that I carry and anybody that's sort of involved in this, like, you know, I want to free, give and forget, but

I'm also like remembering that they killed my dad. If it occurs to me every once in a while, and I'm like, man, I I funked it up for everyone. If that occurs to me, I think they possibly could blame me, And that's that's fine. You know, what can I do? It's partially true, right if I wasn't in the public eye, none of that would have happened. What do they blame me for? Do you think I think?

I think my mom still thinks that I should have taken the safe road, and if I had, my dad would still be here, her husband would still be there. Anyone you talked to who knows Tablet personally will say the same thing. The Tabloos father's death it was a direct result of Tadano. Even the court documents of firm that quote this case significantly affected his health, and so the country that was once skeptical of Tableau started to feel sorry for him. When it was announced that Tableau's

father had passed. The media, including some of the very same outlets that had published articles that fed tiging those attention, showed up to the funeral. They were waiting outside. You know. It was like I was like walking on the red carpet or something, you know. M I just wanted to like, it was pretty fucked up for them to be there. I mean, I understand that they weren't there to like give me a hard time. They just they were just

doing their job. But even that was being broadcast, which I thought would be which I thought it was kind of odd, Like I would not want to watch somebody makes no sense. I wouldn't want to watch somebody carry out their dad. So sorry, Yes, I'm sorry. I'm fine. I just haven't had to think about it in a while. It's pretty fun. Up next time. Unauthentic the final episode.

Authentic is a production of Vice Audio and I Heart Podcast Network, produced and reported by Stephanie Karayuki, Minji Coo, Hate Osborne, and myself with Janet Lee, Stephanie Brown, and Sam Egan. Sound design and original music composition by Kyle Murdoch, with additional support from Natasha Jacobs. Our Supervising producer is Janet Lee, editing from Lazy Roberts, fact checking by Minji

Ku and Nikole Pasuka. This episode features music from Epic High from their album Fever's End, distributed by YG Entertainment. Thanks also to our voice actor Daniel kim Our. Executive producer and VP A Vice audio is Kate Osborne from I Heart Podcast Network. Executive producers Nikki E. Tor and Lindsay Hoffman. I'm XR Thomas. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast so you don't miss an episode