Almost all local politicians, artists and celebrities have been, according to the "reliable sources" of some of our so-called independent papers, killed at least twice!?... Let alone arrested, divorced, had a love affair, participated in a business scandal or a political disaster, suffered from a deadly illness, abused alcohol and drugs!
Paper endures everything. But, lately, videotape has surpassed it in that sense. If, God forbid, a nuclear war begins, there is a catastrophic earthquake with global consequences and the Ozone Layer hole spreads over the whole planet all of that will have been engineered only to increase ratings of the electronic media in the West...!
That metastasing media monster has reserved one of the main roles for us, Yugoslavs. And for "free", without a salary! However, for a limited number of (unfortunately) "our" people this whole unbearable mess has apparently become a chance to turn a profit. They obediently lead "guided missiles" from the western propaganda machinery via their media towards the target.
But, they missed the target!
In his travelogue from the New World, Baudrillard writes:
"Americans use two basic weapons: aviation and information. The physical bombardment of the enemy and the electronic bombardment of the rest of the world". Thus, it turned out that the press and electronic media that were supposed to be the main weapon in the hands of the modern democratic world, actually became the most deadly means for the achievement of the neocolonial vision of the New World Order.
And certain local "independent media" have participated in this terrifying, anti-utopian and Orwelian vision of the New World Order even more actively than its originators. They only lacked an air force!
It seemed as if the authorities, elected by the popular will, were unable to make a good move - without that move being interpreted by "those others" as a start of certain catastrophe. The propaganda distributed by certain "independent media" against their own country and the people, in its aggressiveness and the lack of ethics even surpasses the propaganda exchanged by the two super powers during Cold War.
If the independent media truly existed, then there would not be any media at all! Obviously, no paper can be published without a sponsor who pays for its "ink", nor could a TV program be broadcast without someone paying for the video tape... and salaries.
Only those who do not exist are independent!
And in that so to speak "twilight zone" of the (above all Western) anti-Serb propaganda assisted, I hope unintentionally, by some local media, two hundred Serb civilians and four, our, local journalists disappeared: Slavuj, Perinic, Radosevic, and Dobricic. Until today, nothing is known about their fate. Furthermore, "a spokesperson for the Military Police" of the illegal "Kosovo Liberation Army" states: "Nebojsa Radojevic and Vladimir Dobricic were stopped by a patrol of the KLA Military Police because their vehicle with Belgrade plates did not have a Press sign"(!?)
Whose patrol and in whose state...?
Professor Micheal Colon writes in Brussels weekly "Solider": "Only the unity of the people, rather than concessions and isolation, can save peace. The independence for Kosovo would be a fiction. The Serb and Albanian workers, and peoples face exploitation by the new capitalists, but above all the greed of multinational companies. Serbs and Albanians must agree and re-establish equal rights for all... The only way for them is to unite with other Balkan peoples against the New World Order. Clinton's and Solana's bombs will not bring peace, but the solidarity among the nations will".
Was the unlucky youth, high school student from Belgrade Marko Bulatovic, who was killed in Salonika by a Greek policeman, another innocent victim of the unprecedented anti-Serb propaganda produced by the West? The propaganda that induced a Salonika policeman from the friendly Greek people to pull his gun without a concern because Serb children were in question?
Impossible! But, is anything impossible in the "twilight zone" of the Western media propaganda in the service of the New World Order?
Thus the large media systems, such as CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and others could be viewed as subsidiaries of industrial giants; it is in their interests to preserve the status quo and assist the establishment. Thus it is not surprising that almost all important American media are, so to speak, pro-regime.
This is especially true for the powerful electronic media that frequently boast about their allegedly independent journalism. However, any careful watcher of the American TV programs immediately spots unbelievably uniform presentation of the events and politics on all large TV stations. Almost all somewhat important TV stations almost identically report about all the important events. The differences are minimal so that there is no need to follow several news sources.
A critical eye also notices that the powerful electronic media almost never sharply criticize American policy. They prefer to focus on the "affirmative" news from the domestic scene.
As far as the foreign news editorial policy is concerned, it is even more obvious that the media are all but an "extended arm" of the regime. Crises in other regions, as for example in Kosovo and Metohija are interpreted and presented in an extremely one-sided manner and always through the prism of the current official American policy. A problem is almost never presented from different points of view which should be, according to the existing standards, the minimal effort required for the so-called independent journalism.
The printed media are very similar, especially large circulation papers such as "New York Times" and "Washington Post". The articles published in these papers can be taken without any reserve as an interpretation and defense of the official views of the administration. At the same time, it is very rarely that one can read criticism of the official American policy or attitudes that differ from the editorial policy of the paper in the published readers' letters.
However, all the local media houses that are a part of the system (those that do not belong to the almost invisible so-called alternative media) have one thing in common: they glorify without reserve American values and national interests. In the official media one can never read, nor hear, even remotely serious criticism of or doubts in the statements made by the authorities and current officials. Especially when a topic deemed to be in the national interest are concerned.
Media Laws Abroad: United States of America
Media Ruled by Capitalists
by Nevenka JovicicBorba, Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, November 7 1998
It is a public secret that the largest media houses in the USA are controlled by the multinational companies and powerful capitalists, or frequently by the military industry.
Translated on 1/10/99