-Caveat Lector-
>
> WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkan War
>
> Was CNN involved in a NATO effort to assassinate the Serbian
> information minister?
>
> By Chris Marsden
> 8 July 1999
>
> Back to screen version
>
> On Friday, July 2 the Independent newspaper in Britain ran an
> article by its Belgrade war correspondent Robert Fisk entitled
> “Taken in by the NATO line”. The article presents a devastating
> picture of the role of the press corps in the war against
> Yugoslavia.
>
> Fisk shows how, with rare execptions, reporters abandoned any
> standpoint of objectivity and adopted uncritically the official
> rationale for the war. For the most part infected themselves with
> the anti-Serb hysteria of US, British and NATO officials, they
> sought to justify the bombing campaign by reporting NATO
> propaganda as fact and accepting without question the statements
> of NATO spokesman Jamie Shea, President Clinton and Prime
> Minister Blair.
>
> He cites the example of a CNN reporter in Belgrade who “astouned
> one of his English colleagues after NATO had bombed a narrow road
> bridge in the Yugoslav village of Varvarin, killing dozens of
> civilians, many of whom fell to their death in the River Morava.
> ‘That'll teach them not to stand on bridges,' he roared.”
>
> Fisk notes, “This was not the kind of language he used on air, of
> course, where CNN's report on the bridge killings was accompanied
> by the remark that there had been civilian casualties ‘according
> to the Serb authorities'—all this when CNN's own crew had been
> there and filmed the decapitated corpse of the local priest.”
>
> The Independent correspondent goes on to suggest that the
> collaboration of major media outlets with the NATO military
> campaign went beyond dishonest and unethical journalistic
> practices. At the end of the article he suggests that CNN and the
> network's Larry King Live show may have been complicit in an
> attempt to assassinate Serbian Information Minister Aleksander
> Vucic.
>
> Fisk writes: “Two days before NATO bombed the Serb Television
> headquarters in Belgrade, CNN received a tip from its Atlanta
> headquarters that the building was to be destroyed. They were
> told to remove their facilities from the premises at once, which
> they did.
>
> “A day later, Serbian Information Minister Aleksander Vucic
> received a faxed invitation from the Larry King Live show in the
> US to appear on CNN. They wanted him on air at 2:30 in the
> morning of 23 April and asked him to arrive at Serb Television
> half an hour early for make-up.
>
> “Vucic was late—which was just as well for him since NATO
> missiles slammed into the building at six minutes past two. The
> first one exploded in the make-up room where the young Serb
> assistant was burned to death. CNN calls this all a coincidence,
> saying that the Larry King show, put out by the entertainment
> division, did not know of the news department's instruction to
> its men to leave the Belgrade building.”
>
> The World Socialist Web Site has sought to obtain a response from
> the Larry King Live program in Washington and CNN headquarters in
> Atlanta, Georgia to the description of events provided by Fisk.
> The publicist for Larry King Live and the press spokesperson for
> CNN News have failed to return repeated calls.
>
> Meanwhile, Fisk has come under attack from sections of the
> British media. On July 4 Henry Porter of the Observer, one of the
> newspapers most fervent in its support of NATO's war, published a
> reply to Fisk's piece, all but accusing the Independent reporter
> of being a stooge of Yugoslav President Milosevic. Porter asserts
> that Fisk “was undeniably aided by the Serb authorities” and
> filed reports on the war “refracted through the lens of Serbian
> interest.”
>
> Porter grants there was “almost universal concern among editors
> and reporters about the level of accuracy of NATO briefings” and
> admits there is good reason to conclude that “the alliance was
> bent on an almost racist crusade against the Serbs”. This,
> however, does not prevent him from indulging in a bit of
> anti-Serb racism of his own, noting that Fisk was given the
> sobriquet “Fiscovic” by some of his colleagues.
>
> Porter is outraged that Fisk appears to believe “NATO is
> motivated by congenital imperialist tendencies,” but even more
> intolerable is Fisk's decision to bring a dispute within the
> media to the attention of the public.
>
> The attack on Fisk indicates that his exposure of the deplorable
> performance of the press corp has hit a raw nerve, and, in
> particular, his revelations concerning CNN's role in the bombing
> of the Serb TV center have provoked considerable concern in high
> places.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkan War
>
> No reply from CNN
>
> By Barry Grey
> 8 July 1999
>
> Back to screen version
>
> Strange things happened when this reporter telephoned the Larry
> King Live program in Washington and CNN headquarters in Atlanta
> in an effort to get their side of the story reported by Robert
> Fisk in the British newspaper, the Independent. (See “Was CNN
> involved in a NATO effort to assassinate the Serbian information
> minister?”)
>
> I asked to speak to Larry King's press spokesperson and was
> connected to Deirdre Kline, the publicist for the Larry King Live
> program. After identifying myself as a journalist with the World
> Socialist Web Site, I drew Ms. Kline's attention to the
> Independent article, whereupon she declared, “Oh, I have to take
> another call. It will just be a minute and I'll call you right
> back.”
>
> Some twenty minutes later I telephoned CNN's office in Washington
> once again and asked for Deirdre Kline. “Deirdre Kline doesn't
> work here anymore,” said the voice on the other end.
>
> “But I spoke to her not twenty minutes ago,” I replied. There was
> a pause and a flustered question: “Who does she work for?” I
> explained that Ms. Kline is the publicist for the Larry King Live
> show.
>
> Next I found myself speaking to a man, who apparently knew of Ms.
> Kline and was even able to put me through to her extension. I
> can't say I was shocked when I failed to get the live Ms. Kline
> and instead got her answering machine. I left the obligatory
> message, and have since left one or two more, without receiving a
> reply.
>
> Next I called CNN headquarters in Atlanta. There I spoke with
> Megan Mahoney, a public relations official for CNN News. She knew
> of the Fisk article, and would be happy to respond to its
> suggestion that Larry King Live, in coordination with NATO
> military planners, sought to lure the Serbian information
> minister into the TV center in Belgrade at precisely the time it
> was to be bombed.
>
> “If you don't mind, I would like to reread the article and get
> back to you shortly,” said Ms. Mahoney. Her last words were to
> the effect that she might refer the matter to her boss.
>
> No surprise, Ms. Mahoney never called, and subsequent telephone
> calls to her office have never gotten beyond her answering
> machine.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
>
> Copyright 1998-99
> World Socialist Web Site
> All rights reserved
>
>
www.wsws.org
<<Then there's the Amanpour-Rubin connexion ...>>
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said
it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your
own reason and your common sense." --Buddha
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
