The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

U.S. Media Coverage of Srebrenica
time, with any group difference in overall scale uncertain (one recent
study found that victimization in Bosnia was roughly proportionate to
population share). 6 The struggle for a “Greater Serbia” is the Western
transmogrification of a struggle of stranded Serbs, many of whom recalled
their genocidal mistreatment during World War II by Croatians
and Muslims aligned with Nazi Germany, to reunite within a shrinking
Yugoslavia. The Western powers did not “dither”: they actively encouraged
the breakup of Yugoslavia, intervened continuously in the failed
diplomacy from 1991-1995, including most importantly the U.S. role
in sabotaging the important Lisbon agreement of 1992 that the Croatians,
Bosnian Serbs and Milosevic had agreed to but from which Izetbegovic
withdrew with U.S. encouragement. 7 And they did not dither in
using the ICTY as an instrument for demonizing and punishing the
target Serb leadership, or in organizing and carrying out a war against
Yugoslavia after managing the Rambouillet negotiations so as to assure
their failure. 8
The 95 articles examined here never departed from the Western
premises just noted and criticized, nor did they allow them to be challenged.
The good-versus-evil scenario was simply premised without discussion,
helped by a crudely selective and misleading use of evidence in
which only the Serbs started anything nasty—others only retaliate—
and failed to abide by agreements. 9 It also rested on an overwhelming
dependence on Western establishment sources, including U.S., NATO,
Tribunal and UN officials, Western “investigators” of grave sites, and
Bosnian Muslim witnesses and survivor families. Tribunal prosecutors
were a special favorite. The journalists writing these articles never once
questioned the judicial objectivity of the ICTY, organized, funded, and
clearly a political servant of the NATO powers. 10 If a prosecutor or Tribunal
judge says something about Srebrenica, that is invariably taken as
authoritative. There were minor exceptions to this dependence on official
sources and Bosnian Muslim witnesses: a few Bosnian Serb plea
bargain witnesses, a number of Bosnian Serb soldiers allegedly willing
to admit to and describe crimes, 11 along with several Red Cross workers
and Human Rights Watch official Richard Dicker, a long-time
strong supporter of the NATO war and Tribunal and a media favorite.
Journalist credulity on witness evidence was complete—no question
was raised when one Bosnian Muslim witness to Serb killings claimed
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