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Paul Waldie's story titled "CBC Airs Documentary to Explain Error in Stories from Kosovo" (September 9, 1999) provides yet further evidence of the depths to which "journalism" has sunk as we prepare to enter the 21st century.
Reporters easily falling prey to hoaxes and spreading lies and propaganda to the public is disturbing enough. But what is even more disturbing is the pattern of deception so prevalent in today's media and the industry's complete unwillingness to address the root causes of the problem. Instead, we get more arrogance, excuses, and "handwringing".
Waldie reports that, "The network is turning itself inside out about the stories, by reporter Nancy Durham." But will it cause them to critically examine what and how they do their job and to put legitimate safeguards into place to be sure it doesn't happen again? The answer is a resounding NO! It is clear that the answer is no because Waldie reports that:
During the entire Kosovo story, reporting by the CBC and other mainstream outlets has not been focused on truth and objectivity, but rather on using lies, deceit, and propaganda to drive public opinion to support NATO's actions.
It began with uncorroborated horror stories of Serb killing rampages to justify the start of the bombing campaign. Yet the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which studies armed conflicts, reports the number of deaths in the fighting in Kosovo in 1998 (the year leading up to the bombing) was 1,000 to 2,000. These figures cover deaths on BOTH sides. Most people are surprised, even shocked, when they discover the truth of how low the numbers are and how they have been deceived. The CBC, like the other mainstream outlets, continues to ignore the truth.
Once the bombing campaign began, most media outlets did virtually nothing to discover and report the facts. They chose instead to parrot NATO propaganda and continue to deceive the public. As the Stratfor.com Global Intelligence Center reported on June 24, 1999, "Despite NATO claims that it had damaged or destroyed some 40 percent of Yugoslavia's main battle tanks and 60 percent of Yugoslav artillery and mortars, KFOR troops have thus far found only three damaged, and outdated, T-55 tanks left behind in Kosovo." Imagine that, the media (and the public) duped again.
And as a final example, the USA Today reported on July 1, 1999 (after the end of the war, of course), that "Instead of 100,000 ethnic Albanian men feared murdered by rampaging Serbs, officials now estimate that about 10,000 were killed. (This includes those killed by NATO "mistakes" and by the KLA.) And in the same article, "600,000 ethnic Albanians were not trapped within Kosovo itself lacking shelter, short of food, afraid to go home or buried in mass graves dug by their executioners" as NATO claimed. And today, months later, there have still only been a handful of bodies uncovered - lending considerable doubt to even the 10,000 death figure.
Since the NATO occupation began, NATO has given the Albanian mafia free reign on sovereign Yugoslav soil. There are now NO Serbs or other minorities left in Prizren and many other Kosovo villages, and scores of Orthodox Christian churches have been demolished or severely damaged. How sad that the CBC and other media outlets refuse to even mention, much less stir up the public about, these truths.