Letter: Balkan coverage is misleading

Wednesday, May 2, 2001 | 9:03 a.m.

President Bush's reference to "mass graves" is built upon a foundation of disinformation. In fact, no "mass graves" have been found in Kosovo. Bush's reference to "emaciated prisoners interned behind barbed wire" alludes to some of the most blatant forgeries in recent memory -- the Bosnia "concentration camp" photos that were splashed across the Western press in 1992. These photos of Muslim refugees were derived from foreign footage shot by a British film crew at the Trnopolje refugee center. British producer Penny Marshall took her film crew inside the barbed-wire enclosure and shot out at a group of refugees who were free to come and go as they pleased.

Although Marshall's forgery is exceptionally audacious, her premeditated misrepresentation is entirely typical of the Establishment media's coverage of the Balkans. Marshall's hoax was resurrected during CNN's recent coverage of Milosevic's arrest.

The reason that happens is that America's media organs are under the control of an elite bent upon total power and completely unhindered by honesty. While that elite's methods may differ from those of their Soviet counterparts, who torture and imprison people into compliant thinking, the results are uncannily similar.

FRANK PELTESON