The Foxhunting

"The trouble with this Southeast European Times is not that it is government propaganda, but that it is (a) unbelievably bad propaganda, and (b) totaly unnecessary... because 'pro-Western' view of post-Yugoslav politics is now largely dominant in the domestic media of the successor states."

I thought that with these words, Srdja Trifkovic of the Rockford Institute, buried the whole idea of having U.S. media in the Balkans. But I was wrong. Once The Balkan Times, now The Southeast European Times, it still exists in its virtual form. However, there is a printed medium that has identical purpose, style, and a similar name The Belgrade Free Times. Or as intelligent, pro-European, Serbs like to call it The Belgrade Freak Times.

Although Srdja Trifkovic was right about (a) unbeleivably bad propaganda, he was wrong about (b) totaly unnecessary. In today's Serbia, where media-prostitution is reaching its top, and the ratings are the lowest ever, there is a need for a fresh pro-American medium. And this is where she comes in: The FOX television.


The Foxy lady

It's like in a western. A young, attractive female arrives in bordello full of dirty, old, fat women with mustaches. The clash is inevitable; outcome obvious. So let's take a look at some of the victims.

B92 radio and television - The "oldest opposition medium". There were some of the TV shows that I really enjoyed (e.g. "Predrgradje", some of the episodes of "Fatalni putopis", some of the news, and that girl from "Shoobeedoo"), but the rest of it was mainly poison. In the old (radio) days they were famous by their histerical, serbhating propaganda and even worse music; and they never managed (or even tryed) to overcome that poisonous attitude. Shady privatisation, and some money issues are just one of the reasons why their rating was/is so low and will be even lower in the future. No more than a couple of thousand of loyal viewers will stay with that TV (and even less with radio), until its very end. Now, with true U.S propaganda, nobody needs its histeric copy. The FOX will bury B92. We may say that B92 was killed in a friendly fire, while the truth is that B92 was dead long before that.(The same goes for VOA, Deutsche Welle, Free Europe, etc.)

Estimated audience of B92 after FOX's arrival: no more than 20 000 people.


PINK TV - An epmire built on Turbo Folk, and sucking up to popular politicians. PINK's loyal viewers are manly montenegreen wanabe "businessmen" (with mocking attitude: "let's turn on the PINK and whatch those Serbian peasants"). Once, these kind of people were regarded as decision-makers, but now with the rule of law coming in Serbia, the only decisions they will be making are of those in jail. Let us mention The Grand Show, an empire by itself - the only clean money in PINK industry (unfortunately not so clean after joining with MB.)
PINK's best entertaiment programme was entirely FOX's production. (i.e. Friends, The Simpsons, movies etc.) Now, with real FOX on the market, there is no need for its pink version.

Estimated audience after FOX's arrival: no more than 200 000 people.


RTS - Public Television, Radio-Television of Serbia (often regarded as Retarded Television of Serbia) - The most popular of all the serbhating media. Faithful audience consists of about 1 000 000 eldery people. That "Voice of European Serbia" plays Disney's cartoons, while FOX plays wonderful "Greek Mythologies". (Which one is more European is for you to decide.) No need to mention covering-up the frauds and stupidities of our politicians and "businessmen" (Some of those "businessmen" were Americans. Keyword: U.S. Steel Serbia).

Estimated audience after FOX's arrival: no more than 900 000 (i.e. Until death comes to pick that poor evil oldtimers.)


(Other televisions do not deserve to be mentioned at all. They are so bad, their rating is so low, that nothing could affect that. Their poor quality and small influence is the same as of the printed media. All together - the rest of the televisions and printed media - have audience of no more than 150 000 people.)

In one sentence, media situation in Serbia could be described as:
The media in Serbia are free, but who cares.


To conculde

We do not have any illusions regardig FOX's mission. The timing of arrival leaves no doubt about it. BUT, the apperance of FOX in Serbia is not bad at all.
First, media cleansing is much needed, and this will help it happen; Second, it is nice to see that U.S. are investing in media propaganda, instead of just supporting Albanian terrorism in Kosovo (that means that even the Americans are starting to think / or are just desperate); and third, if I ever (!) wanted to hear some American propaganda, there would be no need for listening to some obscure radio shows (on B92, Free Europe, Deutsche Welle) nor watch that crappy VOA, grandmas from the BBC, or our slighlty retarded domestic copies - now I have the best of it, all on FOX television.